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Higher Education
Dr. Vis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what studies his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the unit costs of comparable education programmes provided by (i) training and enterprise councils and (ii) colleges. [13113]
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Dr. Howells:
The Department published "The Public Funding Cost of Education and Training for 16-19 year olds in England in 1995-96" in March this year. This covers the cost of successfully achieving 3 A levels and advanced GNVQs in colleges and NVQ3s in work-based training. The analysis is carried out by the Department in consultation with external partners.
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Ms Jennifer Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what arrangements have been made to involve the voluntary sector in the Welfare to Work programme in the west midlands. [14265]
Mr. Alan Howarth:
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its Chief Executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Leigh Lewis to Ms Jennifer Jones, dated 11 November 1997:
Mr. Ernie Ross:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the outcome of the EU Social Affairs Council on 6 November. [15841]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
I represented the UK at the Social Affairs Council on 6 November.
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This supplementary meeting was convened solely for the purpose of making preparations for the Extraordinary European Council on Employment taking place in Luxembourg on 20-21 November.
The meeting discussed the Commission's draft communication concerning the preparation of draft Guidelines on Employment which were called for by the Amsterdam European Council in June. I expressed the UK's broad satisfaction with the overall structure and key themes of the Guidelines and welcomed growing recognition that EU wide numerical targets on employment and unemployment were inappropriate. There was agreement among Member States and the Presidency on the need for the Guidelines primarily to express consensus on the areas in which Member States should take action to tackle unemployment and promote employability and that Member States should draw up Action Plans as the basis for national implementation of the Guidelines. The UK has a number of detailed comments which it will be discussing with the Presidency and other Member States. There will be further discussion at a joint meeting of the Social Affairs Council and the Economic and Finance Council of Ministers on 17-18 November.
Mr. Steen:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is his current estimate of the number of children excluded from (a) primary and (b) secondary schools. [15059]
Ms Estelle Morris:
In the 1995-96 school year, 1,608 pupils were permanently excluded from primary schools and 10,344 were permanently excluded from secondary schools.
Figures for the 1996-97 school year will be collected as part of the annual Schools Census in January 1998.
Mr. Colvin:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is his estimate of the number of trainees that are likely to qualify for modern apprenticeship this year; and what is his estimate of the trend for the next three years. [13900]
Dr. Howells:
The number of people joining Modern Apprenticeships in 1997-98 is planned to be about 62,500.
All Government-funded programmes are currently being reviewed as part of the Departmental Spending Review. Plans for 1998-99 and later years will be announced in due course.
Ms Jennifer Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the monitoring arrangements and criteria to be used by the Government Office of the west midlands when evaluating the performance of the private Careers Advice Service (PROSPECTS) operating in Wolverhampton. [14263]
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Dr. Howells:
All Careers Service companies must submit a plan to their local Government Office which contracts with careers service companies on a basis which is designed to ensure that necessary outcomes are achieved and the requirements of the DfEE are met. These requirements are set out in the document "The Requirements and Guidance for Careers Service Providers". This requires Careers Services to evaluate systematically their delivery of all contracted outcomes, operate an effective system for collecting customer feedback, and undertake a thorough annual review of their activities.
The Government Office monitors Careers Service companies' performance against the key indicators set down in this document against the companies' business plans and against the terms of the contract. Regular monitoring of the financial position of Careers Service companies is also routinely undertaken.
Mr. Gardiner:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the balances held by each grant-maintained school in the London Borough of Brent. [15464]
Mr. Byers:
The monitoring of financial information provided by individual grant-maintained schools, including information on balances, is a matter for the Funding Agency for Schools. I have therefore written to Sir Anthony Tippet, Chairman of the Funding Agency, to ask him to provide the figures requested.
Mr. Jim Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action he is taking to implement a child care strategy; and what is the timetable for that strategy. [14570]
Mr. Alan Howarth:
We have already taken action to improve child care by extending the child care disregard and offering young people the opportunity to obtain training and work experience in child care as part of the New Deal programme. We are currently developing a National Child care Strategy which will help parents, especially women, to balance family and working life and I will make an announcement in the first part of next year.
Mr. Sedgemore:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if he plans to approve the proposals contained in the report of the Improvement Team which he sent into Hackney Council; [15378]
(3) what assessment he has made of the criticisms made by the chief executive of Hackney Council of the proposals contained in the report of the Improvement Team which he sent into Hackney; and what plans he has for further work by the Improvement Team. [15380]
Mr. Byers:
The Improvement Team appointed to advise Hackney Local Education Authority have delivered a report on the "Management and Leadership of the
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Hackney LEA" to the Chief Executive of the Borough. I am pleased that Hackney Council's Education and Leisure Services Committee have agreed to the appointment of a Director of Education on the salary recommended by the Improvement Team to provide leadership of the education service. The Improvement Team is continuing with its work and will submit an interim report to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in January 1998.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the arrangements that have been made to involve the voluntary sector in the Welfare to Work programme in the West Midlands. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
A great deal of activity has been undertaken, both at a regional level and locally, to ensure that voluntary sector organisations in the West Midlands are fully involved with the development of New Deal and the plans to implement it. In particular, over 100 representatives from 73 voluntary organisations attended a series of regional consultation events over the summer. They represented a range of voluntary sectors including women's groups; those with concern for issues of crime, race, homelessness, age; more general volunteer bureaux; and those representing local churches.
In more recent months the Employment Service Regional Director, Scott McIntyre, has personally met a number of voluntary organisations including the Princes Trust, Birmingham Voluntary Sector Council, Groundwork Trust, Business in the Community, Rathbone Community Industry, West Midlands Low Pay Unit, Foyer for Birmingham, the Irish Community Forum, British Trust for conservation Volunteers and is due to meet shortly the Young Offender Consortium.
Employment Service District Managers in the region have also been working with voluntary sector networks, through District events and meetings. For instance, in the Black Country Pathfinder area 89 organisations attended two District Voluntary Sector conferences from the full range of voluntary organisations in the area.
In the same Pathfinder area Dudley Council for Voluntary Services, Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations, Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council and Walsall Voluntary Sector Council are all involved in a Joint Venture Partnership to take forward the Voluntary sector option in the Pathfinder.
A similar level of activity can be found throughout the rest of the region and is set to continue as New Deal is developed further over the next few months. Assessment panels which are taking place over the next few weeks will consider in detail the plans for each New Deal partnership in the region. Three members of these panels, Allison Millward (Groundwork Trust and a member of the National Task Force), Ian Morrison (Birmingham Voluntary Services Council) and Sue Nicholls (Hereford and Worcester Community Council) will be from the voluntary sector.
I hope this is helpful.
(2) if he plans to reject any of the proposals contained in the report of the Improvement Team which he sent into Hackney Council; [15379]
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