The Youth Opportunities Programme (1979-82) was to be a "bridge to work" for the disadvantaged. Its successor, the Youth Training Scheme (from 1983), was heralded as the "most advanced training proposals ever set before Parliament". New Labour's New Deal for Young People (from 1998) was "not just another scheme" but a major innovative programme designed to combat social exclusion and promote economic prosperity, said Chancellor Gordon Brown.
These programmes, however well-intentioned, were seen as cheap labour, producing a revolving door through which the unemployed returned time and again. Although New Deal rapidly fulfiled its commitment to get 250,000 long-term unemployed young people into work, it has been ineffective with the most disadvantaged who disappeared to "unknown destinations".
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