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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Secondary School Admissions
Mrs. Gordon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many representations he has received from parents in Havering concerning secondary school admission for September; [81610]
- (2) what powers he has under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to require admission authorities to take part in consultation over secondary school admission arrangements with the local education authority; [81611]
(3) what powers he has under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to ensure that, in cases where a local education authority operates catchment areas for secondary school admission, all primary schools within the local education authority fall within a catchment area. [81612]
Ms Estelle Morris:
To date, we have received 25 letters from parents in Havering not offered their preferred secondary school place for September 1999. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State could intervene only in an admissions issue where he is satisfied that a local education authority or governing body has acted unlawfully or "unreasonably", that is, in a way which no sensible authority or governing body would have acted. Our investigation of these complaints found no grounds for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's intervention.
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Section 89 of the 1998 Act and its accompanying regulations place a new requirement on all admission authorities in an area to determine their admission arrangements in consultation with each other, taking account of local circumstances. Where an admission authority disagrees with another's proposed admission arrangements, it can object to the Adjudicator. We believe that school admissions arrangements are best determined at local level. Havering local education authority is responsible for consulting on and determining the arrangements for all county schools. The 1998 Act also requires my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to issue a code of practice on admissions. The School Admission Code of Practice, which came into force on 1 April 1999, offers guidance on all aspects of the school admissions process, including consultation.
Under the 1998 Act and the Code, it is for admission authorities to decide on their admission arrangements--including whether to operate catchment areas and what those areas should be--subject to consultation, and to the results of any complaint to the Adjudicator.
Dr. Cable:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many year 11, 10 and 9 pupils were expelled from schools in London and the South East over the last three years and for the first quarter of 1999. [81169]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The information is not available in the form requested. However, the number of permanent exclusions for pupils aged 13, 14 and 15 is shown in the following table.
| 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 13 | |
| London | 329 | 564 | 435 | 395 | 607 | 473 | 366 | 590 | 435 |
| South East | 332 | 466 | 297 | 397 | 531 | 321 | 391 | 480 | 412 |
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Mr. Menzies Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many staff who have worked as professional statisticians in his Department and its predecessors have left on early retirement in each of the past 10 years. [81186]
Mr. Mudie:
The number of "professional statisticians" who have left on early retirement in the last 10 years is five, including one medical retirement.
| Year | Number |
|---|---|
| 1994 | 2 |
| 1996 | 2 |
| 1997 | 1 |
"Professional statisticians" have been defined as those staff who were recruited as fast streamers to the Statistician Group via CSSB.
Mr. Menzies Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many staff by grade are employed as professional statisticians in his Department; how many of these staff have been accepted
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as fast stream by the Civil Service Selection Board; and how many have been granted chartered statistician status by the Royal Statistical Society. [81206]
Mr. Mudie:
Statistical work is undertaken by a range of specialists including Research Officers, Social Survey Officers and Economists. Within this Department, there are 6 Senior Civil Servants, 25 Grade 7s and 16 Assistant Statisticians employed as "professional" statisticians. In addition, our Department employs 6 Statistical Officers.
"Professional statistician" has been defined as those staff who were recruited as fast streamers to the Statistician Group via CSSB. By this definition it follows that all of those staff have been accepted as fast streamers.
Of those listed, 1 member of the SCS and 4 Grade 7s have been granted chartered statistician status by the RSS.
Mr. Keetch:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will pay the postal costs of voluntary bodies and registered charities requested to respond to Government consultation documents; and if he will make a statement. [80923]
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Mr. Mudie:
The Department follows the Cabinet Office best practice guidance on consultations. We seek to make it as easy as possible for people to respond and will always consider providing a freepost address for responses to large-scale consultations involving the general public and the voluntary sector. We also make increasing use of dedicated email addresses which offer a very low cost alternative to postal responses.
Dr. Vis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the value was of the (a) funds administered by the TECs and (b) overheads of the TECs in the last year for which figures are available. [81882]
Mr. Mudie:
Based on the 1997-98 consolidated annual statutory audited accounts of 73 English TECs, the value of the government funds administered by the TECs was £1,455 million and overheads of the TECs were £178 million.
Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what (i) general training is provided for personal advisers on New Deals and (ii) specific training is provided for personal advisers assisting (a) young people, (b) lone parents, (c) people with disabilities and (d) older people. [77541]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
Responsibility for the subject of this 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 Dr. Lynne Jones, dated 23 April 1999:
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As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has asked me to reply direct to your question regarding; (i) the general training provided for personal advisers on New Deal and (ii) specific training provided for personal advisers assisting (a) young people, (b) lone parents, (c) people with disabilities and (d) older people. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
All Employment Service staff, including Personal Advisers, have access to a comprehensive range of training covering all the knowledge and skills they need to do their job. The amount of training a Personal Adviser will require is dependent on their role and responsibilities, their previous experience and their existing level of knowledge and skills.
As an indication only, if a person was recruited to undertake basic advisory duties and had no previous knowledge of Employment Service business, they would require a minimum of 23 days training to be considered as having a basic level of competence. However, this does not include consolidation, assimilation and experience, all of which are crucial elements of the development of advisory knowledge and skills. This training includes job-broking, communication, interviewing and caseload management skills, knowledge of Employment Legislation, Jobseeker's Allowance and other benefits, including In-Work Benefits, Employment and Training Opportunities and the use of our IT systems.
In addition to the general training, if Advisers were to undertake specialist Advisory duties, for example, New Deal Adviser for People with Disabilities, they would require anything between 2 days and 6 weeks further training.
I will deal with the training provided for the specific types of New Deal Personal Advisers in the order that you have raised them.
a] Young People: 18-24 years
The general training described above gives the Personal Advisers the skills and knowledge to deal with this client group.
b] Lone Parents
In addition to the basic level of training detailed above, which Advisers have before attending a New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser training programme, Advisers are provided with an additional 27 days of training. This specific programme covers all the unique knowledge and skills required to understand and advise this particular client group. This includes:
an overview of the issues and problems of lone parents (provided by external organisations NCOPF, Gingerbread & The Daycare Trust;)
new business processes and cultural requirements;
detailed benefits and allowances training;
advanced interviewing, presentational, marketing &
representational skills.
c] People with Disabilities
As before, the amount of training required will be dependent on an Adviser's previous experience and their current level of competence. If they have not previously been a Disability Employment Adviser they will need 5 weeks of training as described below--Block A and Block B. People who have already had the 3 week training for DEAs--Block A, would only need the 2 week New Deal specific event--Block B.
Block A training includes:
non-directive employment related counselling skills;
issues and problems faced by people with new or long standing disabilities--delivered by external organisations;
disability awareness, eg, mental health, learning disabilities, hearing and visual impairment, epilepsy--delivered by specialist speakers such as RNIB and RNID.
Block B New Deal specific training includes:
working in partnership and cultural requirements;
employability measures and issues for gaining, retaining and sustaining employment;
holistic approaches and medical conditions--provided by an external speaker;
presentation and representational skills.
d] Older People--25+
New Deal Personal Advisers dealing with the 25+ age group would have an additional 2 day event including eligibility, client self-marketing, identifying and submitting to suitable vacancies/other provision and follow through.
50+
This is a new initiative. Work is currently being undertaken to establish the training needs of the Personal Advisers dealing with this group.
You may also be interested to know that all training given to New Deal Personal Advisers has been designed to help them achieve an S/NVQ in Guidance.
I hope this response covers all the information you wanted.
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