The New Deal

Turning promises in to action

I am delighted to be here today at this presentation on the Government's New Deal. The Welfare to Work Programme was a key pledge of Labour in its manifesto and if you knew how often I repeated that pledge in the run up to the General Election you would realise just why I am so delighted to be here helping put that programme into action.

The high level of interest shown today is extremely encouraging though not unique. Similar events held nationally and locally around the country are all drawing large numbers of interested and enthusiastic participants.

We want to capitalise on this interest to make Welfare to Work an outstanding success. We need to tackle once and for all the scourge of long term unemployment among our young people. And that means getting them into jobs and training before unemployment becomes a habit they can't break.

The New Deal needs employers

Now for Welfare to Work to succeed we need employers on board. Improved prospects for young people, improved employability comes when young people have direct experience of the world of work. What they need is a job. The New Deal won't work without your support.

So why should employers get involved ? The main reason is because the country can ill afford the continuing costs of long term unemployment - andI don't mean just the burden on public spending important as it is to relieve that. I am thinking of the damage unemployment causes to individualsfamilies and communities.

I am appealing to your sense of community, your social values as well as your business values. We must start with the under 25s but also set about bringing back into work older women and men who have been unemployed for over two years.

Good for companies

The figures in July of this year showed that there were 373 under 25s unemployed for over 6 months in South Ayrshire and 523 long term unemployed over 25. We want to make it as easy as possible for employers to provide job opportunities and training - not for charitable reasons but because it is good for your companies and it is good for the communities within which you live and work.

We have a tightening labour market. The first to suffer in such a market are the small and medium enterprises who cannot from within their own resources plan their way through local labour and skill shortages.

Employers can work with other local partners to identify these shortages and plan the best local approach to overcoming these problems. A planned approach to recruitment from a wider labour pool avoids the skills spiral caused by poaching and is also protection from wage inflation.

Partnership approach

The partnership approach which we are so keen to develop will also mean that those small and medium enterprises without the resources for planning training and development for new staff can receive better help and support.

If we get this right, the New Deal can play a key part in your recruitment effort.

It gives you a £60 a week subsidy when you take on a young unemployed person. We know that employers sometimes feel there is a risk in taking onan employee without recent work experience. This subsidy reduces the risk and cuts the cost of recruitment.

New Deal gives you £750 towards the cost of training the new employee. We want to ensure that every young person gets the quality training they need to become valued members of the employer's workforce.

Motivated candidates

New Deal offers a gateway process which ensures that employers receive job ready, motivated candidates: young people can take up to 4 months seeking guidance and other help leading up to the development of personal action plans and overcoming any barriers to employment. Caseworkers will be able to discuss with employers their needs and identify the right candidate for the job.

Employers will select and employ only those they wish to recruit and trial periods will be on offer during which employer and employee can decidewhether its worth continuing.

And New Deal offers continuing support for the employer throughout the first six months. If you need to discuss the progress of the young person or if there are any problems then the caseworker is on hand. And if for any reason the employer cannot retain the young person after six months there will be help to find him or her other opportunities.

Support from employers

So what am I asking you to do?

First and foremost, we'd like you to offer jobs on the programme in significant numbers.

Second, we are looking for you to use whatever influence you have to promote the New Deal within your employment sector or the community within which you operate.

Thirdly, we need the expertise and talents of your current staff. There are lots of ways in which employees can help make New Deal a success. That could range from secondments and special project assignments to help they could give within their own jobs - as mentors building the confidence, motivation and employability skills of a young person throughout their time participating in the New Deal.

Already we are receiving support from employers of every size and not just to take on employees : but also support for the wider principles of the programme - such as the Scottish based Stagecoach's offer to provide cheap fares foryoung people accessing the programme.

Something for everyone

The Government has charged local MPs like myself to act as ambassadors for Welfare to Work at a local level to drive the programme forward and do everything we can to ensure its success. And I am speaking for all my Ayrshire colleagues when I say that we would welcome feedback from yourselves on what you think of the Programme; we would welcome the opportunity to speak in more depth on a one to one basis.

Welfare to Work may have started out as a manifesto pledge of the Labour Party but the NewDeal Programme initiated by the new Government will only work if it becomes the property of the whole community - it will only work if it is deliveredin partnership. The New Deal offers in return something for everyone involved.

• For unemployed people real hope for the future.
• For employers the opportunity to discover a rich seam of abilities overlooked up till now.
• For the country the opportunity to utilise the skills of a lost generation of young and long term unemployed for the social and economic good.

Thank you for listening and I look forward to working with you to make the New Deal the great success I believe it deserves to be.