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Child Care

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action is being taken to ensure that the national child care strategy is able to offer affordable places to all children whose parents wish it in neighbourhood renewal areas; and if she will make a statement. [73543]

Mr. Miliband: Childcare plays a critical role in sustaining and strengthening communities and in helping parents out of poverty through work.

Affordability of childcare can be a major barrier for many parents, particularly women and lone parents wishing to take up employment, education and training. The Childcare Tax Credit helps parents to take up the provision made available through the National Childcare Strategy by giving financial assistance to low and middle income working parents to pay for childcare. Some 158,000 families have already benefited from this help.

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The Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative, part of the National Childcare Strategy, was launched in 2001. Over £203 million has been made available to create 45,000 high quality childcare places in the most disadvantaged areas in England. All Neighbourhood Renewal areas are in the target areas for Neighbourhood Nurseries.

Following the conclusions of the Inter Departmental Review of Childcare, the Chancellor announced on 15 July a £1.5 billion combined budget for childcare, early years education and Sure Start by 2005–06. The extra funding will support the expansion of childcare places across England, with particular emphasis on disadvantaged areas through the setting up of children's centres integrating good quality childcare with early years education, family support and health services. Our longer term aim is to establish a children's centre in every one of the 20 per cent. most disadvantaged areas.

Learn Direct Plus

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many people have enrolled on learndirect plus in Portsmouth South constituency since it began; how many courses are provided in Portsmouth South; how much funding has been provided for these courses; and if she will make a statement. [64728]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: [pursuant to the reply 27 June 2002, 19W]: an incorrect figure was quoted. There have been 1839 learners to date in the Portsmouth South constituency since learndirect was rolled out in October 2000.

Job Location

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many jobs under the remit of her Department in (a) the core department, (b) non-departmental public bodies, (c) executive agencies and (d) independent statutory bodies, organisations and bodies financially sponsored by her Department and other such organisations, are located in (i) Scotland, (ii) England, excluding Greater London, (iii) Greater London, (iv) Wales, (v) Northern Ireland and (vi) overseas, broken down by (A) whole time equivalent jobs and (B) the percentage per individual department, body or organisation. [72740]

Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 24 July 2002]: The information requested is set out in the table below:

ScotlandEngland ex. Greater LondonGreater London
	No. WTE	per cent.	No. WTE	per cent.	No. WTE	per cent.
Core Department	0	-	2125	51.0	2040	49.0
NDPBs	590	7.5	6558	83.3	724	9.2
Executive Agencies	0	-	0	-	0	-
Ind. Stat. Bodies

	Wales		Northern Ireland		Others
	No. WTE	per cent.	No. WTE	per cent.	No. WTE	per cent.
Core Department	0	-	0	-	0	-
NDPBs	0	-	0	-	0	-
Executive Agencies	0	-	0	-	0	-
Ind. Stat. Bodies

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DfES does not hold information in the form required for independent statutory bodies and other organisations which it financially sponsors.

The percentages are of the total numbers in the core Department and in its NDPB's.

Area-Based Initiatives

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list for each area-based

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initiative for which her Department is responsible the amount originally budgeted for in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02, stating in each year what funds budgeted for were not spent and if they were carried forward.[71457]

Estelle Morris: The table below sets out the original budgets for area based initiatives and shows the carry forward amounts for each initiative.

		2000–2001			2001–2002
£ millions 1 .	In year Budget	Spend	Carry forward	In year Budget	Spend	Carry forward
Neighbourhood Nurseries	0	0	0	46	2	44
SureStart	184	56	128	206	136	70
Education Action Zones 2 .	59	56	3	64	63	1
Children's Fund	0	0	0	85	34	51
Community Champions	1	1	0	3	3	0

Footnote

¹ . All budgets are rounded to the nearest million.

Learning And Skills Council

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list in respect of each programme transferred to the Learning and Skills Council (a) the agency, or agencies, previously responsible, (b) the total resources allocated in 2000–01, (c) the total resources allocated for 2001–02 and (d) the estimated costs of administering the programme in 2000–01. [71175]

Margaret Hodge: The information requested at (a), (b) and (c) is shown in the following table. The best estimate of the cost of administering the programme in 2000–01 is between £270 million and £280 million.

	a) Agency responsible for the delivery of the programme in 2000–2001	b) Total resources expended in 2000–2001	c) Total resources allocated for 2001–2002
		£	£
ADMINISTRATION
Administration	FEFC/TECs	275,000,000	188,000,000
FURTHER EDUCATION
Capital	FEFC	54,842,800	140,000,000
Participation	FEFC	3,311,043,000	3,609,489,000
Summer Schools	FEFC		2,000,000
FE and 16–18 Sector Rationalisation
Recurrent Funding	FEFC	8,946,886	7,737,000
Standards Fund	FEFC	70,000,000	186,000,000
Pastoral Support	New in 2001–02		3,000,000
Student Support	FEFC	93,490,186	103,796,000
Ethnic Minority Student Achievement Grant	FEFC	2,000,000	2,000,000
Skill and View	DfES	92,000	97,000
Dance and Drama	DfES	5,740,175	8,450,000
Teacher's Pay Initiative	New in 2001–02		65,000,000
WORK BASED LEARNING
Health and Safety Booklets	DfES	76,171	87,000
Work Based Training for Young People	TECs	809,540,623	748,650,000
Gateway Programme	DfES	1,067,994	250,000
Youth Policy Development	DfES	2,212,482	1,400,000
Life Skills	TECs	949,900	61,000,000
Other Work Based Learning Programmes	DfES	8,528	1,469,000
OTHER
Adult Information Advice and Guidance	DfES	18,795,475	23,000,000
National Marketing and Promotion	DfES	302,403	7,300,000
NVQ Marketing and Promotion	New in 2001–02		350,000
Local Initiatives	TECs	16,301,595	95,300,000
Excellence Challenge	New in 2001–02		3,900,000
Adult and Community Learning	DETR	145,000,000	153,000,000
Workforce Development	DfES	62,467,477	48,241,000
Education Business Links	DfES	13,007,043	29,000,000
New Entrepreneur Scholarships	New in 2001–02		2,000,000
Bite Size	New in 2001–02		2,000,000
Total		4,882,827,512	5,492,516,000
SUMMARY		2000–2001
FEFC		3,545,427,525
TECs		826,792,118
DfES		235,607,869
Administration		275,000,000
Summary Total		4,882,827,512

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Child Abuse

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the work of the Children and Young People's Unit; and what work it has done since November 2001 relating to combating child abuse. [72912]

Mr. Denham: The Children and Young People's Unit works to ensure the coherence of Government policies that affect all children and young people who are under 19, and particularly those who are most vulnerable. In November 2001, it launched a consultation exercise to develop an over-arching strategy for all policies and services for children and young people in England. The framework for the strategy includes looking to secure the objective that children should live in a safe and secure community, where they are protected from abuse. The Unit is now considering the responses to the consultation in preparing a final strategy for publication later this year.

In its work within Government, the Unit works closely with the Department of Health and other Departments on matters relating to child abuse.

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will take measures to oblige school governing bodies to give children who are the victims of alleged grossly inappropriately sexual behaviour and indecent assault and their parents the opportunity to give their account of such incidents. [73492]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Schools must have formal procedures for dealing with any complaints about the curriculum and special educational needs, and we recommend as a matter of good practice that governing bodies should also have procedures to ensure that other complaints are dealt with properly.

In dealing with complaints and in making provision for complaints procedures, the governing body should ensure that the person complaining is given fair treatment and in particular, a chance to state their case. Decisions and reasons for them should be given in writing and the person complaining should be informed at the same time of any rights of appeal they have if they wish to take the matter further. We already give guidance to governing bodies and schools about their role in helping to protect children from abuse, and about dealing with allegations of abuse against members of staff. This is contained in Circular 10/95 "Protecting Children from Abuse: The Role of the Education Service"

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will issue guidelines to school governing bodies and local education authorities clarifying at what point grossly inappropriately sexual behaviour becomes indecent assault. [73493]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: A decision as to at what point grossly inappropriately sexual behaviour becomes indecent assault is a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service and not for the education service. Those agencies must decide whether, in any particular case, alleged behaviour is within the scope of the offences as defined in the Sexual Offences Act 1956.

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Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will instruct school governing bodies to which allegations of grossly inappropriately sexual behaviour or indecent assault have been reported to give due consideration to any ongoing police or Child Protection Unit investigations. [73494]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department's Circular 10/95 "Protecting Children from Abuse: The Role of the Education Service" already advises that schools should refer any allegations of abuse to the police or child protection agencies. Schools should liaise with those agencies in accordance with the procedures laid down by their local Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC).

In the case of allegations of abuse against a member of staff, the Circular also advises that a police or social services investigation will take priority over an internal investigation by the school. An internal investigation running alongside a police or child protection agency enquiry is not likely to be good practice and should be held in abeyance pending the outcome of the external investigation. Due consideration can then be given to any allegations and to any disciplinary action by the school or governing body.

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will take measures to ensure that school governors receive instruction on the handling of allegations of grossly inappropriately sexual behaviour and indecent assault. [73495]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department has already issued advice to Local Education Authorities and schools about dealing with allegations of abuse in Circular 10/95. "Protecting Children from Abuse: The Role of the Education Service". The Circular advises that schools and colleges should have procedures that are in accordance with the child protection procedures established by the Area Child Protection Committee and, where appropriate, by the local education authority, including procedures to be followed if a member of staff is accused of abuse.

This guidance is under review following the introduction of a new statutory duty regarding child protection in the Education Act 2002. The new duty will require governing bodies of schools or Further Education institutions and LEAs to have arrangements for ensuring that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and to have regard guidance by the Secretary of State (or the National Assembly for Wales) in making such arrangements. We are planning to consult on this guidance in the autumn, and we hope that all those with an interest, including teachers, governors and LEAs, will contribute to that consultation.

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will amend Circular 10/99 to provide greater protection for child-victims. [73496]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department's guidance about child protection is contained in Circular 10/95 "Protecting Children from Abuse: The Role of the Education Service". This is under review and we will be consulting about new guidance in the autumn. We will take full account of any representations we receive about this issue.

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