People of working age in Renfrewshire Council area will continue to benefit from recent changes in tax and benefits. The UK Government is helping to make work pay through tax credits and the National Minimum Wage.Working in partnership, the UK Government and the Scottish Executive offer a range of welfare to work initiatives to help people of working age. Across Scotland, the New Deals are helping more unemployed people on benefits to find work. As set out in Smart, Successful, Scotland the Scottish Executive's enterprise strategy places an emphasis on improving learning and skills which will help improve the earning potential of working age people on low income. Local projects such as the community-based partnership Buddies for Learning Project, which provides literacy and numeracy support to adults in the social inclusion partnership areas in Renfrewshire, are helping local people to remove the barriers to employment.In addition, the Scottish Budget for 2003-06 as announced by the Executive will further help working people on low incomes through funding increases in areas such as skills and learning and entrepreneurship.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.The whole range of New Deal programmes are available to all unemployed working age people in the Renfrewshire Council area who meet the qualification criteria. Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire also offer a variety of training opportunities as part of the Training for Work (TfW) programme. TfW is available on a voluntary basis to those aged 25 and over who have been unemployed for six months or more. It offers short sharp courses relevant to the demands of local employers with the aim of progressing people into sustainable employment, as well as longer courses that can take up to a year. Four hundred and fifty people in Renfrewshire are currently participating in TfW and over 180 former participants have moved into work since April this year. In addition, there are some New Futures Fund projects available in the Renfrewshire Council area.

A number of initiatives are under way, including:Careers Scotland Inclusiveness projectsPre-vocational programmesWork EnablersGet Ready for WorkNew Deal for Young PeopleNew Futures Fund projectsThe Renfrewshire Inclusiveness project, Positive Futures, aims to develop a strategic approach to improving outcomes for a range of young people 16 to 24 with additional support needs. Central to the project is the development of dedicated key-worker support with a strong commitment to the assessment of needs, tracking and sustainability.

The annual average percentage of working age people who have been unemployed in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1996 to 2001 is shown in the following table:

Year	Annual Average %
1996*	6.2
1997*	5.1
1998*	4.8
1999*	4.4
2000	3.8
2001	3.4

Note:*The annual average percentage of unemployed working age people will be subject to revisions for 1996 to 1999 when revised mid-year population estimates become available from analysis of the 2001 census.

Renfrewshire Council was awarded £258,000 in 2000 to provide 18 housing units for temporary accommodation for small family groups or single parents to reduce the need to use inappropriate bed and breakfast accommodation to house homeless families. In carrying out an assessment of homelessness in Renfrewshire, and in the development of a homelessness strategy, the council will be considering whether there is a need for further temporary accommodation for families or other vulnerable groups. All councils are required to prepare homelessness strategies by March 2003.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.Both the New Deal for Disabled People and New Deal for Lone Parents are available on a voluntary basis in the Renfrewshire Council area. Additionally, people who face particular disadvantage may be granted early entry to other New Deal programmes without having to complete the qualifying period of unemployment.A new initiative, called progress2work, to help people with drugs problems will shortly be introduced by Jobcentre Plus into the Renfrewshire Council area. A further initiative along the same lines is being developed for other harder to help client groups.Early entry to the Training for Work programme is available to a wide range of groups who are particularly disadvantaged in the labour market, including lone parents, people with disabilities, those aged 50 and over and individuals resident in social inclusion partnership areas. Also there are individual New Futures Fund projects in Renfrewshire which help clients facing particular difficulties in entering the labour market.

The Scottish Executive is currently developing the details of the operation of this new funding. I shall make an announcement in due course.

There is one Careers Scotland Inclusiveness Project covering the Renfrewshire area. It has been allocated £1.2 million over the period April 2001 to March 2004

Up to the end of June 2002, 2,800 of the 44,300 young people who had gone into jobs from the New Deal for Young People in Scotland, were from Renfrewshire. This represents 6.3% of the Scottish total.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.