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2 Dec 2002 : Column 551W—continued
Children and Young Persons Unit
Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what projects he is funding within his Children and Young Persons Unit; whether these projects are on time and on budget; and if he will make a statement. [82114]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 21 November 2002]: A full list of the individual projects funded by the Unit could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The Children and Young People's Unit has a total budget of £850 million for the period 2001–02 to 2005–06. The bulk of the Unit's funding goes towards a range of local projects distributed as follows:
- (a) Children's Fund Programmes bringing together local voluntary organisations, statutory agencies, community and faith groups, children and young people and their families, to deliver a range of locally co-ordinated preventive services for 5–13 year olds at risk.
(b) the Local Network Fund for Children and Young People enabling community groups to provide activities and services for children and young people experiencing poverty and lack of opportunity.
(c) the Identification, Referral and Tracking project, in the context of work with local authorities on Local Preventive Strategies, to support all local authorities in developing systems to ensure that children and young people at risk do not fall through the gaps in services.
(d) smaller scale initiatives for specific purposes, such as recent development work to test approaches to preventing young people running away and supporting them when they do; and community cohesion work with children from seven cities around the country to discuss what it means to be British.
Projects within the Unit are being rolled out at a pace which will enable them to spend their budgets in full by 2005–06.
Congestion Charging
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the estimated cost is to his
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Department of the Central London Road User Charging Scheme for (a) 17 February 2003 to 31 March 2003, and (b) 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004. [81886]
Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 19 November 2002]: Any additional costs to my Department as a result of the congestion charging scheme will be just one element within wider costs which have to be met from budgets for official travel and other costs.
Deaf Children (Education)
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what steps are being taken to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing children can access the deaf accommodation model of inclusion in education; [83160]
- (2) what steps are being taken on behalf of deaf and hard of hearing children to ensure that they are placed in mainstream schools with a significant deaf peer group. [83161]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Local education authorities make provision for deaf and hearing impaired children in a range of settings appropriate to their own needs and preferences and the preferences of their parents. Placement can be in a mainstream class, with or without a learning resource base for the deaf and hearing impaired, a maintained special school, or an independent or non-maintained special school.
Specialist teachers and support staff play a key role in ensuring equality of opportunity for all pupils. The law requires specialist teachers of the deaf to have an additional qualification equivalent to the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People Stage 1 qualification. Tools such as the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education's Index for Inclusion, which was sent to all schools in April 2000, can be used to identify barriers to learning and participation. Early indications are that schools adopting this sort of approach have seen standards rise for all their pupils.
Suitable accommodation must be available. The Department has already published Building Bulletin 94, Inclusive School Design, which provides guidance on accommodating pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream schools. Consultations are currently taking place on a further building bulletin focusing on the acoustic design of schools.
Degrees
Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what discussions he has had with private institutions or organisations on the award of degrees; [83872]
- (2) what recent representations he has had from private organisations on the award of degrees. [83874]
Margaret Hodge: I have had no meetings or discussions with private institutions or organisations on the award of degrees. The Privy Council is responsible for the granting of degree awarding powers and I can confirm that they have received applications from private organisations for the granting of degree awarding powers which are currently being considered under the Quality Assurance Agency's process of scrutiny.
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Early School Leavers
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the rate of early school leavers was in England in the last year for which figures are available. [83200]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 25 November 2002]: By law, children in England should not leave full-time education in school until the last Friday in June in the school year in which a child reaches 16. Figures are not available centrally on those that do leave early, for whatever reason. Some indication can be obtained by comparing pupil numbers from the same cohort at ages 14 and 15 in successive Annual Schools Censuses. The difference between the numbers of pupils aged 14 in 2001 and aged 15 in 2002 registered at all schools in England as shown by the Department's Annual Schools' Census was 9,600—a fall of 1.6 per cent. However, this comparison will be affected by the net impact of population migration, differences in the numbers of pupils educated other than at school and those on remand or in Young Offenders institutions; it will also exclude pupils leaving school after the Census date (in January) but before the regulations entitle them to do so (in June).
Education Funding
Mr. Watts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the new system for funding schools will require local LEAs to spend at SSA level; whether it will link the ACA factor to real salary costs in schools; and whether it will narrow the funding gap between the highest and lowest funded schools. [82428]
Mr. Miliband: LEAs cannot be required to spend at the level of their assessment. We will expect them to take that level into account, but our principal expectation will be that they should pass on increases in schools funding to their schools budgets. The top up for Area Costs is designed to take account of pay costs and also the extra funding needed for recruitment and retention. The new system will be based on evidence of need.
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on when the disparity in funding per student in higher and further education will be ended. [82690]
Margaret Hodge: We have no plans to equalise unit funding per student for Higher Education and Further Education. Different funding levels reflect the differences between the costs of higher education and further education courses. We have announced significant additional resources for FE over the next three years to meet the needs of the sector and will be setting out our strategy and the outcomes of the spending review for HE in January.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Shona McIsaac : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people have received the education maintenance allowance in north-east Lincolnshire. [82920]
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Margaret Hodge: The number of students in North East Lincolnshire receiving an Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in each academic year, since the pilot began, is set out in the table.
| Academic year | Number of students receiving EMA payments |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 733 |
| 2001–02 | (9)1,344 |
| 2002–03 | (9)1,041 |
(9) Includes students who started courses in the previous year.
Exclusions
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils have been excluded from (a) state secondary schools and (b) state primary schools in (i) the Ribble Valley and Fulwood, (ii) Lancashire and (iii) the north-west of England in each of the last five years. [82378]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information on permanent exclusions is shown in the following table. Information on fixed term exclusions is not held centrally.
| 1996–97 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintained primary | Maintained secondary | |||
| Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | |
| Ribble Valley | 1 | 0.01 | 25 | 0.33 |
| Lancashire | 42 | 0.03 | 353 | 0.40 |
| North West | 234 | 0.03 | 1,649 | 0.38 |
| England | 1,573 | 0.04 | 10,463 | 0.34 |
| 1997–98 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintained primary | Maintained secondary | |||||
| Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | |||
| Ribble Valley | 1 | 0.01 | 21 | 0.27 | ||
| Lancashire | 43 | 0.04 | 240 | 0.33 | ||
| North West | 265 | 0.04 | 1,530 | 0.34 | ||
| England | 1,539 | 0.03 | 10,187 | 0.33 | ||
| 1998–99 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintained primary | Maintained secondary | |||||
| Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | |||
| Ribble Valley | 0 | 0.0 | 14 | 0.18 | ||
| Lancashire | 32 | 0.03 | 209 | 0.29 | ||
| North West | 225 | 0.03 | 1,324 | 0.29 | ||
| England | 1,366 | 0.03 | 8,636 | 0.28 | ||
| 1999–2000 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintained primary | Maintained secondary | |||||
| Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | |||
| Ribble Valley | 1 | 0.01 | 6 | 0.07 | ||
| Lancashire | 19 | 0.02 | 144 | 0.19 | ||
| North West(12) | 194 | 0.03 | 1,072 | 0.24 | ||
| England(12) | 1,226 | 0.03 | 6,713 | 0.21 | ||
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| 2000–01 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintained primary | Maintained secondary | |||||
| Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | Number of exclusions | Percentage of the school population(11) | |||
| Ribble Valley | 2 | 0.02 | 21 | 0.25 | ||
| Lancashire | 34 | 0.03 | 207 | 0.28 | ||
| North West(12) | 204 | 0.03 | 1,139 | 0.25 | ||
| England(12) | 1,436 | 0.03 | 7,305 | 0.23 | ||
(10) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(11) The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) pupils in primary and secondary schools.
(12) Permanent exclusions for 2000/01 are estimated as a number of local education authorities have not confirmed the data for their schools.
Source:
Annual Schools Census
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