| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Access to Information
Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the administrative manuals and internal guidance which her Department has made public as required by Part 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information; and which of these were first made available after May 1997. [45399]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Since the Department was constituted in June last year, no internal guidance or administrative manuals have been published.
Committee Mandates
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the mandate of the Leonardo da Vinci Committee is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; what the UK representation on it is; what the annual cost of its work is to public funds; if she will list the items currently under its consideration; if he will take steps to increase its accountability and transparency to Parliament; and if she will make a statement. [56719]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The purpose of the Leonardo da Vinci Committee is set out in the Council decision 1999/382/EC of 26 April 1999, which established the second phase of the Leonardo programme. The Leonardo Committee has met three times over the last 12 Months. Travel expenses were met from Commission resources. Two officials from the UK attend the meetings. The subsistence cost incurred by this Department was £1,560.
Together with member states, the Commission is currently conducting a review to bring existing legislation on the conduct of comitology committees into line with Council Decision 1999/468/EC, to "simplify the
21 May 2002 : Column 274W
requirements for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission". As an obligation to this Decision, the Commission undertook to publish an annual report on the working of committees. The first report was deposited in the Libraries of both Houses on 26 February 2002 (Com(2001)783 Final). As part of the review process, the UK Government has encouraged the Commission to produce and maintain an electronic database of every comitology committee, its agendas and recent actions, to be accessible through its website.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the mandate of the Advisory Committee on Vocational Training is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; what the UK representation on it is; what the annual cost of its work is to public funds; if she will list the items currently under its consideration; if she will take steps to increase its accountability and transparency to Parliament; and if she will make a statement. [56720]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Advisory Committee on Vocational Training (ACVT) was established by Council Decision no. 63/266/EEC dated 2 April 1963 which laid down general principles for implementing a common vocational training policy across the EU. Its purpose is to offer advice and submit opinions to the European Commission on vocational training policy which the Commission is obliged to take account of. It has met twice in the last 12 months.
The UK is represented by two officials from the Department for Education and Skills, the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Costs to UK public funds were limited to the officials' expenses, approximately £2,660, less any reimbursements provided by the European Commission.
At its next meeting, ACVT is considering a number of vocational training and related items.
Together with member states, the Commission is currently conducting a review to bring existing legislation on the conduct of comitology committees into line with Council Decision 1999/468/EC, to "simplify the requirements for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission". As an obligation to this Decision, the Commission undertook to publish an annual report on the working of committees. The first report was deposited in the Libraries of both Houses on 26 February 2002 (Com(2001)783 Final). As part of the review process, the UK Government has encouraged the Commission to produce and maintain an electronic database of every comitology committee, its agendas and recent actions, to be accessible through its website.
Stewart Report
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress she has made on implementing the Stewart report recommendations on the beam of greatest intensity from mobile phone masts and schools on their grounds. [57095]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 16 May 2002]: We have agreed with the network operators that they will provide schools, on request, with information on the level of intensity of radio frequency radiation from a mast on
21 May 2002 : Column 275W
or near their premises. Schools and parents can then make an informed decision as to whether to give their agreement to that operation. We have informed local education authorities and schools of this.
Sick Leave
Mr. Clapham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many days of sick leave were taken by (a) primary and secondary school teachers and (b) other staff in those schools in the last year for which records are available; and what the cost was. [56059]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 20 May 2002]: In the calendar year 2000, full-time teachers in the English maintained schools sector took 2,392,400 days of sick leave 1 , and part-time teachers in the English maintained schools sector took 301,970 days of sick leave. These figures cannot be broken down by phase.
Provisional 2001 data will be published on 30 May 2002.
The estimated cost of this lost teacher time 2 is £430 million.
The Department does not collect information on sick leave taken by non-teaching staff in schools.
- 1 Sickness absence on working days, whether paid absence or not, of teachers with permanent contracts or contracts of over one month, including teachers without QTS. The number of days taken as sick leave includes all periods of sick leave.
- 2 The cost of a teacher's working day is calculated using estimates of teacher salaries and additional teacher costs in 2000.
School Exclusions
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the financial consequence is to a secondary school of excluding a pupil. [57499]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Pupil Retention Grant (PRG) is part of the Social Inclusion: Pupil Support (SIPS) grant which is available to tackle disaffection in schools and to provide education outside school. It is available only to secondary pupils.
PRG has given secondary schools significant additional resources to tackle poor behaviour, while at the same time ensuring that when pupils are excluded LEAs have the resources they need to provide alternative education. In 2001–02, we increased the PRG to £122 million from £100 million in 2000–01. LEAs must allocate the PRG direct to schools.
Where permanent exclusion has taken place, a child will still need to be educated. In these cases the exclusion will trigger the transfer of at least some of the PRG from the school to the LEA as a contribution to the education of that child. The LEA has flexibility about the amount it will seek to transfer back from the school that it negotiates with head teachers. On average, between £3,000—£6,000 will be deducted from the excluded school's budget allocation per excludee.
The LEA can then use the PRG to provide education outside of school and/or support a reintegration package at a new school, helping to ensure that full-time education really does become a reality for excluded children and young people. Schools accepting pupils previously excluded from other schools should therefore benefit from
21 May 2002 : Column 276W
these additional funds. This procedure follows the principle introduced by the last Government of money following the excluded pupil.
Truancy
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many parents have been prosecuted in each of the last 10 years for failing to send their children to school; and what the average fine was for parents who have been successfully prosecuted and fined. [57505]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) on 7 May 2002, Official Report, column 90W.
After School Clubs
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) after school and (b) holiday clubs have been (i) closed, (ii) established and (iii) supported by funding from her Department on the Isle of Wight in each year since 1997. [57538]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 20 May 2002]: The information is not available in the form requested, statistics are gathered in the form of the number of places rather than the number of clubs (as the size of clubs varies considerably).
Since April 1999 local Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) have provided information on all the new child care places that have been established and all those that close within their local area. Between April 1999 and December 2001, Isle of Wight EYDCP has reported the creation of 515 out of school places and 202 holiday only places. During the same period the EYDCP reported the closure of 45 out of school places. The year on year breakdown is set out in the table.
| 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | April to December 2001 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New places | |||
| Out of school(27) | 270 | 138 | 107 |
| Holiday only | 42 | 44 | 116 |
| Closed places | |||
| Out of school(27) | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| Holiday only | 0 | 0 | 0 |
(27) The data on out of school places includes before and after school places and all year round provision.
Detailed information prior to April 1999 is not available.
Funding for out of school and holiday clubs is provided by the New Opportunities Fund. Since April 1999 the New Opportunities Fund has made seven awards totalling £289,262 specifically to support out of school child care projects in the Isle of Wight.
In addition infrastructure support funding is provided by the Government through the child care grant made available to EYDCPs who are tasked with providing and supporting good quality, affordable child care in their respective areas. The annual child care grant allocations to Isle of Wight EYDCP since April 1999 are set out in the table.
21 May 2002 : Column 277W
| Child care grant allocation | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 99,400 |
| 2000–01 | 124,740 |
| 2001–02 | 299,650 |
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) after school and (b) holiday clubs achieved financial sustainability within three years; and what steps she is taking to ensure that new clubs are not set up at the expense of those already in existence. [57539]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 20 May 2002]: Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships have been given the target of ensuring that a minimum of 80 per cent. of all New Opportunities Fund sponsored out of school child care places remain viable and available five years after being established. The Fund has rigorous assessment procedures in place to ensure that funded projects have sound plans to ensure long term sustainability. The current position is that 90 per cent. of places opened are still in operation, irrespective of whether they are still receiving funding support, and we are well on track to achieve our sustainability target.
The available figures for sustainability do not separately identify after school and holiday clubs.
EYDCPs are responsible for planning and co-ordinating child care in their areas; ensuring that available funding is targeted in locations where there is a shortfall in provision to avoid conflicting with existing provision: and keep provision and demand under continuous review.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |