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Beacon Schools
4. Mr. David Kidney (Stafford): What steps he is taking to develop new technologies in beacon schools. [103678]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Michael Wills): Beacon schools, like all our schools, are benefiting from the £700 million of investment that the Government are making in information and communications technologies in schools up to 2002. Beacon schools are already using those technologies imaginatively, and they have an important part to play in promoting them in other schools.
Mr. Kidney: When I last spoke to the head teachers of the two beacon schools in Stafford--the primary schools of Barnfields and Oakridge--they both spoke with obvious warmth about their positive experience of beacon school status and the enthusiasm not only in their school but in all the other schools with which they have created links for sharing best practice.
Both head teachers, however, said that they thought their school could do better. One was looking forward to the completion of the third phase of investment in the national grid for learning equipment and contact. The second head teacher would welcome access to greater computing expertise, which the school does not have. Is my hon. Friend hearing similar comments from the head teachers of other beacon schools? Can they look forward to receiving a little extra assistance with information and communications technologies, which will enable them to do their job that much better?
Mr. Wills:
I thank my hon. Friend. I am delighted that the beacon school programme has been so warmly welcomed in his constituency. I assure him that there will be further investment in these technologies. Between 2000 and 2002, we are putting something like £450 million into the national grid for learning in England. We are also developing new and imaginative ways of spreading best practice in such schools. On 2 December, we announced an important new partnership with the IBM International Foundation, which will help beacon schools to develop and will further spread best practice.
Mr. Ian Taylor (Esher and Walton):
There is quite a lot of anecdotal evidence from schools and industry that the Government's rhetoric and resources are admirable, but that their implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Does the Minister have a sense of priority about the recent report from the Cabinet Office entitled "E-commerce at its best.UK", which contained specific objectives for educational achievement in technology? When does he expect to deliver those objectives, because they are much more accelerated than the ones that his Department has announced?
Mr. Wills:
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind comments about our programme for the national grid for
Mr. Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield):
Although many of us welcome the initiative of beacon schools and the resources that they receive, will my hon. Friend remember that the average school is crucial? In an average school in our constituencies, too often only a nominal one hour a week is spent on the computer. Students cannot use the computers in their classrooms during the lunch break--they are locked out--and they have minimal access to them after school. That is the truth in many of the schools that we visit. Will my hon. Friend redouble his efforts to make sure that average schools open up so that this country can become the leading information-learning country of Europe at the very least?
Mr. Wills:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding us of the needs of all schools. The Government are committed to ensuring that every single school and every single child in this country can benefit from these technologies. That is why we are making the investment that we are. We are investing not just in technology and hardware, but in training teachers through the new opportunities fund, which is providing £230 million to make sure that every teacher in every classroom knows how best to make use of the technologies. My hon. Friend can be assured that we will continue to do that.
5. Mr. Michael Jack (Fylde):
What steps he has taken to enable local education authorities to improve a secondary school's infrastructure if pupil numbers are substantially increased. [103679]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Jacqui Smith):
My Department provides financial support where a local education authority has shown that there are insufficient school places in an area to cope with the projected increase in pupil numbers. This support covers the additional teaching area that is needed, as well as any necessary expansion to schools' ancillary areas.
Mr. Jack:
I thank the Minister for that reply. However, there seems to be a breakdown between the policy intentions that she has outlined and the reality for the Lytham St. Anne's high technology school in my constituency. She may be aware that it has received a great many extra pupils over the past few years, but the infrastructure of the school has not expanded to meet that demand. For example, there is a restriction on the number of pupils who can take school dinners, because they have a problem in getting them through in the lunch hour. Is there any further guidance that she can offer me on the steps that could and should be taken by Lancashire education authority to deal with that problem? If not, the school will not be able to function as effectively and efficiently as it should to serve the extra pupil numbers.
Jacqui Smith:
Given the concern that the right hon. Gentleman has expressed about school infrastructure, I am sure that he will welcome the doubling of investment in school buildings that will be made under this Government.
With respect to the right hon. Gentleman's constituency, the Government have provided financial support for 374 secondary and post-16 places in the Fylde. That support amounts to £2.6 million. I also understand that two major extensions have been completed to the Lytham St. Anne's high school and a 175-place extension is planned. There has also been work to provide additional toilets and a purpose-built staff room. The Government have made the money available to the local education authority, and it appears to be being spent in the school.
Mr. Christopher Leslie (Shipley):
May I take the opportunity to thank my hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the more than £170 million package of infrastructural improvements that has been put together for the Bradford district school reorganisation? I commend to my hon. Friend, for example, the project at the Salt grammar school in my constituency, where a new 29-classroom block is being planned to provide for extra pupil numbers. I urge her closely to monitor the financial package in the Bradford district so that we can complete the important transition to the new system on time and to budget.
Jacqui Smith:
My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the significant resources that the Government put into general investment in school buildings and surplus place reorganisation, and the capital expenditure that that necessitates. I can assure him that we monitor carefully the spending that goes into surplus place reorganisations to ensure that that process takes place and that it is based on value for money; and to ensure also the objectives that the authority has set down.
Mr. Tim Boswell (Daventry):
Does the hon. Lady agree that school sixth form may require expansion to meet demand? Does not the issue of where the capital funding will come from remain unsolved? At the same time, the safeguards that the Government have developed for funding the continuation of sixth forms, let alone their expansion, depends on the flimsiest of defences: a single year of baseline numbers. There is also the threat of withdrawal of sixth forms by the Learning and Skills Council for alleged inadequacy. Does not this amount--in the view of schools and local education authorities--to a set of proposals for 16 to 19-year-olds that aims a pistol at the heart of sixth forms?
Jacqui Smith:
The hon. Gentleman is talking nonsense, given the clear objectives that have been laid down by the Government in relation to post-16 education: to bring at last some coherence to the system that funds education and training, to promote high standards for all our children post-16 and to protect school sixth forms that are doing a good job.
To return to the question, we want the doubling of capital investment that the Government have undertaken to ensure that, for all children in school, both pre-16 and post-16, we no longer have what we inherited from the
previous Government: crumbling schools, leaking roofs and a failure to promote the standards that this Government are promoting.
6. Mr. Jim Cunningham (Coventry, South):
If he will make a statement on progress made by child care partnerships in meeting targets set for them under the national child care strategy. [103680]
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. David Blunkett):
The early years partnerships and child care partnerships at local level were given a target in the current financial year of creating 82,000 places. By the mid-year point at the end of September, they had tripled that half-year target by creating 76,000 of the 82,000 places. That is more than the number of child care places that were created over the last four years of the Conservative Government.
Mr. Cunningham:
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the child care strategy is another example of the Government delivering on their election promises, and that it will go a long way towards helping families?
Mr. Blunkett:
That strategy will have the role of providing developmental care for young children, including an additional 48,000 free places for three-year-olds in nursery school that would not have been available but for the Labour Government. It will also free families to make choices about returning to work and about their arrangements to support family learning.
Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex):
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Pre-School Learning Alliance--I am sure that he, like me, has great respect for that organisation--reports this year that 1,500 playgroups have closed and 1,700 more are likely to close as a direct result of Government policy? Does the right hon. Gentleman believe that that is a helpful contribution to policy?
Mr. Blunkett:
I am sure the hon. Gentleman knows that, over the past two years, we have provided £500,000 to help to protect playgroups and other providers when the market changes locally and parents consequently make different choices. Eighty per cent. of the funding that we are making available will go into the private and voluntary sector to provide new places when parents want them. Parents also have the choice of a nursery place rather than a pre-school place.
We want people to work together so that seamless care and nursery education can be provided throughout the day and the week. We are pleased that the Pre-School Learning Alliance has agreed to meet that challenge and work to ensure that we can provide comprehensive care.
Mrs. Maria Fyfe (Glasgow, Maryhill):
At a recent meeting in Scotland of single-parent organisations, there was unanimous welcome for the money that the Government have provided for pre-school care and care out of school hours. However, the organisations asked what steps had been taken to help parents who need
Mr. Blunkett:
There are some interesting experiments in care during working hours to offer family-friendly, flexible working provision, including in the national health service. I will write to my hon. Friend with some examples that can be passed on to the trust and health board in her area, so that parents can use not only formal provision, but excellent child-minding provision, which plays a key part in creating flexibility and ensuring that children receive decent, high-quality care during unsocial working hours.
Mrs. Theresa May (Maidenhead):
Whatever the Secretary of State claims in his answers about the number of child care places that are made available, the Department's figures show that the number of places in playgroups and with child minders fell last year. In March last year, the Government said that they would spend £8 billion on child care. In his recent speech on social exclusion and the politics of opportunity, the Secretary of State confirmed that £470 million would be invested in child care in England during this Parliament. Is the difference between the two figures the first sign of the pain that education will suffer as the Government try to fulfil the Prime Minister's pledge on NHS spending--or was the figure of £8 billion simply an aspiration?
Mr. Blunkett:
The difference is accounted for by the fact that the £470 million constitutes the direct investment in ensuring that the infrastructure is in place. The total sum for the period to which the hon. Lady refers includes: the working families tax credit disregard, which will invest directly in the parent's choice of provision; investment in nursery education; and the sure start programme, which will play a key part in meeting the needs of children and families and enhancing their capacity to develop informal as well as formal care in the community.
It is not the job of Government alone to provide child care and early-years places. That provision should be made through a partnership between families and the broader community to ensure that there is a range and diversity of care, and that we all fulfil that responsibility.
7. Mr. Syd Rapson (Portsmouth, North):
In what ways his Department is helping parents to find out about the child care places in their area. [103681]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Margaret Hodge):
All partnerships are developing information services based on minimum service standards. ChildcareLink, a freephone national child care information line, and child care website was launched in December. A separate project to provide local information points in outlets such as supermarkets and doctors' surgeries was piloted in the autumn.
Mr. Rapson:
Does the Minister agree that it is essential that mothers and fathers, especially in Portsmouth, North are able to gain not just access to child care, but information on education and employment--in other
Ms Hodge:
I agree entirely that joined-up information is what parents and families require. The pilots that we have run in supermarkets provided information not just about child care places, but about jobs available locally, training opportunities, benefits and community health services. I also agree that parents will take advantage of the new child care places only if they are assured that those are of a high quality.
Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire):
It is not going to be easy for parents to find out about child care places if playgroups are closing. Can we have a straight answer to the question posed by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames)? [Hon. Members: "Where is he?"] Why have 1,500 playgroups closed, and why does the Pre-School Learning Alliance suggest that 1,700 will close this year? In a rural area such as mine, playgroups are vital.
Ms Hodge:
I am sorry that the hon. Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames) has left the Chamber. He seems to have gone for an early, and probably a long, lunch.
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