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LEA Costs

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will estimate for the latest year for which information is available the total amount not devolved by each local education authority to its schools; and if she will estimate in each case the amount of money spent by the LEA on its staff and other overheads and administration costs. [76160]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 October 2002]: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.

Beacon School

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Trafford which have been awarded Beacon status. [76403]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 October 2002]: There are 5 Beacon schools in Trafford:

Primary

King's Road Primary School

St Mary's Church of England Primary School

Wellfield Infant and Nursery School

Woodhouse Primary School

Secondary

Ashton on Mersey School

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the grammar schools which have been awarded Beacon status, giving the local authority area in each case. [76404]

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Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 October 2002]: 30 grammar schools have been awarded Beacon status. They are:

Aylesbury High School	Buckinghamshire
Caistor Grammar School	Lincolnshire
Chelmsford County High School for Girls Essex
Colyton Grammar School	Devon
Dartford Grammar School	Kent
Dartford Grammar School for Girls	Kent
Devonport High School for Girls	Plymouth
Kendrick Girls' Grammar School	Reading
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls	Birmingham
Maidstone Grammar School for Girls	Kent
Nonsuch High School for Girls	Sutton
Parkstone Grammar School	Poole
Pate's Grammar School	Gloucestershire
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School	Cumbria
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet	Barnet
Queen Mary's High School	Walsall
South Wilts Grammar School for Girls	Wiltshire
St Bernard's Convent School	Slough
Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls	Birmingham
The Crossley Heath School	Calderdale
The Folkestone School for Girls	Kent
The King's School, Grantham	Lincolnshire
The Rochester Grammar School for Girls	Medway
The Tiffin Girls' School	Kingston upon
Thames
Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls	Kent
Torquay Boys' Grammar School	Torbay
Wellington High School for Girls	Sutton
Westcliff High School for Boys	Southend-on-Sea
Westcliff High School for Girls	Southend-on-Sea
Wolverhampton Girls' High School	Wolverhampton

Child Mental Health

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to her answer of 19 September, Official Report, column 121W, on mental health, if schools (a) are obliged to promote the mental health of their pupils, (b) have a mechanism for detecting mental health problems and (c) have regular contact with the local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. [76579]

Stephen Twigg: My hon. Friend David Miliband, in his written answer of 19 September, outlined the ways the Secretary of State aims to ensure that children's mental health needs are being met. In June 2001 the Department issued guidance, Promoting Children's Mental Health within Early Years and School Settings. This is strongly recommended and we would expect schools to have regard to it.

The guidance is designed to help teachers and others working alongside mental health professionals to identify children and young people's mental health needs, and sets out useful approaches for how these needs might be met. The advice in the guidance is backed up by illustrative case studies.

The guidance also includes a section on the work of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The Department commissioned a research project into effective collaboration between schools and CAMHS which will be available later this year.

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to her answer of 19 September, Official Report, column 121W, on mental health if (a) BEST teams members will receive training in children's mental health and (b) BEST teams will contain mental health specialists. [76580]

23 Oct 2002 : Column 383W

Stephen Twigg: The aims of Behaviour and Educational Support Teams (BESTs) are to promote emotional well-being, positive behaviour and school attendance among children and young people. They help in the identification and support of those with, or at risk of developing, emotional and behavioural problems, through the provision of multi-agency support in schools and to individual families.

BESTs will take part in training which covers many areas of multi-agency working and related subject areas. This will include children's mental health issues.

There are a number of professional disciplines which may be appropriately represented within the BEST. The precise skills balance will be decided locally, in line with the priorities agreed for the BEST, provision already available in schools and the resource available across the LEA and partner agencies. DfES guidelines suggest teams should contain a complementary mix of education, social work and health skills in order to meet the multi-faceted needs of children, young people and their parents.

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to her answer of 19 September, Official Report, column 121W, on mental health, if Ofsted's draft framework for inspection requires an inspection of schools' ability to promote pupils' mental health and detect and handle pupils' mental health problems. [76581]

Stephen Twigg: This is a matter for the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). HM Chief Inspector for Schools, David Bell will write to the hon. Gentleman and a copy will be placed in the Library.

Returning Teachers

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers returning to teaching this academic year have claimed the returner bonus. [76587]

Mr. Miliband: Approximately one thousand claims for reimbursement of Welcome Back Bonus payments made by Local Education Authorities have so far been processed by my Department.

Teachers' Pay

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recommendations of the Pay Review report of January 2002 her Department adopted in calculating teacher pay scales. [76588]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend accepted all recommendations made by the School Teachers' Review Body in January 2002 that fell within their statutory remit.

Mathematics

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to commission a mathematics working group to look at the problem of recruitment of mathematics teachers. [76590]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend has no present plans to set up any further working groups to look at the recruitment of maths teachers.

23 Oct 2002 : Column 384W

Home Education

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to allow parents who opt to educate their children at home to access Government-sponsored National Curriculum materials. [76591]

Stephen Twigg: Home educating parents are not required to teach the National Curriculum but the Government recognises their right and supports them in this matter.

The recent developments of the Department's website allow all children, those attending schools as well as those educated at home, to access:

The National Curriculum, which sets out the knowledge, skills, understanding and breadth of study for each subject, at each key stage;

The Schemes of Work and programmes of study, which are designed to help teachers plan lessons and are published by the QCA;

A series of Parent Topic guides which link to aspects of the National Curriculum.

The Department has compiled a fact sheet regarding home education which is available to parents and local education authorities on request and can be downloaded from the Department's web site at: www.dfes.gov.uk/parents/learning/home Documents are also available by telephoning our Department stationery office at Prolog on 0845 602 2260.

Education Expenditure

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of the total education budget in 2001–02 was taken up by (a) assessment of students, (b) assessment of teachers and schools through inspection and (c) assessment of teacher training through inspection. [76597]

Mr. Miliband: The cost of overseeing the assessment of students through the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority represented 0.2 per cent. of the total education budget of almost #40 billion for England in 2001–02. No data is held centrally on the overall costs of exam fees and associated assessment costs payable by schools. OfSTED, working with the Adult Learning Inspectorate in some circumstances, is responsible for (b) and (c). The sum of the Inspectorates' budgets was #183 million in 2001–02 or 0.5 per cent. of the total education budget, although some of this was spent on inspecting pre-school and non-schools post-16 providers as well as schools and teachers.

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