1.  In spring 2007 there were three million workless households in the United Kingdom, representing 16% of all working age households. The Government's aim to achieve 80% employment will require the Department to help some 1.6 million economically inactive people into work, and many of these people are likely to be from workless households, where no one in the household over the age of 16 is in employment.

2.  Job entry rates from existing New Deal programmes are levelling off or declining, reflecting the need to tackle worklessness amongst some of the hardest groups of benefit claimants to assist. The Department should use its evaluation of the direct and indirect costs and benefits of New Deal programmes to identify ways to improve programme effectiveness. Programmes need to be more flexible so that clients who face multiple barriers to work can access packages of assistance according to need, without being restricted on the basis of programme.

3.  The cost of getting people into work through the Department's employment programmes is higher than the subsequent savings generated over one year for all but two of the programmes. Unquantifiable social benefits may also accrue from higher employment rates, but the Department needs to increase the cost effectiveness of programmes, targeting those programmes which make the lowest contribution. It should use its data on successful cases to help identify how to increase the numbers finding a job, and should also reduce programme costs and/or increase effectiveness, by using telephone reminders to reduce the number of work-focused interviews lost through people not turning up.

4.  Only around 200 people join the New Deal for Partners programme each month, and few enter work directly as a result. Evaluations suggest that in 2005-06 only 61 of the jobs gained by programme participants were additional to those that would have been gained without the programme. Programmes aimed at benefit claimants' partners can contribute to tackling child poverty. The Department should establish why claimants' partners reject support and revise the programme content and its marketing accordingly.

5.  Outreach services for workless people do not reflect the fact that 60% of workless households are concentrated in 40 districts across the United Kingdom. Organisations with a good understanding of local communities' needs are best placed to reach out to such households. Jobcentre Plus districts should work with relevant local partners to develop outreach strategies which reflect local priorities and goals, and to encourage data sharing so that potential clients can be readily identified and targeted with appropriate help.

6.  Work-focused interviews are used to assist workless people who receive benefits, but they have not been used to assist workless people who are not required to attend an interview as a condition of receiving benefit. Jobcentre Plus has progressively increased the frequency of work-focused interviews and the groups required to attend them, and plans to use more frequent reminders to boost attendance by workless partners of benefit claimants. It should widen the use of work-focused interviews to people who do not receive income support to raise awareness of the services and support available and activating people to look for work.

7.  Recipients of incapacity benefit receive statutory sick pay for six months before being offered any support in returning to work. Early intervention is crucial in helping people to avoid long spells of worklessness, and is particularly important for those facing multiple barriers in addition to disability. The Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus should offer earlier support to people on statutory sick pay who are likely to claim incapacity benefit.

8.  It is too early to assess the impact of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skill's decision to prioritise the funding of basic skills and employability skills courses. The early signs are positive, such as the increase in the number of learners on priority courses in 2005-06. The Department and the Learning and Skills Council should market these courses so as to ensure that workless people are fully aware of the impact that the qualifications will have on their employability.

9.  The Department could not tell us how many of the 2.9 million people who had started a New Deal programme were still participating in it; nor what proportion of workless households chose not to work rather than being out of work due to personal circumstances. The Department needs such information to inform its forward strategy, including better estimates of the numbers in the hardest to reach groups and success rates in promoting employment amongst the workless.