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Nursery Voucher Scheme
Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will give the approximate expenditure expected to be incurred prior to the end of July 1996 in relation to the scheme for under-five pre-school settings by (a) her Department, (b) Capita Managed Services, (c) each of the education authorities now operating phase 1 of the scheme, (d) inspection activities, (e) surveys or investigations and (f) information. [38089]
Mr. Robin Squire: To date, the following sums have been paid to the local education authorities operating phase 1 of the scheme:
Norfolk LEA: £2,266,668
Wandsworth: £863,600
Westminster: £358,318
Kensington and Chelsea: £255,750.
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(Mr. Hall) on 26 June, Official Report, column 158, to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Deva) on 7 March, Official Report, column 348, to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend for Chingford (Mr. Duncan Smith) on 19 April, Official Report, column 621 and to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) on 16 July, Official Report, column 466.
Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will place in the Library the tender documents received by the Office for Standards in Education for the main contract for inspection of (a) nursery settings in the area of the four education authorities receiving nursery vouchers and (b) other settings elsewhere which she expects to participate in the scheme after April 1997. [38088]
Mr. Squire: I understand the tenders received by Ofsted for the administration of the contracting for the inspections of private and voluntary sector providers in the nursery education voucher scheme are still under evaluation. It is inappropriate to release information regarding commercially sensitive pricing.
Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will place in the Library a list of the surveys, investigations or evaluations which have been commissioned in respect of the scheme for nursery vouchers, and for each give (a) the cope and purpose of each investigation, (b) the terms of reference, (c) the questions asked, (d) the body or organisations (i) commissioning and (ii) undertaking the study, (e) the cost, (f) the body providing the finance and (g) the date or planned date of publication. [38087]
Mr. Squire: I gave details of research projects relating to phase 1 of the nursery education voucher scheme in my reply to a question from the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) on 16 July, Official Report, column 466. The two surveys were commissioned by the Central Office of Information on behalf of the Department, and undertaken by the British Market Research Bureau International. I am arranging for copies of the questionnaires employed to be placed in the Library. The analyses of data on voucher issue and redemption are being conducted internally.
Tenders for a longitudinal research study of effective pre-school education are currently being considered. Details will be announced if and when a contract results.
In addition, the nursery education voucher scheme comes within the ambit of the Department's internal audit division and will be reviewed in the usual way.
Mr. Forman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on the future of Langham secondary school, Haringey. [38773]
Mr. Robin Squire:
The following letter was today sent by an official of the Department to the chairman of the governing body of Langham school, Haringey:
18 Jul 1996 : Column: 655
I am directed by the Secretary of State to thank you for your letter received on 14 June 1996 giving the governing body's response to Mr. Stark's letter of 9 May 1996, which consulted you on a proposal to provide for Langham School to be conducted by an Education Association.
The Secretary of State has considered carefully all the responses she has received, including the representations made by the school's governors and the chief education officer of Haringey when they met with the Minister for Schools, Mr. Squire on 2 July.
The Secretary of State notes that the Governors have a clear sense of purpose and show dedication to the school. She notes that they have taken a firm grip on finance and management, and that in June they appointed a substantive head teacher and deputy head teacher. She also notes that in the past few months there have been encouraging signs of improvement at the school, including a sharp fall in permanent exclusions, an improvement in the key stage 3 SAT results, and an increase in the proportion of pupils entered for GCSEs. She also notes the Governors' assurances that measures are in hand to improve the quality of teaching, including where necessary competence proceedings. She has also noted the assurances from Haringey LEA that it will provide continued support to underpin improvements at the school.
Therefore the Secretary of State has decided not to transfer Langham School to the conduct of an Education Association at the present time. However, the Secretary of State's power to transfer Langham School to the conduct of an Education Association remains in force until such time as the school receives an HMI report stating that it no longer requires special measures. The Secretary of State will continue to watch carefully developments of the school and will pay particular attention on to the report of the next HMI monitoring visit, which we understand is likely to be in November.
The Secretary of State remains concerned by one aspect of the responses from the Governors and LEA. In the earlier stages of consultation the chief education officer of Haringey contested the validity of the HMI monitoring report of March 1996. Subsequently, however, the chief education officer has said that standards of teaching had in fact fallen sharply between November 1995 and March 1996, but has argued that remedial measures had begun to remedy the situation by the time of the March 1996 HMI visit. The Secretary of State is disappointed that the governors and LEA did not make this complete view of the position clear to her much earlier, especially since they were given the opportunity to do so. In particular, the Secretary of State considers that the action of Haringey LEA in impugning the validity of the HMI monitoring report was unjustifiable and reprehensible.
The Secretary of State believes that Langham School and others in its position can recover only if their governors and local education authorities are open in their reports on the situation. She is concerned that this has not happened at Langham, and proposes that you and the chief education officer of Haringey meet the Minister for Schools, Mr. Robin Squire, at this Department to discuss this further. A meeting has been arranged for 3.00pm this afternoon, Thursday 18 July.
I am also writing in similar terms to the Director of Education Services at Haringey Council, the Head Teacher of Langham School and the Chief Executive of the Funding Agency for Schools.
N J Sanders
Director, School Funding and Effectiveness and Teachers
Self-employment
Mr. Mark Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on her Department's plans to encourage self-employment in rural areas. [38774]
Mr. Paice: Since the issue of the White Paper "Rural England--A Nation Committed to a Living Countryside" in October 1995, we have worked closely with the Rural Development Commission, RDC, and the Consortium of Rural Training and Enterprise Councils, CORT, to evaluate possible new arrangements to encourage business start-ups in rural areas.
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