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Teachers (Recruitment and Retention)
22. Mr. Blizzard:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to make teaching a more attractive career. [68894]
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Mr. Khabra:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking (a) to attract graduates into and (b) to raise the status of the teaching profession; and if he will make a statement. [68890]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
In October 1998 we announced a package of measures to address particular recruitment difficulties, including financial incentives and funding for local recruitment advisers. Over time the proposals in the Teachers' Green Paper, 'teachers--meeting the challenge of change' will raise the status of the teaching profession, make it a more attractive profession and attract a greater share of the able and talented into teaching.
23. Mr. Rapson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress he has made on developing after-school child care places. [68895]
Ms Hodge:
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Shona McIsaac) today, Official Report, column 452.
26. Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the effect of the 1999-2000 revenue support grant on the provision of educational services in Torbay. [68898]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Education services in Torbay should benefit from the underlying increase of £3.4 million or 7.3 per cent. in Torbay's education standard spending assessment for 1999-2000. These figures illustrate the effect of allowing for local authority changes of function and taking account of new arrangements for funding music and student support.
27. Mr. Allan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the effect of the 1999-2000 revenue support grant on the provision of educational services in Sheffield. [68899]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Education services in Sheffield should benefit from the underlying increase of £11.1 million or 6 per cent. in Sheffield's education standard spending assessment for 1999-2000. These figures illustrate the effect of allowing for local authority changes of function and taking into account of new arrangements for funding music and student support.
28. Mr. Chaytor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to extend and improve the services of Learning Direct. [68900]
Mr. Mudie:
The Department intends to increase Learning Direct's capacity so it can handle 1.5 million calls a year by 2000-01. To do this we are in the process of extending our current call centre and have invited expressions of interest from organisations to operate additional call centres. From our ongoing evaluation, we know over 91 per cent, of all callers to the helpline think the overall quality of the service is good. However, the service is under constant review. We are currently improving the databases used by Learning Direct and are
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developing better management information systems. We further plan to make the Learning Direct data available on the Internet.
29. Ms Stuart:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he expects to receive the findings of the research commissioned by his Department on high pupil mobility. [68901]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
The research into pupil mobility, currently being undertaken by University College, London, is partly funded by this Department and partly funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The complete project is due to conclude in June 2000, but under the terms of the Department's contract, a report containing an overview of interim findings should be available by the end of June 1999.
30. Mr. Watts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to increase the number of employment zones. [68902]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
On 2 February my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I announced our future plans for Employment Zones. From April 2000, Employment Zones will target available resources more flexibly and effectively on unemployed people over 25 in at least 12 areas of the country which suffer from persistently high long-term unemployment.
Initially, Employment Zones will operate in Southwark, Nottingham City, Newham, Haringey, Doncaster, Plymouth, Tower Hamlets, Brent, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sefton, Brighton and Hove, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland.
My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales announced separately that zones would also operate in Glasgow and in Anglesey; Gwynedd; Conwy and Denbighshire and Blaenau Gwent; Merthyr and Caerphilly.
31. Mr. Burden:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations he has received regarding the level of capital investment in Birmingham schools. [68903]
Ms Estelle Morris:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State received a letter of 8 January from the Leader of Birmingham City Council asking how the Council's Annual Capital Guideline had been calculated, to which he has responded.
32. Mr. Edward Davey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the effect of the 1999-2000 revenue support grant on the provision of educational services in the Royal Borough of Kingston. [68904]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Education services in Kingston should benefit from the underlying increase of £2.7 million or 5.2 per cent. in Kingston's education standard spending assessment for 1999-2000. These
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figures illustrate the effect of allowing for local authority changes of function and taking account of new arrangements for funding music and student support.
33. Jacqui Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress is being made to secure employer involvement in the new deal for the young unemployed. [68905]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
I am delighted that almost 40,000 employers have signalled their support for New Deal by signing Employer Agreements. These agreements are leading to real job opportunities for unemployed young people, over 57,000 of whom have found work through New Deal.
34. Mr. Lock:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment by what means education authorities which do not operate a school meals service determine for the purposes of deprivation statistics the number of children in their area who would be entitled to free school meals; and if he will make a statement. [68907]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
All Local Education Authorities are required to provide a school meal service to those pupils entitled to free school meals. Information on the number of pupils known to be eligible and the number of pupils taking free school meals is derived from returns made by schools to the Department in January each year on the Annual Schools' Census (Form 7).
The number of pupils eligible and taking free school meals is published by Local Education Authority area in the "Statistics of Education, Schools in England, January 1998", published in November 1998.
35. Mr. Brake:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the effect of the 1999-2000 revenue support grant on the provision of educational services in the London borough of Sutton. [68908]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Education services in Sutton should benefit from the underlying increase of £4.6 million or 6.2 per cent. in Sutton's education standard spending assessment for 1999-2000. These figures illustrate the effect of allowing for local authority changes of function and taking account of new arrangements for funding music and student support.
36. Mrs. Irene Adams:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on his proposals to enable single women with children to take up employment opportunities. [68909]
Ms Hodge:
For the first time lone parents are being given the same work opportunities as everyone else. The New Deal for Lone Parents, which became available nationwide on 26 October 1998, offers all lone parents on Income Support a personal adviser service to help them overcome the barriers to employment.
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The support available includes help and advice with looking for a job, accessing training opportunities, finding child care and information about benefits.
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