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14 Jul 2003 : Column 91W—continued
Physiotherapy Vacancies
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many NHS physiotherapy vacancies there are in Northern Ireland. [124691]
Angela Smith: As at 30 September 2002 there were physiotherapy vacancies amounting to a whole-time equivalent of 42.63. Physiotherapy vacancies detailed by trust are given in the following table.
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Asbestos
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his Answer of 20 June 2003, Official Report, column 443W, on asbestos, if he will list buildings which have been identified as containing asbestos. [122974]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Within my Department there are only two buildings which are known to contain asbestos; Mowden Hall in Darlington and Caxton House in London. As mentioned in my reply of 20 June my Department will comply fully with the new asbestos regulations.
Biology Teachers
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Teacher Training Agency plans to take to ensure that all newly qualified biology teachers have sufficient training to enable them to deliver basic out of classroom teaching in biology and other scientific disciplines. [125268]
Mr. Miliband: As one of the statutory requirements to be met before qualified teacher status can be awarded, trainee secondary teachers must be able to demonstrate a secure knowledge and understanding of the subject they are trained to teach. They must also be able to demonstrate that they can plan opportunities for pupils to learn in out-of-school contexts, including school trips, museum visits, field-work and employment-based settings, with the help of other staff where appropriate.
Carers Grant
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Government are taking to assist young carers. [122427]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 July 2003]: We are taking a number of steps to help young carers.
We are providing funding through the Carers Special Grant. The grant is worth £100 million in 2003/04, of which 20 per cent. is earmarked for children's services, including young carers, which enable young carers to have a break.
We are also funding The Children's Society to undertake a three-year project, The Young Carers Initiative. This has involved direct consultation with young carers, leading to the publication last November,
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with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, of "Making it Work, Good practice with young carers and their families".
The Initiative supports more that 250 projects or groups across the country working with young carers, where they can go for advice, information and support or leisure. The Initiative has just entered its final year and is concentrating on developing standards for work with young carers.
Further, we are ensuring that young carers' needs are taken into account in developing work such as the National Service Framework for Children.
For further information I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) by the then Minister of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith) on 21 May.
Mr. Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many children with a learning disability took short breaks enabled by funding from the carers grant in each year since 1997–98, broken down by each social services authority; [122336]
- (2) what net expenditure from the carers grant on children with a learning disability by each social services authority in England (a) was in each year since 1997–98 and (b) is projected for the financial year 2003–04; [122384]
(3) how many children took short breaks enabled by funding from the carers grant in each year since 1997–98, broken down by social services authority. [122385]
Margaret Hodge: Since it was introduced in 1999, the funding for the carer's grant has increased year by year, and will continue to do so, as follows:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 20 |
| 2000–01 | 50 |
| 2001–02 | 70 |
| 2002–03 | 85 |
| 2003–04 | 100 |
| 2004–05 | 125 |
| 2005–06 | 185 |
20 per cent. of the carer's grant is earmarked for children's services. It is a matter for local authorities to determine local needs and distribute the carer's grant as they see fit. For this reason, information about how much money each local authority spends on services for children in general, and children with a learning disability, is not held centrally. Details about how many children with a learning disability from each social services authority took short breaks funded by the carer's grant are also not held centrally.
In 2001–02, 52,481 families were supported by children's services using the carer's grant. Before this date we did not collect data on the breakdown of spending of the carer's grant between children's and adult's services. This information will continue to be collected in future years.
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Chair of Governors Award
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many individuals have studied successfully for the Chair of Governors award; and if he will make a statement on his policy on attracting, training and supporting school governors. [125021]
Mr. Miliband: Since June 2000, 21 governors from Essex, Cambridgeshire, Lewisham and Thurrock have been awarded the BTEC Higher Certificate for the Chair of Governors award developed by Essex LEA.
My right hon. Friend's policy on attracting, training and supporting school governors is to empower local education authorities and schools to deliver high quality support locally. The Department's school governor recruitment strategy offers support to locally based governor recruitment activities by LEAs and schools. We have produced the Help Schools Help Children information leaflet which promotes governorship and a supporting toolkit which offers advice and guidance on recruitment activities as well as publicity materials which can be adapted for local use. My Department also funds the School Governors' One Stop Shop which was established in November 1999 to recruit governors with business and management skills for inner city schools in Excellence in Cities (EiC) areas. In September 2002 this remit was extended to a number of other areas known to have serious vacancy problems.
Under my Department's National Strategy for Training and Supporting School Governors the first priority was to develop a National Training Programme for New Governors to ensure that all governors have the information they need to fulfil their statutory functions. The programme, which is delivered by LEA governor trainers, has been operating since September 2001. A Clerks' National Training Programme, developed for the Department by Consortium 52, a partnership involving LEAs in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside regions, together with the local diocesan bodies, is being rolled out to LEAs this summer. The programme supports a national job description for clerks, agreed after extensive consultation last year, and should increase awareness of this important role as well as ensure that clerks have the necessary skills and knowledge to support governing bodies effectively.
The third strand of the strategy is a National Development Programme for Heads and Chairs, which is currently being developed by the Eastern Leadership Centre (an Affiliated Centre for the National College of School Leadership) in partnership with governor services in nine eastern region LEAs in association with local Anglican and Catholic dioceses. The programme will provide skills training for chairs as well as joint development for heads and chairs linked to supporting a school improvement activity in the participants' schools, to develop joint leadership and effective team working. The Programme is due to be delivered to the Department at the end of March 2004.
All of these programmes build on existing good practice, provide mixed media resources, and offer self study as well as taught course materials to cater for a wide variety of preferred learning styles and access arrangements.
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