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14 Jul 2003 : Column 95W—continued
Child Care
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to (a) train and (b) recruit people in the child care sector; and if he will make a statement. [122221]
Margaret Hodge: Good quality child care helps to enhance outcomes for children. A skilled and qualified child care workforce is essential to meet our objectives to increase the availability of high quality child care for all age groups.
We provide for the training of child care workers through the Learning and Skills Council, and through funding allocated to local authorities and their Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships. It is for local LSCs and local authorities to assess needs in their areas and develop plans to ensure the training delivered best meets them. We issued joint guidance with LSC to encourage local planning for workforce development.
A national child care recruitment campaign has been running since 2000 to encourage people to consider a career in child care. It includes television and media advertising, a variety of customised information and materials, a national order line and a website with order facility. Local authorities promote careers in child care using a range of materials and events, working with local partners such as Jobcentre Plus, Careers Services, providers and sector organisations to provide practical help to potential recruits.
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment has been made of the reasons why local authorities make reciprocal arrangements to pay for (a) nursery and (b) child care facilities. [121264]
Margaret Hodge: Prior to April 2003, cross border disputes arose typically because of differences between local education authorities' (LEAs') eligibility criteria and grant distribution. Guidance issued by the Sure Start Unit encourages LEAs to make reciprocal arrangements or otherwise to consider funding on a case by case basis. Nursery education funding is now allocated to LEAs through their Education Formula Spending Share. This is calculated on the basis of the latest data on pupil numbers and reflects provision for all children taking up a free place, regardless of where they live. From April 2004, there should be no need for reciprocal arrangements since all LEAs will have a statutory duty to provide a free nursery education place for every three year old whose parents want one.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the average cost for full day child care in each local education authority in England was in 2001–02; [120625]
- (2) when he will reply to the question from the hon. Member for Regent's Park and Kensington North, ref 120625 tabled on 17 June. [125633]
Margaret Hodge: 110 of the 150 local authorities responsible for reviewing child care in their areas supplied figures to the Department for the average weekly cost of full day child care in their areas in 2001–02. Their figures are not directly comparable since they may have been collected at different times during
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the year. The are now somewhat out of date and they reflect figures given to us by the local authorities themselves.
Note:
Full day child care includes care for children under age eight for more than four hours in settings which are not domestic premises. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole pound.
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Child Guardianship
Tim Loughton: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, how many children have been awaiting CAFCASS hearings on future guardianship for (a) three to four weeks, (b) five to eight weeks, (c) nine to 12 weeks and (d) more than 12 weeks. [120386]
Margaret Hodge: The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) does not make the decision to remove children from the care of their parents or guardians, or hold hearings on future guardianship. Court hearings are held to determine these questions. A CAFCASS practitioner represents the interests of a child during proceedings. The court considers all the evidence before it, including CAFCASS reports and makes the decision about the child's future. At the end of April 2003, CAFCASS were dealing with 12,245 public law cases (care, adoption, freeing orders and guardianship) that were at various stages between application and final hearing. Information on how many
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children are awaiting hearings on future guardianship is not held centrally and could not be collected without incurring disproportionate cost.
Children at Risk Green Paper
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 25 June, ref 121620, to which other reports the Green Paper on Children at Risk will make a substantive response. [122766]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 30 June 2003]: The Green Paper on Children at Risk will make a formal response to the joint chief inspectors' report, "Safeguarding Children" and the Victoria Climbié Inquiry report.
Children's Centres
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of children's centres will be funded exclusively by his Department in (a) 2003, (b) 2004 and (c) 2005. [121894]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 26 June 2003]: The Government are allocating resources to develop children centres, and to create 43,000 new child care places—£435 million in this spending review period, including £317 million capital. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how and where children's centre services will be delivered. The majority of centres will be developed from sure start local programmes, neighbourhood nurseries and early excellence centres. However, the sure start unit is also encouraging development from other existing provision in the maintained, voluntary and private sectors. Local authority strategic plans are due by mid October 2003; we cannot estimate what proportion of centres will be fully funded by DfES until these are received.
Consultation Documents
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the consultation documents issued by his Department in each of the last four years; what the cost was of producing each of these; how many documents were issued in each consultation; and how many responses were received in each consultation. [124579]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.
Early Years Education
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of three year-olds have access to early years education in (a) the Bury St Edmunds constituency, (b) Suffolk, (c) Norfolk, (d) Essex and (c) Cambridgeshire. [120411]
Margaret Hodge: The information is not available in the form requested.
The available information is shown in the table.
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| Local education authority area | Number of free early years education places taken up by three year olds |
|---|---|
| Suffolk | 4,200 |
| Norfolk | 4,800 |
| Essex | 8,700 |
| Cambridgeshire | 2,700 |
We have made the commitment that by April 2004, six months ahead of our original target, all three year olds whose parents want one, will have access to a free, part-time early education place.
Latest figures on three year olds in early years education providers were published by the Department in the Statistical First Release "Provision for Children Under Five Years of Age in England: January 2003 (Provisional) (15/2003)" in May 2003, a copy of which is available from the Library. An electronic copy of this publication is also available on the Department's web-site www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics.
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