Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will call for "a step change" in government efforts at all levels to end long-term unemployment today as he visits Glasgow and Dumfries to drive home the need to get people off benefits and into work.

Mr Hain will point out that since 1997, 41,000 more lone parents are working and the number on incapacity benefit has been cut by 30,000, but he will say that to achieve the aim of full employment the government will have to get substantially more numbers off benefits.

As he announces that First Bus and Glasgow City Council have followed Tesco, Asda and HBOS in signing up to a Local Employment Partnership, whereby they pledge to employ people who have passed through a training and interview process, he will urge government in Whitehall, Scotland and at local level to raise their game.

Speaking to The Herald on the fringes of the TUC Congress yesterday, he said: "I think everyone should be doing much more. We are going to do much more, I expect local employers will be doing much more, and they are signing up.

"We hope soon to have 20 public and private enterprises signed up in Scotland.

Government at all levels needs to do more: at Scotland level, at local level and of course at government level."

Mr Hain will also reveal that the government has agreed contracts for Pathways to Work with Triage in the Forth Valley and Work Directions Ltd in Lothian and Borders.

The Work and Pensions Secretary is adamant that unemployed people in Scotland need not fear the government's drive to get them back to work. He said: "This is about opportunity, not about punishment. This is not some punitive exercise, frogmarching people into any old jobs with a stick.

"It is actually saying we are providing you with an opportunity you thought would never exist but you have an obligation to walk through the door to that opportunity, and we will support you and help you do it.

"And we are saying something else, the only way we will conquer poverty in Glasgow and across Scotland is by full employment. If you look at lone parents, for example, the child of a lone parent on benefit is five times more likely to be in poverty than the child of a lone parent in a job in full-time work.

"Now that is graphic evidence that we are tackling poverty. They are going to be much better off in work, their health will improve, their income will improve, their kids will have role models to aspire to rather than follow their parents onto the dole queue or onto benefits," he added.

Acknowledging the need for "joined-up government" he disclosed that the Work and Pensions Department was working closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales on devolved issues like child care, which employers believe needs to be more flexible than nine-to-five.

"Child care, for example, is largely devolved, and we are working with devolved governments to make sure they can deliver on their side of the bargain. We are delivering on tax credits and benefits but it needs a partnership, and there is joined-up partnership with Scotland and Wales," he said.

Mr Hain, whose efforts are strongly supported by Gordon Brown and the Treasury, believes the new Local Employment Partnerships will give their efforts a new impetus, and the change of emphasis from passive benefit to work-focused benefit will help achieve their aspirations.

He admitted they still had not cracked the problem of doctors putting people on Incapacity Benefit, although at one time it was understandable. He said: "We are trying to (crack the problem). There is a lot of pressure not to put people onto Incapacity Benefit and we are going to work with doctors and the BCMA to make sure there is no casual signing off. Doctors are responding better than they did."