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Standard Spending Assessment
Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the cost of raising the level of education SSA per child to at least (a) the level of that of the median authority and (b) the level of the median authority minus five per cent. [116754]
Ms Estelle Morris:
We estimate that it would cost £511 million to raise the per pupil funding of all Local Education Authorities to the level of that of the median authority and £96 million to raise it to the level less 5 per cent. of that of the median authority.
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Mr. St. Aubyn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what assessment he has made of the equity of the standard spending assessment for education as a method of allocation; [117128]
Ms Estelle Morris:
My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations on the area cost adjustment and additional education needs elements of the standard spending assessment. We have already acknowledged that there are valid objections to the current SSA formula. The Government, in partnership with local government, have set up a review to see whether there is a better way of determining the distribution of funds which is simpler, more stable, more robust and fairer than the present arrangements.
Mrs. Anne Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the cost of raising the standard spending assessment per pupil for each local education authority in England to at least that of Hertfordshire for 2000-01. [117225]
Ms Estelle Morris:
We estimate that it would cost £760 million to raise the standard spending assessment per pupil for each local education authority in England to the level of that of Hertfordshire for 2000-01.
Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to improve Access to Work for disabled people. [116988]
Ms Hodge:
The Access to Work programme has been successful in helping an increasing number of disabled people to remain or move into employment year on year. Over the next financial year we expect to help more than 23,000 people through Access to Work at a cost of nearly £26 million. This represents an increase of over 3,000 compared with the current year.
The Employment Service is also planning to improve the quality of service offered through Access to Work. Over the next year, it is strengthening the Disability Service training, conducting a customer satisfaction survey, and undertaking a review to streamline Access to Work processes.
Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to improve the special tuition available to dyslexic children. [116974]
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Jacqui Smith:
It is the responsibility of schools and local education authorities (LEAs) to ensure that children with dyslexia receive appropriate tuition. Schools and LEAs must have regard to guidance in the Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs (SEN). This guidance recognises a continuum of special educational needs and advocates a staged approach to meeting such needs. The Code provides advice on the needs of children with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia. A revised version of the Code is expected to be issued next year, which will place a stronger emphasis on the importance of early identification of SEN, so the appropriate help can be given as soon as possible. Under the National Literacy Strategy all children are being taught phonics, spelling and grammar. This has been shown to be particularly helpful for children with mild dyslexia. Children who demonstrate particular difficulties at word level, which are due to their SEN, can be identified much earlier and more focused support added. Such children have also been helped by the requirement, since September 1998, for newly qualified teachers to show that they can identify pupils who have special educational needs, including dyslexia, and know where to get help in order to give positive and targeted support to children.
My Department is also part funding a two year study programme by the Dyslexia Institute in partnership with the Centre for Reading and Language Studies at the University of York. The research has at its heart a controlled intervention study designed to evaluate the effects of structured programmes of intervention for seven-year-old pupils who are experiencing specific difficulties to read, write and spell.
Mr. Gray:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many workplace car parking spaces are available at the buildings used and controlled by his Department. [116762]
Mr. Wills
[holding answer 30 March 2000]: In total, there are 900 workplace car parking spaces available at the Department's head office buildings in Darlington, London, Runcorn and Sheffield. We have prepared travel plans for all our key buildings in line with the commitment set out in the Transport White Paper and are reviewing the scope for reducing our car parking requirements in that context.
Mr. Boswell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people are currently waiting for individual learning accounts; and what is the average period between application and allocation. [117244]
Mr. Wicks:
The first trance of individual learning accounts are being administered and funded solely through Training and Enterprise Councils. In England alone, over 101,000 accounts had been opened by the end of February 2000, against a UK target of 100,000 accounts opened by April 2000, and we are on track to achieve the target of one million accounts opened in the lifetime of this Parliament. Information on how many people are currently waiting for individual learning accounts; and the average period between application and allocation is not held centrally.
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Helen Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the local education authorities in which no schools provide hot school meals. [117145]
Jacqui Smith:
This information is not collected centrally. Under current education legislation, it is up to local education authorities, and schools with delegated budgets for school meals, to decide on their presentation and content, including whether a meal should be hot. The Government's minimum nutritional standards for school lunches will apply to both hot and cold lunches.
Helen Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the number of families eligible to claim free school meals which do not do so. [117144]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Information reported by maintained schools in England to the Department for Education and Employment in January 1999 showed that there were 1,417,300 pupils on the schools' register (on the census day) who were known by schools to be eligible for free school meals. Of these, 1,088,800 pupils were reported to have taken a free school meal on the census day.
Further information provided by the Department of Social Security, for November 1999, showed overall that there were an estimated 1,490,000 school age children (5-16 years) in England from 849,000 families in receipt of Income Support or Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance. No information is available from the Department of Social Security on the number of these children who took their free meals.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the number of staff and the budget for the Standards and Effectiveness Unit at the end of (a) September 1999 and (b) December 1999. [117507]
Ms Estelle Morris:
At the end of September and December 1999, the number of staff in the Unit was 204. The running cost budget for the Unit in the current year is £6.421 million.
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to ensure that schools have sufficient accommodation to meet the pressures on class sizes when the cohorts of children currently benefiting from the class size reduction initiative turn eight years old. [116736]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The Department's guidance to LEAs on drawing up infant class size implementation plans made clear that the criteria for plan approval included the need to ensure no adverse impact upon the size of junior classes.
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the impact of the class size reduction initiative on smaller schools where site constraints limit expansion and published admission numbers are reduced as a result. [116737]
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Ms Estelle Morris:
The Department issues regular monitoring questionnaires, to all LEAs, which seek information on the implementation of the infant class size initiative. We have no evidence to suggest that the initiative has had an adverse impact on smaller schools which have reduced their admission numbers in order to comply with the infant class size limit.
(2) what recent representations he has received regarding measures being taken to reform received standard spending assessment for education, with particular reference to the (a) areas cost adjustment and (b) additional educational needs allowance. [117134]
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