The Social Exclusion Unit published a groundbreaking report on neighbourhood renewal in September 1998 – Bringing Britain together: a national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. It recommended the establishment of a number of Policy Action Teams to review different aspects of national policy bearing on the revival of the poorest neighbourhoods. The Policy Action Team on Jobs was one of these.

Over the past year, the Policy Action Team on Jobs has been considering how best to ensure that the delivery of Government labour market policies helps jobless people in deprived neighbourhoods and from ethnic minority backgrounds into work. The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of labour market reform to move people from welfare into work – a programme which the PAT endorses. But in doing this, it must not ignore the inequalities that currently exist. People from ethnic minority backgrounds and people in deprived neighbourhoods have much less good chances in the labour market than the rest of the population. They have lower rates of employment and higher rates of unemployment.

The first report on Jobs for All is now available online including separate files containing the full report, the summary, and the recommendations.