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Schools (Discipline)
8. Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what new measures she is taking to help schools to enforce firm discipline. [20130]
Mr. Robin Squire: We have recently announced funding for a programme of more than 60 projects to identify and promote effective ways in which to tackle pupil behaviour and discipline problems in schools. The projects are expected to run for three years at an overall cost of around £18 million.
Mr. Duncan Smith: Notwithstanding what my hon. Friend has just said, does he agree that teachers, if they are to improve standards, need to have orderly and well-behaved classes? Is not one of the real problems, and a matter of major concern for all of us, that many teachers find it difficult because parents do not agree to allow them to exercise the amount of discipline that is necessary? Is it not time that we got parents to sign up to some form of agreement under which they will allow teachers to exercise the age-old tradition of in loco parentis?
Mr. Squire: I agree powerfully with the thrust of my hon. Friend's comments. There is no doubt that a small minority of parents neither instil sufficient discipline in the home nor support teachers in their difficult job of ensuring that schools are properly disciplined places. That is why, over and above the measures that I announced in my first answer, we are actively investigating ways in which better to give teachers greater disciplinary powers within the classroom.
Employment Opportunities (Women)
9. Mrs. Gorman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures she has put in place since September 1995 to improve employment opportunities for women. [20131]
Mrs. Gillian Shephard: Since September last year, we have built on our range of measures to benefit women by, among other things, extending the successful out-of-school child care initiative.
Mrs. Gorman: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her progress in making jobs more available and more flexible for women who especially value part-time work, which the Government do all that they can to encourage. Does she share my worry, however, that job opportunities for younger women could be scuppered if the European directive on parental leave is introduced through the back door, as the European Court of Justice is doing with the working hours directive? Does she agree that the directive would particularly hit younger women because it would affect women with children under the age of eight? It would be impossible for small employers to grant the designated time off, which would naturally make young women less attractive to employers.
Mrs. Shephard: This is properly a matter for the Department of Trade and Industry, but I can reassure my hon. Friend that the directive is covered by the United Kingdom social chapter opt-out. It therefore, in terms of the difficulties she underlines, emphasises the importance of that opt-out, negotiated by the Government.
Mr. Flynn: Why are three quarters of a million people, mostly women, counted twice in the Government's employment figures?
Mrs. Shephard: I think that the hon. Gentleman is most certainly mistaken, but he would undoubtedly wish to know that we have a far better record on employment for women than anywhere else in Europe. He might like to reflect on the fact that the policies that his party seeks to espouse--the national minimum wage and the social chapter--would increase unemployment for women, which I am sure he would wish to avoid.
School Funding
10. Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make it her policy to consult parents about the level of school funding. [20132]
Mr. Robin Squire: The Government take parents' views into account when deciding the annual revenue support grant. It is then for local education authorities to determine the level of funding for their own schools in the light of local needs and priorities.
Mr. Mackinlay: Does the Minister realise that parents will consider that the Government are not listening? Whether their children go to local education authority schools or to grant-maintained schools, the common experience of parents is that schools are underfunded. They believe that it is time the Government shifted major resources in favour of education and in terms of training, so that we can build up the enterprise of our country and the satisfaction of our pupils. Is it not a fact that the Government have undersold our education provision and that parents demand an improvement? Will the Minister point to a Conservative Member who can put his hand on his heart and say that the parents he represents are satisfied with the funding of their schools?
Mr. Squire: Fortunately, it is not one of my responsibilities to point to my hon. Friends. It is, however, my responsibility to trumpet abroad our success in getting such a good education funding settlement for the coming year--an average settlement of about 4.5 per cent., and rather higher in Essex, the county that the hon. Gentleman represents. Because a very large proportion of parents in that county have had the foresight to vote for GM schools, all the GM secondary schools there have had a settlement of 5 per cent., and that is very good when compared with the inflation rate or average salary increases.
Mr. Jacques Arnold: When parents consider school funding, would it not be interesting for them to note the amount of school funding that gets through to schools, as far too many local education authorities hold back considerable sums to be disbursed by bureaucrats at county hall? Is not Kent county council, controlled by the Labour and Liberal parties, about the worst at holding money back from schools?
Mr. Squire: My hon. Friend makes a telling point. Even with the minimum requirement to delegate 85 per cent. of the relevant budgets, it is clear, looking at the spread of the percentage budget delegated, what a wide difference there is and how often it is Labour-Liberal Democrat councils that insist on spending more money at the centre and less at the chalkface.
Mr. Don Foster: Although I entirely agree with the hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay), may I, through the Minister, congratulate the Secretary of State in at least one respect? Following the appalling murder of the head teacher Philip Lawrence, she immediately brought together representatives of teacher unions to discuss ways of improving safety in school. That work has gone ahead even more urgently following the tragedy in Dunblane. Does the Minister nevertheless think that it would be appropriate to widen that inquiry to involve parents' views, and will the Minister assure those parents that, if effective ways of improving school safety are agreed, resources to fund them will be found without recourse to the current resources used in the classroom?
Mr. Squire: I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's first point, which I believe will receive broad agreement across the Chamber.
We do take school security very seriously. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the working group, which has already contributed to legislation in the form of increased police powers to search for offensive weapons on school premises. I await the group's final report. I believe that all hon. Members are currently receiving correspondence in this regard, following the tragedy to which the hon. Gentleman referred. I have no doubt that that, as always, will feed into our deliberations. Security is very high on our list.
Mr. Dover:
Is it not true that the gap in the area cost adjustment--the difference in spending allowed between those in the south-east and those in the north-west, such as Lancashire--has been halved this year? Will the Minister try to ensure that the level of school funding is reflected in that, rather than the counties holding back the money and stopping that benefit accruing to Lancashire schoolchildren?
Mr. Squire:
I can certainly confirm that, comparing the forthcoming year with the past year, some £90 million has been moved out of areas receiving the area cost adjustment and into the rest of the country. My hon. Friend will know, because he has studied these matters, that my right hon. and hon. Friends in the Department of the Environment have set up an independent inquiry into the operation of the area cost adjustment. I hesitate to forecast the result of that inquiry in advance of the outcome of its deliberations.
11. Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will ensure that a place is available locally for all parents in receipt of a nursery voucher for their four-year-olds. [20133]
Mr. Robin Squire:
I am confident that existing and new providers in the maintained, voluntary and private sectors will bring forward over time the places that parents want in exchange for nursery education vouchers.
Mr. Pike:
The Minister will recognise that Burnley currently has one of the highest existing levels of nursery provision. He used the phrase "over time" in his answer--a phrase that was also used by the Secretary of State earlier this afternoon. What is the Minister going to say
Mr. Squire:
The hon. Gentleman has asked his question with no regard to the background against which we are planning this considerable expansion of places. He knows full well that, depending entirely on where one lives in the country, one may have no nursery place at all or have little or no choice. We already know that, as a result of the introduction of the voucher in phase 1, more places will be available in those four local education authorities--and what we have seen in those four local education authorities, we shall see across the country from April 1997.
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