House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 1 Sept 2003 (pt 14)

1 Sept 2003 : Column 720W—continued

City Academies

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who the owners of the land and buildings in a church-run city academy are; and in cases where the land and buildings are not owned by the local education authority, under what circumstances ownership would revert to the local education authority. [126184]

Mr. Miliband: Sites for academies are usually provided by local education authorities, which transfer ownership to the academies themselves, on a leasehold or freehold basis. Where an academy is sponsored by a church, however, particularly if it replaces an existing church school, the site may be provided by a religious foundation.

Our normal expectation is that the site and buildings of an academy will revert to whichever body provided the site initially, in the event they are no longer required for the purposes of the academy. Individual academy funding agreements will make specific provision for this. Where a local education authority has transferred the land or buildings to an academy trust the Secretary of State has powers to transfer the land back to the authority if the academy ceases to exist or moves to another site.

Class Sizes

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average class size in secondary schools was in (a) Dorset and (b) Poole in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [126440]

Mr. Miliband: The available information is shown in the table.

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Maintained secondary schools⁽¹⁰⁾average size of classes taught by one teacher⁽¹¹⁾Position in January each year 1992 to 2003⁽¹⁴⁾

Secondary Schools

Dorset LEA⁽¹²⁾ Dorset LEA⁽¹³⁾ Pode LEA⁽¹³⁾

1992 21.8 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1993 21.4 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1994 21.5 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1995 21.8 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1996 22.0 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1997 21.8 ⁽¹⁵⁾— ⁽¹⁵⁾—

1998 ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.5 20.5

1999 ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.0 20.8

2000 ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.6 21.4

2001 ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.8 20.9

2002 ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.7 20.2

2003⁽¹⁴⁾ ⁽¹⁵⁾— 22.0 20.9

	Secondary Schools
	Dorset LEA⁽¹²⁾	Dorset LEA⁽¹³⁾	Pode LEA⁽¹³⁾
1992	21.8	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1993	21.4	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1994	21.5	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1995	21.8	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1996	22.0	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1997	21.8	⁽¹⁵⁾—	⁽¹⁵⁾—
1998	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.5	20.5
1999	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.0	20.8
2000	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.6	21.4
2001	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.8	20.9
2002	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.7	20.2
2003⁽¹⁴⁾	⁽¹⁵⁾—	22.0	20.9

⁽¹⁰⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.

⁽¹¹⁾ Classes as taught during a single selected period in each school on the day of the census in January.

⁽¹²⁾ Before local government reorganisation Dorset LEA incorporated Pode LEA Bournemouth LEA and rest of Dorset.

⁽¹³⁾ After local government reorganisation.

⁽¹⁴⁾ provisional

⁽¹⁵⁾ not available

Source:

Annual Schools' Census

Community Learning

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will set out arrangements for safeguarding funding for local and adult community learning. [126802]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: My Department and the LSC will agree an overall indicative budget to support non-qualification bearing programmes previously funded under Adult and Community Learning. Nationally this will be based on the broad proportion of LSC funds spent on this type of learning. The LSC will agree with each local LSC a minimum figure for such learning activities in order to maximize the civic, social and cultural gain in every part of England.

Connexions

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which wards and programmes within Sefton have benefited from (a) Connexions, (b) Connexions Summer Plus, (c) Transforming Youth Work Development Fund and (d) Lifelong Learning Partnerships. [124517]

Margaret Hodge: The information is as follows:

Connexions

Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership (which covers the whole of Sefton) opened in September 2001. Connexions offers advice, guidance and access to personal development opportunities for all young people aged 13–19 years old (or up to 25 years old if the young person has a learning difficulty or disability). Since April 2002, significant help has been given on 29,500 occasions to young people in Sefton.

Positive Activities for Young People (previously Connexions Summer Plus)

Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) is a new programme for young people, which provides diversionary activities during school holidays. This

1 Sept 2003 : Column 722W

programme is being delivered by Greater Merseyside Connexions. In Sefton, 210 full-time places will be provided under PAYP from mid July this year with activities focused on the southern end of the borough.

In addition, a minimum of 60 young people will receive targeted support from key workers to ensure that they join and stay with the programme and return to education, training or employment after the holiday period.

Activities will focus on providing young people with opportunities to help them fulfil their potential, as well as diverting them away from crime. The PAYP scheme will include sport, developing skills as DJs, arts, activities promoting the cultural diversity of the area, and outdoor adventure. These will be available throughout the school holiday periods at times appropriate to meet the needs of young people.

Transforming Youth Work Development Fund

The aim of the TYWDF is to raise the overall quality and quantity of youth work. Sefton has received £48,989 from TYWDF in 2003–04. (This amount adds to the budget provided by the local authority from its education resources).

Sefton Youth Service has used some of this funding to help develop a project called 'Youth Only Zone', working with the police and Leisure services. This project focuses on tackling anti-social behaviour and street crime by young people. It gives youth workers and the police a number of options to offer young people through a range of activities provided in leisure centres. Last year, 500 young people became involved in 'Youth Only Zone' through the Youth Service. Sefton police have also reported a 20 per cent. reduction in calls about juvenile nuisance since the start of the project.

Lifelong Learning Partnerships

Lifelong Learning Partnerships bring together local learning providers (ranging from voluntary sector to Further Education/Higher Education Institutions) and others such as local government, Connexions Service, trade unions, employers and faith groups.

The Partnerships have two core roles; to promote joint working between partners in support of lifelong learning and to maximise the contribution of learning to local regeneration.

From April 2003, funding is routed through the LSC with Sefton Lifelong Learning Partnership receiving £74,512.

Mr. Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what has been the total money spent on the Connexions service in each year since it was established; and how many people under the age of 19 have received advice from the service in each of those years. [123568]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 4 July 2003]: The amount spent on the Connexions service in each year since it was established is as follows:

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£ million

2000–01 12

2001–02 147

2002–03 377

	£ million
2000–01	12
2001–02	147
2002–03	377

Note:

These figures exclude the amount spent on funding careers services in those areas where Connexions had not yet been introduced.

Information about the number of young people under the age of 19 receiving advice from Connexions is not collected in the exact format requested. However, the following table shows the number of occasions that young people received assistance in 2001–02 and interventions in 2002–03. Different definitions were used in these two years, reflecting the move away from counting all contacts with young people (referred to as "assistance given") to recording only significant contact on a one-to-one basis (referred to as "interventions").

England

April 2001-March 2002 "assistance given"⁽¹⁶⁾ 1,257,437

April 2002-March 2003 "interventions"⁽¹⁷⁾ 3,082,926

	England
April 2001-March 2002 "assistance given"⁽¹⁶⁾	1,257,437
April 2002-March 2003 "interventions"⁽¹⁷⁾	3,082,926

⁽¹⁶⁾ Data relates to 15 Connexions partnerships which were launched before March 2002.

⁽¹⁷⁾ Data relates to the 46 Connexions partnerships (including the 15 partnerships referred to above) which were operational at some point during 2002–03

County Council Support Grants

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what additional support grant for Leicestershire county council would be required if it was funded at the average for English counties for (a) primary and (b) secondary pupils based on the (i) current financial year and (b) each financial year between 1996–97 to 2002–03; [125241]

(a)

(b)

(3) if he will make a statement on the level of education funding in Leicestershire; and if he will estimate the (a) percentage and (b) cost difference between Leicestershire and the top funded county outside London. [125243]

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Mr. Miliband: The Education Formula Spending (EPS) system, which distributes the bulk of the financial support for schools, sets out not to provide the same level of funding for all pupils but to allow for the extra costs of educating children with additional needs, those in rural areas with sparse populations and those in areas where it costs more to recruit and retain staff. Therefore there are differences in the levels of funding which authorities receive recognising the differences in circumstances. For that reason, Leicestershire receives £380 per pupil (10 per cent.) less in overall resources than the "top" funded county outside London but since 1997–98 (the last year for which comparable data are available) real terms funding in Leicestershire has increased by 620 (29 per cent.) for primary pupils and by 550 (19 per cent.) for secondary pupils. The following table sets out the other information requested in cash terms between 1997–98 and 2003–04. For 2004–05, we are working with representatives of schools and local education authorities to ensure that every school receives a reasonable per pupil settlement.

Leicestershire (£) Shires(£) Difference (£) Grant needed(£ million)

Primary aged pupils (3–10)

1997–98 1,910 1,860 -50 —

1998–99 2,010 2,010 0 —

1999–2000 2,180 2,200 20 1.2

2000–01 2,380 2,400 30 1.4

2001–02 2,560 2,590 30 1.6

2002–03 2,670 2,740 70 4.1

2003–04 2,860 3,030 170 9.3

Secondary aged pupils (11–15)

1997–98 2,540 2,600 60 2

1998–99 2,660 2,710 40 1.5

1999–00 2,810 2,880 60 2.3

2000–01 3,060 3,120 60 2.2

2001–02 3,260 3,320 60 2.3

2002–03 3,420 3,520 100 3.8

2003–04 3,520 3,710 190 7.4

	Leicestershire (£)	Shires(£)	Difference (£)	Grant needed(£ million)
	Primary aged pupils (3–10)
1997–98	1,910	1,860	-50	—
1998–99	2,010	2,010	0	—
1999–2000	2,180	2,200	20	1.2
2000–01	2,380	2,400	30	1.4
2001–02	2,560	2,590	30	1.6
2002–03	2,670	2,740	70	4.1
2003–04	2,860	3,030	170	9.3
	Secondary aged pupils (11–15)
1997–98	2,540	2,600	60	2
1998–99	2,660	2,710	40	1.5
1999–00	2,810	2,880	60	2.3
2000–01	3,060	3,120	60	2.2
2001–02	3,260	3,320	60	2.3
2002–03	3,420	3,520	100	3.8
2003–04	3,520	3,710	190	7.4

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