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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Departmental Vehicles

Mr. Pearson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) cars and (b) commercial vehicles operated by his Department were manufactured (i) in the UK, (ii) in the EU and (iii) elsewhere. [122261]

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Mr. Wicks [holding answer 17 May 2000]: The DfEE, including the Employment Service, operates 543 cars and 22 commercial vehicles. All vehicles are manufactured in the EU. No record is kept of which EU country the vehicle is manufactured in. The Department occasionally uses cars provided by the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA). These are not included in the above figures. For information on cars provided by the GCDA, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 17 May 2000, Official Report, column 141W, by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office.

Higher Education (Ethnic Minorities)

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to ensure members of ethnic minority groups are not discriminated against in entry to universities. [122787]

Mr. Wicks: We are taking a range of measures to widen participation in Higher Education. The Higher Education Funding Council for England provides £18 million to Higher Education institutions through a 5 per cent. premium for students from disadvantaged areas. In his speech of 10 May 2000 to the AUT Conference, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a further £4 million for this fund and set out a series of steps which we will be taking to put in place a coherent package of support in order to widen participation. We hope to make further announcements in the autumn. Many of the ethnic communities who need help most will benefit from these measures.

We are also tackling the under-representation of ethnic minorities among teaching staff in Higher Education. In his letter of 23 November 1999 to the Funding Council, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State expressed his deep concern about the present position on equal opportunities for HE staff. He also stated that all institutions are expected to have acted upon the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education recommendations to have equal opportunities policies in place, that barriers to recruitment and progression should be removed and that institutions should be fully accountable for the implementation of these changes.

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the study by the Higher Education Funding Council on the likelihood of graduates from ethnic minority groups finding employment. [122788]

Mr. Wicks: I am aware that the Higher Education Funding Council for England's preliminary work for the development of performance indicators confirms our own understanding that graduates from ethnic minorities are less likely to be in employment than white graduates with similar qualifications. This is not acceptable. The Government are actively committed to equal opportunity in employment and to tackling racial discrimination in the workplace.

Graduates (Employment)

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what performance indicators he will use to measure the employment of graduates. [122789]

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Mr. Wicks: I will consider a range of measures of employment outcomes for graduates. I will pay particular attention to the institutional-level performance measure being developed, on the advice of a working group chaired by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which relates to full-time home students with a first degree who have newly entered the job market. The measure will be based on the percentage of these students who are unemployed at 3 January of the academic year following their graduation.

Ms Pamela Relf

Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the contribution which Ms Pamela Relf made to teaching in state schools. [122939]

Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 19 May 2000]: We learned with great regret of the death of Pamela Relf, who had been teaching for 36 years, and we extend our condolences to her family and colleagues.

Foundation Stage (Curriculum Guidance)

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment for what reason the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage launched by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State the hon. Member for Barking (Ms Hodge), on Thursday 11 May, accompanied by a Departmental Press Notice, was not available in the Library on Tuesday 15 May; when he expects a copy to be deposited; and to whom the guidance has so far been made available. [R] [122953]

Ms Hodge [holding answer 19 May 2000]: I announced on 11 May the publication of the "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage". This product, which addresses the early education of children, was produced jointly by my Department and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It is intended primarily for early years practitioners and has been distributed widely to around 35,000 early years settings in the private, voluntary and maintained sectors. It has also been distributed to all other key stakeholders, including: Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) and local education authorities; teacher training and NVQ training organisations; other Government Departments including the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices; and a range of early years and teacher associations and early years professionals. The delay in making the guidance available to hon. Members in the House of Commons was a result of an administrative oversight, which was remedied as soon as it was brought to my attention. Copies of the guidance were placed in the Library two days later on 17 May.

Sure Start

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if, for the second wave of the Sure Start programme, he will list (a) the areas selected, (b) the basis upon which each of the areas was selected and (c) when each of the new schemes is due to commence. [123063]

Yvette Cooper: A list of the local authority districts selected for the second wave of Sure Start is given. These were selected using DETR's Index of Local Deprivation augmented with two further measures: low birth weight

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babies and births to teenage mothers. The catchment area for the local Sure Start programme is chosen by partnerships formed by all those working with young children within the district. The criteria for selection are set out in the guidance for second wave programmes, a copy of which was placed in the Library, and include high levels of need for support services among local families. Second wave Sure Start partnerships have been asked to submit their final plans by 23 May. Most of these are expected to receive approval during the summer and be running in the early autumn.

Areas (69) invited to submit applications for the second wave of Sure Start (England):
Ashfield
Barking and Dagenham
Barnsley
Birmingham
Blyth Valley
Bolsover
Bolton
Boston
Bournemouth
Bradford
Bristol
Burnley
Calderdale
Cannock Chase
Coventry
Croydon
Derwentside
Dover
Dudley
Ealing
Easington
Gateshead
Gloucester
Hammersmith and Fulham
Harlow
Hartlepool
Hounslow
Hyndburn
Ipswich
Isle of Wight
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea
Kerrier
Kingston-upon-Hull
Leeds
Leicester
Lewisham
Lincoln
Liverpool
Manchester
Medway Towns
Newcastle upon Tyne
Nottingham
Nuneaton and Bedworth
Pendle
Peterborough
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Redbridge
Rochdale
Sedgefield
Sefton
Sheffield

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Slough
Solihull
South Tyneside
Stockton-on-Tees
Sunderland
Tameside
Torbay
Wakefield
Walsall
Wandsworth
Wansbeck
Wear Valley
Westminster
Wigan
Wirral

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if, for the third wave of the Sure Start programme, he will list the areas which have so far been selected; when he expects the remainder of these areas to be selected; and when each of these new schemes is due to commence. [123064]

Yvette Cooper: The districts for the third phase of Sure Start local programmes will be announced later this year. In the first and second waves it has taken local programmes about six to eight months to develop their plans.

Ofsted

Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what complaints were made against an Ofsted inspector following the Ofsted inspection of Middlefield Primary School; [123109]

(2) if Mr. Piers Bilston is to be allowed to work as an Ofsted inspector. [123110]

Ms Estelle Morris: These are matters for Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead. I have asked him to write to my hon. Friend and to place a copy of his letter in the Library.

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