| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Jan 2003 : Column 533W—continued
Child Nutrition
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the contribution breakfast clubs and the school joint scheme can make to reducing childhood obesity and poor nutrition; and if he will make a statement. [90784]
Ms Blears: I have been asked to reply.
Initial evaluation of breakfast clubs and the national school fruit scheme indicates that they have the potential to make an important contribution to improving children's diet, as do the compulsory nutritional standards for school meals. Measures to increase physical activity can also make a contribution to reducing childhood obesity. Further evaluation of breakfast clubs will be carried out under the food in schools programme. An assessment of the impact of the national school fruit scheme upon children's diets will be undertaken over the next two years.
27 Jan 2003 : Column 534W
Children's Fund
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding has been received by Sefton Council from the Children's Fund since its inception; how the funds were allocated, broken down by project; what posts have been funded and by how much; and in which organisations these posts arise. [89477]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 15 January 2003]: Under SR2000 Sefton's Children's Fund partnership received a total allocation of £2 million up to March 2004 for its Children's Fund programme. The partnership has been paid £89,471.75 to date. A total of £66,107 was allocated in FY 2002–03 to personnel costs, of which £36,508 has been paid to date. Sefton experienced a shortfall in expenditure against profile in its first year of operation because of early recruitment difficulties and the impact this has had on service delivery. The partnership also received an allocation of £200,000 for activities undertaken as part of the Street Crime initiative from July 2002 to September 2004, and to date have been paid £25,000. The partnership has profiled to spend its full SR2000 allocation by March 2004.
The following table provides a full funding profile for Sefton Children's Fund partnership and a breakdown of its allocation by project.
27 Jan 2003 : Column 535W
Consultancy
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much (a) his Department and (b) each agency and non-departmental public body spent on external consultancy in each year from 1995–96 to 2002–03 (planned); and if he will make a statement. [92240]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The following table shows expenditure on administrative external consultancy by my Department.
| Actual expenditure | Estimated outturn | |
|---|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 9.14 | |
| 1997–98 | 4.54 | |
| 1998–99 | 5.21 | |
| 1999–2000 | 4.45 | |
| 2000–01 | 4.74 | |
| 2001–02 | 5.66 | |
| 2002–03 | 2.77 |
These figures exclude programme consultancy costs spent directly by the Department and its agencies, which are currently not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. From April 2003 arrangements will be made to collect centrally expenditure information for programme consultancy costs spent directly by the Department. The table also excludes all consultancy spend for non-departmental public bodies, as they are not required to provide the Department with detailed information on consultancy expenditure.
27 Jan 2003 : Column 536W
Expenditure information for 1995–96 could not be readily obtained as information is not held electronically for that year.
Figures for 1996–97 to 2001–02 include consultancy spend incurred by central functions that subsequently transferred to Other Government Departments under Machinery of Government changes.
Dyslexia
Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people serving sentences in (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutes in England and Wales have been diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia, in each year since 1992; and what estimate he has made of the numbers serving sentences and suffering from dyslexia, in each year since 1992. [91824]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We do not have robust data for the numbers of prisoners and young offenders diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia.
Many of the experts in this field hold differing views on whether or not the percentage of the prison population suffering from dyslexia is higher than that of the wider community. Some feel that what may appear to be indicators of dyslexia are in fact the result of a whole range of social factors that could include the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, physical injuries, interrupted schooling and lack of parental support. Conversely, others suspect that there is a high incidence of dyslexia among this specific group and that the frustrations arising from this learning difficulty have contributed to their offending behaviour.
27 Jan 2003 : Column 537W
Research has also provided conflicting results. In 1998 research from Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, based on a survey of 323 prisoners at nine establishments, found that only around 4 to 6 per cent. of prisoners were dyslexic.
The most recent research (1999), from the Dyslexia Institute, is based on a survey of nearly 100 young offenders at HMYOI Feltham. This study, which measured cognitive ability as well as dyslexia, found that 17.5 per cent. screened positive against indicators for dyslexia.
Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutes in England and Wales have facilities for (i) diagnosing dyslexia and (ii) providing education for inmates suffering from dyslexia. [91825]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: A survey carried out in 2001 indicated that around a quarter of establishments had staff trained to support learners with dyslexia. Under the Government's Skills for Life strategy, staff in all prisons and young offender institutions will have access to training so that they can identify indicators of dyslexia, know when to refer learners for specialist assessment, and provide appropriate educational programmes for them. This will be further enhanced in those young offender institutions caring for 15 to 17-year-olds by the appointment of special educational needs co-ordinators, and of learning support assistants on a ratio of one to every 10 learners.
New diagnostic assessments for prisoners, to be administered after initial assessment by a specialist teacher, will offer guidance on when to refer learners for a full dyslexia assessment with an educational psychologist or other appropriately trained person.
The majority of people with dyslexia do not require specialist teaching. They need high quality basic skills teaching which adopts a variety of inclusive strategies to support the needs of all learners. An inclusive learning handbook for all staff in prisons and YOls to be published this spring will increase the understanding of the needs of those with dyslexia.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |