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Excellence in Cities
30. Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of changes in standards of achievement in excellence in cities areas. [14660]
Mr. Timms: There are strong indications that the extra support for city schools—not least learning mentors, learning support units and enhanced opportunities for gifted and talented children—is making an impact on children's attainment, on inclusion, and on allowing teachers in those schools to concentrate on teaching. This year's performance tables show that, overall, the 750 secondary schools in Excellence in Cities areas, where the programme has been in place for at least a year, continue to show faster than average improvements in terms of the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE/GNVQ results at A*-C.
Teaching Expertise
31. Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps her Department is taking to ensure that teachers in secondary schools do not teach a subject in which they have no expertise. [14661]
Mr. Timms: This is a matter for head teachers.
Pupil Funding
32. Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps are being taken to reduce the disparity in funding per pupil between local education authorities. [14662]
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Mr. Timms: We are currently working up proposals for a reformed system of school and LEA funding for introduction in 2003–04. We aim to create a simpler, more transparent and fairer formula that reflects fairly, on the basis of up to date evidence, the needs of authorities in different parts of the country. We do not want there to be disparities in the formula which are not justified by the education needs of children.
In the meantime we are continuing to make significant increases in funding overall. In 2002–03 Education Standard Spending will increase by over £1.3 billion or 6 per cent.; direct grants to schools will increase by 2.75 per cent.; and Standards Fund grant will increase by £85.6 million.
Advanced Skills Teachers
33. Charlotte Atkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the work of advanced skills teachers. [14663]
Mr. Timms: The Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) route is designed to recognise and reward excellent teachers who wish to remain in the classroom rather than go into management. ASTs have an important role in helping to raise standards. They typically spend 80 per cent. of their time teaching in the usual way and 20 per cent. helping teachers in neighbouring schools. This can involve a wide range of activities such as coaching individual teachers or advising them on their professional development, giving demonstration lessons or holding workshops on particular aspects of teaching such as classroom management. Some have led specific projects within their own school or LEA, for example on provision for the gifted and talented children or techniques to overcome low achievement by boys. Many ASTs have produced or updated schemes of work and developed new teaching materials to help less experienced colleagues.
Education Authority Funding
34. Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to improve funding of the lowest-funded education authorities. [14664]
Mr. Timms: We are currently working up proposals for a reformed system of school and LEA funding for introduction in 2003–04. We aim to create a simpler, more transparent and fairer formula that reflects fairly, on the basis of up to date evidence, the needs of authorities in different parts of the country. We do not want there to be disparities in the formula which are not justified by the education needs of children.
In the meantime we have been making significant increases in funding overall. Since 1997 Swindon's Education Standard Spending Assessment (ESS) has increased by an average of over 6 per cent. each year. On top of that Swindon's Standards Fund grant has increased from under £1 million in 1997 to over £4 million this year. Also we have introduced the School Standards Grant, which goes straight to schools: this year Swindon's schools have received £2.4 million. In 2002–03 ESS overall will increase by over £1.3 billion or 6 per cent.; direct grants to schools will increase by 2.75 per cent.; and Standards Fund grant will increase by £85.6 million.
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Learning Support Units
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many learning support units have been established in schools; and if she will make a statement. [14631]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: There are approximately 1,090 learning support units in schools in England. We plan to increase this total further as independent evaluation of LSUs shows that they improve behaviour and cut exclusions. Phase 3 of Excellence in Cities and the Excellence Cluster programme should provide another 140 LSUs and up to 50 more are being set up this term outside the Excellence in Cities programme.
Special Advisers and Press Officers
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) special advisers and (b) press officers were employed (i) full-time, (ii) part- time and (iii) on a contract basis by her Department in each year since 1992. [6909]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: For the number of special advisers employed, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office on 21 November 2001, Official Report, column 340W.
For the number of press officers employed, we are unable to provide information dating back to 1992 without incurring disproportionate costs but information from 1996–97 to 1998–99 is available from appendix 10 of the Sixth Report from the Select Committee on Public Administration entitled the Government Information and Communication Service, published on 29 July 1998. www.publications. parliament. uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/ cmpubadm/770/77002. htm. Information for 1999–2000 to 2001–02 for full-time and part-time press officers is in the table.
| Grade | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIO(23) | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| IO(23) | 11 | 6 | 10 |
| SIO(23) | 9 | 13 | 9 |
| S10(24) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| G7(23) | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| G7(24) | — | 1 | 1 |
| SCSI-9(23) | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Contract staff | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 28 | 29 | (25)29 |
(23) Full-time
(24) Part-time
(25) The staffing figures for 2001–02 include the transfer of G7x1, SIOx1 and 10x3 to the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the machinery of government changes following the general election.
Departmental Co-ordination
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what mechanisms and procedures are in place to ensure there is effective co-ordination between her Department and the National Assembly for Wales. [14472]
Estelle Morris: The Department for Education and Skills is working with the Assembly to finalise a concordat, which we hope to publish shortly. This records how we already co-operate and builds on the principles set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the
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UK Government and the Devolved Administrations. The concordat gives assurance to both parties that working relationships will continue to be conducted in an agreed and helpful manner.
A recent example of effective co-ordination was the publication by the National Assembly for Wales of its paving document for Wales, "The Learning Country", alongside the White Paper "Schools: Achieving Success" published by Department for Education and Skills this autumn.
Trailblazer Sector Skills Councils
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will place in the Library a list of organisations invited to submit expressions of interest in becoming Trailblazer sector skills councils. [16946]
John Healey: I wrote to all Chairs and Chief Executives of National Training Organisations (NTOs) and to Trade Associations on 2 November inviting expressions of interest in becoming a trailblazer Sector Skills Council. Lists of organisations to which the letter was sent have been placed in the Library.
Advertising
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much her Department has spent in real terms on advertising campaigns to promote training and education policy in each of the last 15 years. [16098]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 19 November 2001]: The Department's spend on advertising, for each of the last 15 years, is set out in the tables. Within the totals for the Employment Department and Department for Education and Employment there was advertising to promote employment and employability policies, as well as training and education policy. It is not possible to disaggregate this without disproportionate cost.
Prior to 1991–92 the Employment Department agencies (Manpower Services Commission, Training Commission and Training Agency) spent their own publicity budgets. From 1991–92 these were held centrally by the Employment Department. However, because of the way the information is held in our records the figures for the former Employment Department from 1992–93 to 1995–96 do not include expenditure by agencies. The Department for Education and Department for Education and Employment figures also do not include expenditure by agencies and NDPBs.
Real term expenditure is calculated using 1999–2000 base year prices.
| Year | Employment department(26) | Employment department agencies | Expenditure of Employment department and its agencies | Real terms total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–87 | 12.3 | 22.8 | 35.1 | 59.83 |
| 1987–88 | 4.1 | 24.3 | 28.5 | 46.13 |
| 1988–89 | 4.4 | 18.1 | 22.5 | 34.11 |
| 1989–90 | 1.8 | 14.8 | 16.6 | 23.48 |
| 1990–91 | 7.1 | 9.9 | 17.0 | 22.3 |
(26) Excluding agencies
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| Year | Original figures | Real terms |
|---|---|---|
| 1991–92 | 9.2 | 11.37 |
| 1992–93 | 3.2 | 3.83 |
| 1993–94 | 7.3 | 8.51 |
| 1994–95 | 6.5 | 7.47 |
| 1995–96 | 7.7 | 8.6 |
| Year | Original figures | Real terms |
|---|---|---|
| 1986–87 | 0.8 | 1.36 |
| 1987–88 | 0.4 | 0.65 |
| 1988–89 | 0.7 | 1.06 |
| 1989–90 | 0.3 | 0.42 |
| 1990–91 | 2.4 | 3.15 |
| 1991–92 | 2.6 | 3.21 |
| 1992–93 | 0.7 | 0.84 |
| 1993–94 | 1.4 | 1.63 |
| 1994–95 | 0.1 | 0.11 |
| 1995–96 | 0.6 | 0.67 |
| Year | Original figures | Real terms |
|---|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 7.5 | 8.12 |
| 1997–98 | 10.0 | 10.53 |
| 1998–99 | 15.7 | 16.07 |
| 1999–2000 | 11.9 | 11.9 |
| 2000–01 | 29.0 | 28.43 |
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