House of Commons Hansard Debates for 2 Feb 1993

Nursery Education

13. Mr. Chisholm : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what percentage of four-year-olds have a local authority nursery place.

Mr. Forth : Eighty-one per cent. of all children in England who were aged 4 on 31 August 1990 and still below five at the end of the year were in maintained nursery or primary schools in January 1991.

Education Funding

14. Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received from local authorities cutting budgets to avoid capping in 1993-94 and the implications on the position of education.

Mr. Boswell : My right hon. Friend has received a number of such representations.

15. Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received in the last three months from the Association of County Councils on the funding of education services.

Mr. Boswell : My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations from the Association of County Councils about the funding of education services.

Grant-maintained Schools

17. Mr. Riddick : To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he received a copy of the annual survey of the grant-maintained schools centre ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend received a copy of the GSMC survey on 30 November. The survey demonstrated clearly the benefits of grant- maintained status, which enables schools to manage their own affairs and gives them the flexibility to target funding at classroom level. Copies of the survey are available in the Library.

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18. Dr. Spink : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what are the latest figures for the number of grant-maintained schools in both the secondary and primary phases.

Mr. Forth : To date, there are 262 secondary schools and 75 primary schools operating as grant-maintained. A further 49 secondary schools and 14 primary schools have been approved for grant-maintained status ; 161 secondary schools and 61 primary schools have applications in the pipeline after voting in favour of applying for grant-maintained status.

NNC and Ofsted Reports

19. Mr. Clifton-Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what actions he has taken following the recent presentation of reports by the National Curriculum Council and the Office for Standards in Education.

Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend has sent to primary schools a five- point strategy designed to promote good teaching practice and improved curriculum management in primary schools. He also proposes to ask the new Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority to advise him on the institution of a rolling review of national curriculum subjects.

Students Unions

20. Mr. Canavan : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent representations he has received about the future of student unions ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Boswell : My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations on student unions in the course of the Department's consultations.

Newspapers (Essex)

21. Mr. Mackinlay : To ask the Secretary of State for Education from which Essex newspapers his press cuttings services provide cuttings for his office.

Mr. Boswell : The Department's press cuttings service is not asked to monitor Essex regional newspapers automatically. However, the Department has other arrangements enabling it to receive press cuttings from all regional papers on request.

National Curriculum

22. Mrs. Jane Kennedy : To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he next plans to meet the chair of the National Curriculum Council to discuss the progress being made in the implementation of the national curriculum.

Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend and my right hon. and noble Friend the Minister of State have regular meetings with the chairman of the National Curriculum Council. Progress in the implementation of the national curriculum is a normal part of the agenda of such meetings.

Youth Service

23. Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the latest information he has about English local authority budgets for the youth service in (a) 1992-93 and (b) 1993-94.

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Mr. Boswell : Separate information on youth service expenditure for these years is not yet available.

Teacher Education and Training

25. Mr. Faber : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has for the reform of teacher training.

Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has for the reform of teacher education and training ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend announced last June a decisive shift to more school-based training for secondary teachers, which is being introduced over the period up to September 1994. He is now considering reforms to the training of primary teachers in the light of the recent advice from the National Curriculum Council and OFSTED on primary education ; and he intends that they should be introduced in September 1994. The quality of teacher training is critical to our school reforms and the raising of educational standards. My right hon. Friend will keep under review the possibility that further reform of teacher training is needed to this end.

Voluntary Organisations

26. Mr. Callaghan : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received from voluntary organisations during the last three months ; and what were their major concerns.

Mr. Boswell : Over the last three months we have received a number of representations from voluntary organisations on a range of issues. These included the ending of the Department's initial three-year interim grants scheme to education voluntary organisations in London, and the funding of courses which fall within schedule 2 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

Local Management of Schools

28. Mr. Waterson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proposals he has to extend the system of local management of schools ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : We issued the consultation paper, "Local Management of Schools : the Future Framework", on 11 January. This seeks views on proposals to extend local managment of schools. Copies have been placed in the Library.

Truancy

Mrs. Roche : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidance regarding the connection with bullying has been given to local authorities when using extra money to combat truancy.

Mr. Forth : Under the "Reducing Truancy" component of the grants for education support and training scheme for 1993-94, local education authorities (LEAs) could, if they so wished, include in their bids an element designed to promote whole-school action on bullying. A number of authorities have done so on the basis of schemes designed to meet local needs. Practical advice on bullying was contained in the "Action against Bullying" pack distributed by the Department to all LEAs and schools in July 1992.

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Higher Education

Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to increase the number of young people entering higher education.

Mr. Boswell : Government policies have led to substantial increases in the number of young people participating in higher education. More than one in four young people now enter higher education compared with only one in eight in 1979. As explained at the time of the autumn statement, the Government's funding for the next three years reflects our assumption that the participation rate of young people in higher education will be maintained at a record 28 per cent. over the next three years, and will rise to about one in three by the year 2000.

School Governors

24. Mr. Loyden : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what advice and assistance is being made available to school governors in order that they can effectively carry out their responsibilities.

Mr. Forth : All LEAs arrange for training and support for school governors. Authorities either provide this themselves, or may commission it from other organisations. Central Government grant towards LEAs' expenditure is available through the GEST (grants for education support and training) programme. Nationally, expenditure of £10 million is being supported in the current year. This increases to just over £15 million in 1993-94. In addition, department for Education has funded several governor support projects run by diocesan bodies and governor organisations.

Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he will publish the results of his Department's survey of the membership of school governing bodies conducted in autumn 1992.

Mr. Forth : The results of the survey will be published as soon as possible after they have been received.

Mr. Nigel Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what provisions have been made governing the conduct of first governors of grant -maintained schools elected parent governors ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : The instrument of government of a grant-maintained school makes provision for serving governors who become bankrupt, are convicted of certain crimes or who do not attend governors meetings to be disqualified from holding office. Clause 56 of the Education Bill will, if enacted, provide additional power for the Secretary of State to replace any or all of the first governors in circumstances where there is a serious failure of duties, the school has had a bad inspection report and is unable or unwilling to put matters right or where the behaviour of governors has damaged, or appears likely to damage the education of pupils.

Mr. Nigel Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what requirements are laid on parent governors in reporting back to parent electors ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : There are no specific requirements on parent governors to report back to parent electors. The governing

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body as a whole must produce a report and hold a meeting for parents in every school year to inform parents of the governing body's actions over the previous year and to give them an opportunity to discuss these actions.

Mr. Nigel Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to monitor changes in articles and instruments of grant- maintained schools' governing bodies ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : Changes to the instrument or articles of government of any grant-maintained school can be made only if an amendment order is issued by the Secretary of State.

Mr. Nigel Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what requirements are imposed concerning changes to the membership articles and instruments and the removal of parent governors of grant-maintained school governing bodies ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Forth : Amendments to the instrument of government of a grant- maintained school to reflect changes in the composition of the membership of the governing body can be made only if an amendment order is issued by the Secretary of State.

The instrument of government makes provision for serving governors (including parent governors) who become bankrupt, are convicted of certain crimes or who do not attend governors' meetings to be disqualified from holding office. Clause 56 of the Education Bill will, if enacted, also provide power for the Secretary of State to replace any or all of the first governors in certain circumstances. These circumstances are : a serious failure of duties, a bad inspection report coupled with the inability or unwillingness of the school to put matters right, or where there is behaviour by governors such as has damaged, or appears likely to damage, the education of pupils.

Grants (Gwynedd)

Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make a statement on the reasons why his Department (a) did not reimburse Gwynedd county council with the sum paid by way of mandatory education grants, following the completion of form UG 8/91 on 5 October by that authority, (b) indicated that provisional payments would be made soon after 9 October and (c) delayed payments until January 1993 ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Boswell : Form UG 8/91 is a certificate of each local education authority's spending on mandatory student awards in 1991-92, and is used as a basis for adjustments to the specific grant already paid for that year by the Department. Provisional adjustments may be paid after scrutiny of authorities' pre-audit forms due in October, and final adjustments after receipt of audited certificates due on 31 December. Last autumn, however, many authorities' pre-audit forms contained errors, and the Department deferred all adjustments until audited certificates had been received and reconciled. The adjustments will be paid in full shortly.

Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education for what reason his Department has not yet replied to the letter from the treasurer of Gwynedd county council of 30 November and 10 December.

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Mr. Boswell : The Department telephoned the county treasurer, and also wrote on 22 December and again on 19 and 29 January.

Secondary Schools (Inspections)

Mr. Nigel Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many secondary schools will be inspected over the next four years.

Mr. Forth : Every publicly funded secondary school will be inspected over four years starting this September ; nearly 4,000 reports will be published as a result.

Special Needs

27. Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make a statement on the availability of professional services to children with special educational needs.

Mr. Forth : I have this last week, in the Committee stage of the Education Bill, tabled a new clause which puts beyond doubt the ability of local education authorities to continue to provide a range of professional support services to all pupils with special educational needs.

Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what specific action is currently undertaken by his Department to assist parents who wish to move their child with special education needs from the special school sector to the integrated mainstream school sector.

Mr. Forth : The Education Act 1981 and the Education Bill presently before Parliament place local education authorities under a duty to secure that a child with special educational needs is educated in a mainstream school, so long as certain conditions apply and such integration is compatible with the wishes of the child's parents. Both that Act and the Bill provide for the annual review of statements of special educational needs. Part of the purpose of such reviews is to consider whether the school placement remains appropriate. As a result of a Government amendment the Bill provides for the Secretary of State to make regulations governing those reviews.

Schedule 9 of the Bill provides a new right for parents of children with statements, subject to certain timing conditions, to ask the LEA to substitute a particular named LEA-maintained or grant-maintained school of their choice for the one named in the statement. Subject to certain conditions, the authority will have to comply and regulations may set time limits within which the authority must take action. If the authority do not comply, the parent will have a right of appeal to the tribunal.

Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will give the number of INSET courses and the numbers of teachers completing training from them, for teachers of young people with special learning difficulties for 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93 and that projected for 1993-94.

Mr. Forth : All the figures requested are not held centrally. However, this Department provides funds to LEAs under the grants for education support and training (GEST) programme to support them with the costs of such training. In 1992-93, funds were allocated to support the INSET training of 296 teachers of children with severe learning difficulties (SLD). Of these, 206 were teachers beginning new courses.

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In 1993-94, the eligibility for grant under the GEST programme has been extended to support teacher training in all areas of special educational needs. As a result, the amount of eligible expenditure to be supported has been increased by nearly 40 per cent. to £10 million in order to meet the expansion in training activities. It is too early to say with certainty how many teachers of children with severe learning difficulties will be trained by LEAs under GEST in 1993-94, but preliminary indications suggest that figures will be comparable with those for previous years.

HEALTH

Smoking

Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many patients were admitted to NHS hospitals for smoking-related diseases in each of the last 10 years ;

(2) how many hospital beds, on average, on a daily basis, were occupied by patients being treated for smoking-related diseases in the last year for which figures are available.

Dr. Mawhinney : Information is available only for 1988-89, as given by the Health Education Authority, in its 1991 publication "The Smoking Epidemic". This estimated that 226,000 patients were admitted to hospital in England for treatment of smoking-related diseases and these cases occupied an average of 7,000 beds each day.

Limited List Drugs

Mr. Alexander : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations were received by her Department between 9 April 1992 and 12 November 1992 seeking assurances on behalf of companies in the pharmaceutical industry that there were no plans to extend the limited list regulations ; and what was the response.

Dr. Mawhinney : A number of representations were received and the companies were informed that there were no plans at that time to extend the selected list scheme.

Psychiatric Patients (Deaths)

Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 25 January, Official Report, column 540, what timetable is proposed for the inquiry of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Mr. Yeo : The inquiry will produce an initial report later this year.

GP Fund Holders

Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the general practices which are fund holding in the area covered by (a) the Mid-Staffordshire health authority and (b) the South East Staffordshire health authority.

Dr. Mawhinney : The West Midlands regional health authority is responsible for the management of the general practitioner fund holding scheme in these areas. The hon. Member may wish to contact, Sir Donald Wilson, the RHA chairman, for details.

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Cancer Treatment

Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what was the number of (i) male staff, (ii) female staff and (iii) staff working in wards/units caring for patients suffering from cancer employed at (a) University College hospital, (b) Middlesex hospital, (c) St. Bartholomew's hospital, (d) Royal London hospital, (e) St. Thomas's hospital, (f) Guy's hospital, (g) Charing Cross hospital, (h) St. Mary's hospital and (i) Queen Charlotte's hospital on 25 January;

(2) how many (i) in-patients and (ii) out-patients were receiving treatment for cancer at (a) University College hospital, (b) Middlesex hospital, (c) St. Bartholomew's hospital, (d) Royal London hospital, (e) St. Thomas's hospital, (f) Guy's hospital, (g) Charing Cross hospital, (h) St. Mary's hospital and (i) Queen Charlotte's hospital on 25 January; and what kind of cancer treatment is given at each hospital.

Dr, Mawhinney : The information requested is not held centrally.

Nurses

Ms. Rachel Squire : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to increase opportunities for all enrolled nurses to convert to first level registration.

Mr. Sackville : It is for regional health authorities, in consultation with employers, to plan for enrolled nurse conversion as part of their responsibility for identifying the level of demand for qualified nurses and for allocating appropriate budgets.

In addition, we are committed to increasing the number of places available for enrolled nurse conversion as part of the Project 2000 reforms. Central funding has been made available to facilitate this. The English National Board for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting has been encouraged to develop flexible options which have made it possible to reduce both the length and cost of conversion courses.

Plastic Surgery

Mr. Salmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what safeguards there are to ensure that all surgeons carrying out plastic surgery are suitably qualified, and to protect those individuals undergoing plastic surgery; and if she will make a statement.

Dr. Mawhinney : Plastic surgeons securing consultant appointments in the national health service have to meet the requirements of employing authorities' advisory appointments committees. These include representatives of the Royal College of Surgeons who ensure that the experience and training of a candidate is appropriate to the particular appointment.

Self-governing Trusts

Mr. Milburn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the chairpersons and non-executive directors of all self-governing trusts and the annual remuneration paid to each.

Dr. Mawhinney : A list of all trust appointees has been placed in the Library. All non-executive directors are paid

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at the rate of £5,000 per annum. The remuneration for trust chairmen is paid in three bands according to the unit turnover in 1988-89.


                                             |£            

-----------------------------------------------------------

Band 1 (Turnover in excess of £50 million)   |19,285       

Band 2 (Turnover in between £20-£50 million) |17,145       

Band 3 (Turnover less than £20 million)      |15,125

Accidents (Children)

Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many children received hospital treatment following road accidents who had been (a) wearing and (b) not wearing seat belts, in each of the last 10 years ;

(2) what are the assessed costs to the national health service for treating children injured by (a) accidents in the home, (b) as the result of motor vehicle accidents where they were passengers and (c) suffered as the result of road traffic accidents where they were pedestrians.

Mr. Sackville : This information is not held centrally. In the "Health of the Nation" White Paper we indicate that the development of information systems in accident and emergency departments is a key measure in our strategy for reducing accidents. From this April a new minimum data set will be introduced in A and E departments which will record both the cause and the nature of patients' treatment, thus enabling such costs to be assessed. In further developing this data set we will consider whether seat belt usage in road accidents should also be recorded.

Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are employed by the health education authority to promote (a) the installation and wearing of child seat belts and restraints and (b) child safety in the home.

Dr. Mawhinney : Several staff are employed by the Health Education Authority on child accident prevention, but none exclusively. The authority produces information for parents and the public, and support for health professionals in their role in accident prevention. This includes information on the installation and wearing of child seat belt restraints.

Home Safety

Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what allocation of funds exist for accident prevention in the home.

Dr. Mawhinney : No information is held centrally about the cost of the continuing efforts and special initiatives by people working in health and social services which help combat home accidents. Direct expenditure by central Government on home safety is by the Department of Trade and Industry whose consumer safety unit allocate about £1 million per annum to home safety campaigns targeted at the general public and at high- risk groups and in addition funds the home and leisure accident surveillance systems.

Chlamydia

Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has regarding the links between the development of pelvic inflammatory disease and abortions on women infected with chlamydia.

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Mr. Sackville : We are aware of medical discussions on the nature and extent of the link between infection with chlamydia and pelvic inflammatory disease in pregnant women including those who undergo a termination of pregnancy.

Articles on this topic have appeared in professional journals in this country and abroad.

Community Care

Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the local authorities who have been offered free consulting time prior to the introduction of community care ; what was the basis for their selection ; which local authorities have accepted ; what was the cost to the Department of this initiative ; and which consultancy firms were used in this initiative.

Mr. Yeo : Since September 1992 the community care support force has provided practical assistance to local and health authorities in their final preparations for implementing the caring for people reforms. As part of its programme, it has visited individual local and health authorities, by invitation. The support force has offered authorities assistance, including, consultancy support and expects to have committed, by the end of March when it finishes work, about £250,000 in this form of help to authorities. The support force has used a number of consultancy firms and its work also includes : the production of practical guidance and working seminars on key implementation tasks, an implementation helpline and a regular newsletter.

Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle

Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the original estimate of expenditure of the Royal Victoria infirmary, Newcastle, new ward block when the project began; and what is the total expenditure incurred so far.

Mr. Sackville : Based on actual building costs and standards prevailing at the start of construction, the original estimated cost of the new ward block was £23.3 million excluding fluctuations. The contract was completed on time in July 1991 and the cost incurred was £27.2 million including £3.4 million for fluctuations. Fluctuations are the sums paid to reimburse the contractor for increases in labour, plant and material costs as the work proceeds. Four small additional contracts have since been let to provide additional facilities on site.

Maternal Deaths

Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 25 January, Official Report, column 536, what provisions exist for identifying maternal deaths following complications after abortions which occur after the notification form has been passed to his Department.

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