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New Deal

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of participants in the New Deal programme have left it to become self-employed. [89430]

Mr. Andrew Smith: People who move off New Deal to start self-employment are recorded as having found work, and separate statistics are not collected. However, 2,635 young people have started on the Basic Awareness Session of the Self-Employment Route of the New Deal Employment Option; and 740 have started on the Test Trading stage. It is too early to provide meaningful figures of those who have subsequently moved from this stage into independent self-employment, but these will be available from later this year.

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"Learning to Succeed"

Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the implications of his paper, "Learning to Succeed", Cm 4392, for community organisations that currently use the money they generate from training contracts via TECs to cross-subsidise community-based activities; and what steps he will take to ensure the use of community activities to increase access to education and training for Asian women and Asian Elders. [90357]

Mr. Mudie: "Learning to Succeed" makes clear that adult and community learning is a vital part of the Government's aim to create access to high quality, relevant learning opportunities for everyone. The new Learning and Skills Council will provide an opportunity to integrate adult and community learning provision more effectively with other learning opportunities. To this end, the Government propose to give the Council a national duty to arrange adequate and sufficient adult and community learning provision and to give to local authorities the changed duty to contribute to arrangements for provision at local level. The Council will develop a new funding system that caters for the needs of all post-16 learners, including those in adult and community education. Local Learning Councils will arrange provision in the light of plans drawn up by local Learning Partnerships. These new coherent arrangements should make it easier for individuals from all groups in the community to access a wide range of learning opportunities. We shall consult further on the detailed arrangements.

Ethnic Community Teachers

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action his Department has taken to encourage people from ethnic communities to enter the teaching profession; and if he will make a statement. [90440]

Ms Estelle Morris: The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) published a new Corporate Plan for 1999-2002 on 6 July. This makes promoting the recruitment of teachers the Agency's top priority. The Plan includes an aim to increase the recruitment of members of ethnic minorities to initial teacher training (ITT) from the present 6 per cent. to 9 per cent.

The Agency has also persuaded the vast majority of providers to introduce an additional voluntary target for recruitment from the ethnic minorities. The average voluntary target for all primary and secondary ITT providers is 7 per cent. The TTA also allocates additional places to ITT providers if they achieve exceptional recruitment of ethnic minority trainees.

Pre-school Education

Miss Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures the Government are taking to encourage the expansion of pre-school education. [90368]

Ms Hodge: We already fund three terms of free nursery education places for all four year olds whose parents want it. Over the next three years, we are making available £390 million to fund free early education places for three year olds. By April 2002, the participation rate of

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three year olds will be very nearly doubled to 66 per cent. In 1999-2000, about £40 million of this additional funding will be allocated to the 57 Local Education Authorities with the highest levels of social need, creating around 48,000 places. From April 2000, Funding will be distributed across all Local Education Authorities.

Age Diversity

Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much money has been spent on (a) producing and (b) promoting the Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment. [90705]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The initial consultation on the draft Code cost around £22,000. This includes the cost of designing, printing and distributing 21,000 copies of the consultation document and carrying out the consultation exercise.

Costs for the final version of the Code amount to £100,000. This includes the costs for printing and distribution of 35,000 initial packs of the Code and guidance, the production of publicity fliers and posters for display in Jobcentres, libraries and Citizens Advice Bureaux: and initial advertising in human resource journals. Beyond this, an additional £70,000 has already been committed to support initiatives by partners to take the Code forward with employers.

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We are currently assessing the initial impact of the launch of the Code last month and will be developing a forward strategy to raise awareness and support employers who want to implement the principles of the Code.

I hope to make an announcement about the next phase of the Code's development in the autumn.

School Capital Investment (Stoke-on-Trent)

Mr. Stevenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what capital investment in schools in Stoke-on-Trent has taken place in (a) 1996-97, (b) 1997-98, (c)1998-99 and (d) 1999-2000 to date; and what the planned levels are for the next two years. [90785]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information is shown in the following tables. Table A shows the capital investment the Government have made in schools in Stoke-on-Trent in the four years up to 1999-2000. Table B shows the level of investment the Government intend to make for the following two financial years, provided resources allow; this represents only commitments arising from existing projects; we cannot indicate what investment we will make to Stoke in respect of new projects. In 1996-97, Stoke was still part of Staffordshire; it is not possible to determine how much of the grant and credit approval allocated to Staffordshire LEA actually benefited schools in Stoke.

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Table A: Expenditure in each year and the amount of government support£000

	1997-97 (4)	1997-98 (4)	1998-99	1999-2000
LEA's Education Capital	n/a	(5)1,000	(6)1,313	n/a
Programme, supported by the following government initiatives:
Annual Capital Guidelines(7)	n/a	196	335	552
Supplementary Credit Approvals(8)	n/a	89	95	607
New Deal for Schools(9)	n/a	900	1,159	2,681
Class Sizes	n/a	n/a	141	848
Removal of Outside Toilets	n/a	n/a	156	0
Energy Management	n/a	n/a	80	0
Security in Schools(10)	n/a	67	84	87
National Grid for Learning(10)	n/a	n/a	250	500
Grant to Voluntary Aided Schools (inc. Voluntary Aided Challenge Fund)(11)	16	379	800	613
Grant to Grant-maintained Schools	265	241	49	30

(4) 1996-97 and 1997-98: Annual Capital Guidelines, Supplementary Credit Approval, and VA grant: For 1996-97, Stoke was part of Staffordshire; it is not possible to disaggregate what credit approvals and grants would have benefited Stoke schools. New Deal for Schools, Reduction in Class Sizes, National Grid for Learning, and Security in Schools: None of these initiatives were running in 1996-97; nor, in 1997-98, were the initiatives for Class Sizes and the National Grid for Learning operational.

(5) LEA's Education Capital Programme: Please note, the total education programme is less than the sum total of the amounts allocated under government initiatives. This is because LEAs are not obliged to use credit approvals for the purposes for which they were allocated (see notes 3 and 4); also some of the grants are used for revenue purposes (see note 7).

(6) Education Capital Programme 1998-99: Please note, this figure is provisional only, based on estimates by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

(7) Annual Capital Guidelines: This is used in the calculation of the LEA's Basic Credit Approval (BCA), where the LEA's capital receipts are taken into account. Just because a project has been taken account of in calculating the ACG, it does not mean that the LEA has to use its BCA for that purpose.

(8) Supplementary Credit Approval (SCA): Unlike BCA, receipts are not taken into account when calculating the level of SCA. However, unless the SCA specifically says otherwise, the LEA is not obliged to use the SCA for the purpose for which it was allocated.

(9) New Deal for Schools: Some of the grant figures for VA schools would have changed slightly in order to reflect the actual costs of the project.

(10) National Grid for Learning and Security in Schools: While the majority of the expenditure supported by the grant will be capital in nature, some will be revenue, and it is not possible to isolate the two elements.

(11) VA Grant: Capital grant is paid in respect of Governors' liability at a rate of 85 per cent. Actual amount of grant paid may change depending on the costs of project on tender.

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Table B: Provisional Indicators: Amounts already committed as part of future ACGs and Grant provided resources allow£000

To be part of:	2000-01	2001-02
Annual Capital Guideline	1,023	83
VA Grant	0	0
NDS Grant	712	0
Class sizes	238	0

Note:

In addition to all this, PFI Credits of up to £75 million have been allocated to support Stoke on Trent's PFI scheme to repair and maintain all maintained schools within the LEA. Stoke anticipate signing a contract by the end of this calendar year.

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