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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Nursery Staff

Mr. Keen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many qualified (a) nursery teachers and (b) nursery nurses of working age there are in the United Kingdom. [8279]

Mr. Robin Squire: The available information shows that there were 7,281 full-time equivalent, FTE, qualified teachers and 9,308 FTE qualified nursery assistants employed in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools in England in January 1995. At that time there were a further 8,103 FTE qualified nursery assistants employed in other classes in maintained primary schools in England.

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 462

Information about the number of staff employed in schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland respectively.

Grant-maintained Schools

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what capital funding allocations have been made for grant-maintained schools for 1996-97; and if she will list the allocations per school. [9061]

Mr. Robin Squire: Capital allocations to grant-maintained schools are a matter for the Funding Agency for Schools for England. I have asked the chairman of the funding agency to write to the hon. Member.

Pre-school Provision

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the number and percentage of children under the age of five years who have a place in (a) reception classes in schools, (b) nursery classes in schools and (c) nursery schools by each local education authority area and nationally. [9060]

Mr. Robin Squire: The available information on pupils aged under five in maintained nursery and primary schools in each local education authority in England is shown in the table:

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 461

Provision of education for under fives in maintained nursery and primary schools in each Local Education Authority area in England--January 1995

	Nursery schools		Primary schools
			Nursery classes		Infant classes(35)
	Pupils(33)	Percentage of population(34)	Pupils(33)	Percentage of population(34)	Pupils(33)	Percentage of population(34)
Camden	61	1	955	23	1,015	24
Greenwich	647	10	2,635	39	1,024	15
Hackney	149	2	2,172	33	1,587	24
Hammersmith and Fulham	554	14	1,167	31	568	15
Islington	319	6	1,575	31	1,466	29
Kensington and Chelsea	249	7	608	18	385	12
Lambeth	450	6	2,011	25	1,018	13
Lewisham	231	3	2,431	33	1,131	15
Southwark	535	7	2,562	35	2,120	29
Tower Hamlets	721	12	2,635	45	1,705	29
Wandsworth	216	3	2,176	32	1,624	24
Westminster	190	5	993	25	574	14
Barking and Dagenham	0	0	2,054	42	1,623	34
Barnet	575	7	2,095	25	2,205	26
Bexley	0	0	1,442	23	2,074	33
Brent	223	3	2,377	33	1,974	27
Bromley	0	0	172	2	2,385	34
Croydon	499	5	1,512	16	2,883	30
Ealing	454	5	3,265	39	2,426	29
Enfield	0	0	1,663	22	2,389	31
Haringey	223	4	2,519	40	1,848	29
Harrow	0	0	1,009	18	1,626	29
Havering	0	0	495	9	1,984	35
Hillingdon	120	2	3,234	47	87	1
Hounslow	0	0	2,363	41	1,725	30
Kingston upon Thames	242	7	967	28	1,038	30
Merton	0	0	2,713	55	983	20
Newham	959	11	3,496	40	1,280	15
Redbridge	0	0	1,326	21	1,397	22
Richmond upon Thames	68	2	670	16	1,114	26
Sutton	240	5	1,727	36	64	1
Waltham Forest	308	4	2,405	34	1,044	15
Birmingham	2,411	8	8,538	27	10,019	31
Coventry	141	2	1,984	22	2,788	31
Dudley	70	1	2,992	36	2,707	33
Sandwell	128	1	4,537	53	2,840	33
Solihull	0	0	1,880	36	1,949	37
Walsall	839	11	3,557	47	2,465	33
Wolverhampton	848	12	3,050	42	2,262	31
Knowsley	0	0	3,003	61	1,679	34
Liverpool	564	4	5,698	42	4,483	33
St. Helens	80	2	1,605	33	1,574	33
Sefton	318	4	2,440	32	2,507	32
Wirral	319	4	1,954	22	2,933	33
Bolton	491	6	2,694	35	2,618	34
Bury	159	3	1,379	27	1,595	31
Manchester	542	4	7,039	50	2,429	17
Oldham	0	0	2,458	37	2,236	34
Rochdale	912	14	1,233	19	2,112	32
Salford	1,075	16	2,456	37	2,264	34
Stockport	936	12	1,146	15	2,483	33
Tameside	281	4	2,287	35	2,135	33
Trafford	0	0	2,526	42	1,919	32
Wigan	190	2	1,986	23	2,732	32
Barnsley	181	3	2,812	45	1,101	18
Doncaster	0	0	3,667	45	2,817	34
Rotherham	403	6	2,924	40	1,160	16
Sheffield	851	6	4,849	35	2,438	18
Bradford	521	3	5,965	40	4,135	28
Calderdale	0	0	1,946	36	1,866	35
Kirklees	548	5	3,890	35	3,509	31
Leeds	77	0	9,170	46	5,730	29
Wakefield	481	5	4,363	49	1,770	20
Gateshead	73	1	1,801	35	1,653	32
Newcastle upon Tyne	622	8	2,295	31	2,289	31
North Tyneside	226	5	2,468	51	1,682	35
South Tyneside	454	11	1,781	43	1,388	33
Sunderland	1,042	13	2,405	29	2,611	31
Avon	1,799	7	3,434	14	7,930	32
Bedfordshire	1,476	9	3,744	23	2,918	18
Berkshire	2,203	10	4,657	22	777	4
Buckinghamshire	571	3	2,469	13	3,100	17
Cambridge	734	4	1,497	8	5,842	31
Cheshire	869	3	4,614	18	8,323	32
Cleveland	154	1	9,368	59	5,241	33
Cornwall(36)	111	1	1,555	14	3,617	32
Cumbria	817	7	2,224	18	4,066	33
Derbyshire	1,573	6	8,132	32	5,768	23
Devon	315	1	2,697	11	4,240	17
Dorset	0	0	841	6	5,000	33
Durham	2,618	16	4,645	29	5,112	32
East Sussex	258	2	1,367	8	5,186	30
Essex	300	1	2,386	6	8,694	21
Gloucestershire	0	0	27	0	4,616	33
Hampshire	339	1	1,638	4	13,645	32
Hereford and Worcester	0	0	1,682	9	2,953	16
Hertfordshire	1,743	6	7,780	28	5,374	19
Humberside	1,163	5	8,080	33	5,400	22
Isle of Wight	0	0	175	7	922	35
Kent	83	0	2,125	5	13,509	33
Lancashire	3,664	9	4,466	11	12,867	33
Leicestershire	51	0	5,219	20	4,762	19
Lincolnshire	531	4	1,536	11	4,912	34
Norfolk	404	2	857	5	5,646	31
North Yorkshire	373	2	3,512	20	5,362	30
Northamptonshire	616	4	2,429	14	5,478	32
Northumberland	128	2	2,923	40	2,498	34
Nottinghamshire	595	2	13,169	48	2,099	8
Oxfordshire	1,079	6	2,148	13	1,317	8
Shropshire	176	2	1,844	17	2,127	19
Somerset	0	0	587	5	3,901	33
Staffordshire	2,077	7	4,976	18	9,068	32
Suffolk	101	1	2,977	17	2,591	15
Surrey	428	2	2,635	10	7,078	27
Warwickshire	759	6	1,425	11	4,228	33
West Sussex	434	2	811	5	3,011	17
Wiltshire	0	0	577	4	3,388	21
England(36) (37)	52,558	4	303,462	23	343,824	26

(33) Excludes pupils who became 5 years of age by 1 January 1995.

(34) Pupils aged 3 and 4 years old expressed as a percentage of the 3 and 4 year old population at 31 December 1994.

(35) Includes reception and other classes.

(36) Includes the Isle of Scilly.

(37) Includes the Corporation of London.

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 465

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 465

Access to Work Scheme

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to her answer of 14 December to the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Hamilton), Official Report, column 738, if the new criteria to be applied to eligibility for the access to work scheme will exclude those disabled people who are seeking jobs through development of self-employment; and if she will make a statement. [9054]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the eligibility for Access to Work of self-employed disabled people.
The refocussing of Access to Work announced by the Secretary of State on 14 December applies to self-employed disabled people in exactly the same way as it does to disabled people who are employed. From 18 December applications will be considered only from people who, at the time of their application, have been unemployed for at least four weeks. This applies whether a person is entering self-employment or starting work as an employed person.
I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the changes in the criteria for eligibility introduced from 18 December 1995 will apply to those who have already made applications for assistance under access to work before that date; and if she will make a statement. [8954]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the eligibility for Access to Work of people who applied before 18 December.
Everyone who made an application for Access to Work before 18 December, even if their application had not been decided at that date, will be eligible to be considered for support.

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 466

The announcement refocussed the support available from the Access to Work programme towards those who need it most--unemployed disabled people; and those to whom we have already made commitments. Those disabled people who are still eligible to apply for Access to Work will continue to be considered for the full range support available.
I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many applicants for access to work who had made formal applications had been waiting three months or more, by 18 December 1995, for their applications to be processed. [8953]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about waiting times for people who have made applications for Access to Work support.
Access to Work is delivered locally through Placing, Assessment and Counselling Teams (PACTS). Local managers are responsible for delivery and I have set them a target of completing action plans for 80% of Access to Work clients within 3 weeks of their applying. If the actual provision of the support is likely to take some time, PACTs seek alternative ways of helping the client.
Local managers are responsible for monitoring the operation of Access to Work and for achieving the set targets. This level of detail of monitoring information is not kept centrally, and I cannot therefore say how many people have to wait for three months or more for their applications to be processed.
However, we are undertaking a review of Access to Work and research to support the review has examined in detail the operation of the programme. This research will be published shortly.
I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what sum of money is available under access to work in 1995-96; and what is the amount proposed for 1996-97. [8955]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

15 Jan 1996 : Column: 467

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the money available for Access to Work in 1995/96 and 1996/97.

The amount of money allocated to the Access to Work programme for 1995/96 is £13.4m but, as the Secretary of State announced on 14 December, additional funds have been made available for this year. However, I cannot of course say what the total spend will be until the end of the year.

The amount of money allocated to the programme for 1996/97 has been maintained at the planned level of £12.9m.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Wareing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has received about the access to work scheme; what has been the nature of these representations; and what her response has been. [9182]

Mr. Paice: Since the announcement about access to work, made on 14 December by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, we have received requests for further clarification of the announcement; expressions of concern about the immediate measures taken; and requests for information about the review of the programme and its future operation. Replies have provided the clarification and information requested where appropriate.

Mr. Wareing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to alter the access to work scheme; if extra funds will be made available; and if she will make a statement. [9181]

Mr. Paice: An announcement was made by the Secretary of State on 14 December 1995, Official Report column 738, about the access to work programme and its funding.

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