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Nursery Voucher Scheme
7. Mr. Heppell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the effect of the introduction of the nursery voucher scheme on children with a disability. [3874]
Mr. Robin Squire: We attach great importance to provision for children with special educational needs.
My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Education and Employment and for Health are considering the responses to the consultation on provision for such children in the nursery education voucher scheme.
Mr. Heppell:
Does the Minister agree with the organisations for and of disabled people, such as the Council for Disabled Children and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, that the proposed voucher scheme is incompatible with the idea of the promotion of increased choice for children?
Mr. Squire:
In a word, no. Indeed, it would be hard to do so. I explained to the hon. Gentleman and to the hon. Member for Barking (Ms Hodge) that they will need to wait just a short time for the final detail. It is
Mr. Evennett:
Does my hon. Friend agree that increased choice and diversity in nursery provision, which the Government's proposals for vouchers will enhance, will be good for all children, including those with disabilities?
Mr. Squire:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why Conservative Members welcome wholeheartedly the introduction of the voucher scheme.
8. Mr. Bayley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what are her Department's priorities for the use of the additional resources for education announced on 28 November. [3875]
Mrs. Gillian Shephard:
We have provided an extra
£878 million for schools next year. I would expect that substantial sum to result in an improved quality of education in our schools.
Mr. Bayley:
Last year, one of my children, who is at a local authority primary school, was in a class of 37.
Is the Secretary of State aware that the National Association of Governors and Managers and the public sector accountancy association, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy--CIPFA--have revealed that more than one in three children in primary school are now taught in a class of more than 30?
Has the Secretary of State seen the estimate from the National Foundation for Educational Research that reducing class sizes to 30 or below for all five, six and seven-year-olds, as the Labour party proposes, would cost only £60 million a year? Does she believe that it would be better for more parents of more children in more schools to spend that £60 million on reducing class sizes for primary school children, rather spending a further £101 million on expanding the assisted places scheme?
Madam Speaker:
We must have brisk questions. Answers have been very brisk today, and I must move down the Order Paper.
Mrs. Shephard:
It is for local education authorities to identify their priorities and how they wish to spend the substantial increase--4.5 per cent. in all--that they will have next year, compared with this year. That is a substantial increase, and it will certainly enable authorities to place a priority on primary classes, if that is their decision.
I remind the hon. Gentleman, however, that his party's opposition to the assisted places scheme is the best possible example of its class-envious attitudes. We believe in choice and diversity for everyone: the Labour party believes in choice, but only for Front Benchers. Our calculation shows that the extra number of teachers that would result from the Labour party's putative use of the £60 million would be one teacher per 18 schools.
Mr. Atkins:
Will my right hon. Friend join me, and all the Conservative Members who represent constituencies
Mrs. Shephard:
Lancashire county council will benefit from an above-average increase in its education SSA next year. I am quite sure that my right hon. Friend and other Conservative Members who represent Lancashire constituencies will not allow the Lancashire LEA to get away with doing other than passing the increase on to children in its schools.
Mrs. Mahon:
Will the Secretary of State visit Withinfield junior and infant school in my constituency, where she will see for herself the appalling conditions in which 55 children share two urinals and six of the nine classes are taught in outside classrooms? When she sees that, will she help the local authority, which cannot possibly afford the money for a new school? That is the school's top priority, and it has the land for the new school. Will she give it some real resources so that those children are treated to a decent school before the old one falls down?
Mrs. Shephard:
The hon. Lady asks about capital allocations, which will be announced shortly. The increase for next year is substantial, and her authority will be able to use it to good effect to deal with the problems that she has described.
Mr. Robert G. Hughes:
Does my right hon. Friend agree that all parents would agree with the priorities that she has laid out today, and on previous occasions, to the effect that the money allocated, and particularly the extra money now available, must go to schools and should not be retained by the local education authority? Will she therefore condemn the plans contained in papers from Liberal-controlled Harrow council? Instead of giving the money to schools, it wants to increase the staffing of its central bureaucracy. Is that not a disgrace? Should it not be condemned? Not only that, but, with the cheek of the devil, the council wants to blame the Government for its decision.
Mrs. Shephard:
I fear that that is typical of many councils under such control. I trust that my hon. Friend and his colleagues will make absolutely certain, as they have today, that such a ludicrous practice will be roundly condemned by parents in his constituency.
Mr. Blunkett:
First, may I associate everyone on the Opposition Benches with the Secretary of State's comments on the tragic death of Philip Lawrence, and,
if I may say so, the concerned and measured way in which she has responded to that tragedy?
Will the right hon. Lady confirm that the standard spending assessment is the assessment of the Government's understanding of what they believe local authorities should spend? It is not grant provided to an authority in order to provide services. Far from a 4.5 per cent. increase--or, in the county of the right hon. Member for South Ribble (Mr. Atkins), a 5.5 per cent. increase-- there has been a cut of £298 million in the revenue
support grant. Next year, the amount of money available will be cut by at least £41 per pupil. It is only because Labour authorities spend way above the SSA estimate that an even bigger cut has not been announced in the amount of money and resources available to schools throughout the country.
Mrs. Shephard:
That was a brave attempt by the hon. Gentleman. He and his right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition did not star mathematically last week when they confused 30 per cent. of schools with 30 per cent. of lessons. What the hon. Gentleman is trying to do, and this is why it was a brave attempt, is to compare settlement with spending. He should compare Government settlement with Government settlement. What local authorities spend above their SSAs is up to them, but whatever they choose to spend, the Government resources available to them overall will increase by 4.5 per cent. There is no getting away from that, however much Opposition Members do not like it.
9. Mr. Clifton-Brown:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has received about the assisted places scheme. [3876]
Mrs. Gillan:
We have received many representations welcoming the expansion of the assisted places scheme, details of which were announced on 29 November by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.
Mr. Clifton-Brown:
Is my hon. Friend aware that the Royal Ballet and Music school is offering 47 assisted places and is bidding for further assisted places? Is she further aware that that institution is currently putting on an excellent performance of "Peter and the Wolf"? Would not Prokofiev be appalled to think that the future Christmas performances of his great orchestral narrative would be jeopardised if the wolves in the Labour party were to abolish assisted places throughout the country?
Mrs. Gillan:
Trust my hon. Friend to come up with such a seasonal question, but he is absolutely right. Music and ballet schools are covered by the assisted places scheme and would be eligible to bid for more places if they so wished. Pupils at those schools who perform at Christmas provide us with great pleasure and enjoyment. Let us hope that, like Scrooge, the Labour party has a conversion this Christmas.
Mr. Hanson:
What does the hon. Lady think the expansion of the assisted places scheme tells us about the current state of the Conservative party? The Government have chosen to spend additional resources on a select number of children, rather on the majority of children in the United Kingdom who would benefit from those resources.
Mrs. Gillan:
We value choice and we believe in value for money. I am not rehearsing the same arguments that I put from the Dispatch Box during our last Education and Employment questions about value for money and the Opposition's politics of envy.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to an article in the Daily Mail earlier this month. A Mr. Patel, who is alleged to be a Labour voter, wrote to the Leader of the Opposition urging him to think again. He said:
Mr. French:
In considering the expansion of the assisted places scheme, will my hon. Friend pay particular
Mrs. Gillan:
I thank my hon. Friend for that suggestion. The scheme is proving very popular. By the end of last week, we had already received bids from more than 30 schools for almost 1,000 new places over the next two years. With a month to go, we expect to receive even more bids for this very successful scheme.
"This scheme is popular with ordinary working people."
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