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Additional School Funding (Armed Forces)

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent progress has been made towards providing additional funding for schools with a high percentage of pupils drawn from families serving in Her Majesty's armed forces. [132804]

Mr. Miliband: Additional funding for such schools would need to come through the budget shares calculated in accordance with the local education authority's school funding formula. Any school concerned with this issue should press for change through local consultative procedures. The Department will be considering the overall needs of such schools through a working group being set up this autumn.

Pregnant Asylum Seekers

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research has been conducted on assistance the Government might provide to pregnant asylum seekers who have been raped as a consequence of war; and if he will make a statement on support services for teenage asylum seekers who are victims of rape. [131959]

Margaret Hodge: On 16 July 2003 my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education pledged to commission research into the support networks of pregnant teenage asylum seekers, Official Report, column 95WH. Information gained from upcoming national events, organised by the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit, will identify areas that require further research, which can be addressed in the near future.

In relation to support services, adult and child pregnant asylum seekers who have been raped as a consequence of war have the same rights of access to the national health service and its specialist services as their peers.

The Government is currently considering how to improve the provision of interpreting services in the UK in addition to providing language support services for NHS Direct. This work is due to be completed by the end of 2003 and a contract for services will be in place by early 2004.

Child Care

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to make child care more affordable. [132380]

Margaret Hodge: The Government recognises that making child care affordable is a key challenge for the National Childcare Strategy and has made a substantial investment to achieve this. We have funded a substantial expansion in child care provision in the public, private

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and voluntary sectors, with a wide variety of types of child care—nurseries, child minders, before and after school provision and increasingly delivered alongside early education and other family services—to ensure diversity and choice for parents and to provide better services for children.

Working parents, subject to the level of their income, may receive support through the child care element of the Working Tax Credit (WTC). Tax credits are rightly targeted at lower and middle income families who may use a range of registered or approved child care. The child care element of the Working Tax Credit provides for up to 70 per cent. of costs of eligible child care. It can pay up to £94.50 a week for one child (where the childcare cost is £135), and up to £140 a week for two or more children (where the cost is £200).

No Government has provided the kind of direct support for the costs of child care that is delivered by the child care element of the Working Tax Credit. Over £650 million a year is now spent on supporting parents with child care costs.

Families are further supported through early education places, which can be used to off-set the cost of child care. As a result of our policies, all four year olds are able to access a free, good quality, part-time early education place. From April 2004, six months ahead of the original target, this will be extended to all three year olds. Currently 88 per cent. of three year olds are able to benefit from some level of free provision.

Support is also available through various grants and access funds for parents studying further and higher education, for participants on the New Deals and those receiving Job Seekers' allowance.

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to increase the number of childcare places in Redcar. [132381]

Margaret Hodge: The local authority area of Redcar and Cleveland is planning to create an additional 360 childcare places in 2003–04 bringing their total stock of childcare places to approximately 3100 by April 2004. This will represent some 13 places for every 100 children aged 0–14 in the area compared with an estimated national average by 2004 of 15 places for every 100 children.

To help meet the national target for a further 250,000 new childcare places by March 2006 Redcar and Cleveland have been allocated a target to create 598 new childcare places in 2004–06. The local authority has written to confirm acceptance of this target and the funds being made available to support this growth.

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the level of provision of workplace childcare in Redcar. [132421]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 16 October 2003]: I understand that there are currently no workplace nurseries in Redcar.

The Government provides tax and National Insurance exemptions to encourage employers to provide workplace nurseries.

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We are currently reviewing the tax and National Insurance treatment of employer-supported childcare. Our proposals offer improvements to give a better incentive to employers to support a wider range of good quality childcare provision and will benefit a greater number of employees, especially those working for smaller employers who do not have workplace nurseries.

Children and Young People's Unit

Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 6 October, Official Report, columns 1127–28W, on the Children and Young People's Unit, what activities have been undertaken by the Unit in co-ordinating the UK's participation in (a) the EU Open Method of Co-ordination on Youth Policy and (b) the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. [132745]

Margaret Hodge: The Children and Young People's Unit co-ordinates UK participation in the EU Open Method of Co-ordination on Youth Policy (Youth OMC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) through a variety of methods.

Co-ordination with the Devolved Administrations

The Unit chairs a Devolved Administrations Liaison Group (DALG) which meets for half a day, four times a year. Membership is comprised of officials with responsibility for EU youth policy and child rights policy from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Youth OMC and the UNCRC are standing agenda items.

The Unit holds two half-day bilateral meetings per year with officials in each of the Devolved Administrations. Again, the Youth OMC and the UNCRC are standing agenda items.

The Unit has an information sharing arrangement with the Devolved Administrations where written information is circulated quarterly by e-mail to officials updating them on developments and new initiatives for children and young people in each country of the UK.

These formal arrangements are reinforced with regular working-level contact between the Unit and each of the Devolved Administrations.

Co-Ordination with Westminster Departments

At a formal level, co-ordination on both the Youth OMC and the UNCRC has previously been undertaken through the Children and Young People's Unit Interdepartmental Steering Group. With the recent machinery of government changes following the creation of a Children and Families Directorate within the Department for Education and Skills, structures for cross-Whitehall co-ordination are currently being reviewed. Formal co-ordination of the Youth OMC and the UNCRC will become part of the new arrangements.

At working-level, the Unit has daily contact with officials across Whitehall on these two issues.

Examinations

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list for each local education authority (a) the floor target with respect to the percentage of year 11 pupils attending maintained

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schools gaining five or more GCSE results at Grades A* to C and (b) the date by which the floor target has to be achieved; whether the GCSE results of pupils attending academies will be included in calculating each local education authority's performance; and which local education authorities did not achieve the floor target in 2003. [131402]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 16 October 2003]: The information regarding floor targets is as follows:

The floor target is that 38 per cent. of 16-year-old pupils in schools in each LEA are to achieve five or more grades A*-C at GCSE/GNVQ by 2004. The GCSE/GNVQ results of pupils attending Academies will be taken into account in calculating each Local Education Authority's performance.

Based on 2003 provisional figures, the following Local Education Authorities have not yet achieved the 2004 floor target yet: Bristol City (35.0 per cent.), Greenwich (34.5 per cent.), Hackney (36.8 per cent.), Haringey (37.5 per cent.), Islington (36.9 per cent.), Kingston-upon-Hull (31.6 per cent.), Knowsley (33.2 per cent.), North East Lincolnshire (35.0 per cent.), Nottingham City (34.3 per cent.), Salford (36.2 per cent.), Sandwell (35.3 per cent.) and Southwark (37.7 per cent.).

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and (b) the exam boards on control procedures for (i) GCSE and (ii) A level exams. [131808]

Mr. Miliband: The control procedures for public examinations are detailed in the GCSE, GCE, VCE, GNVQ and AEA Code of Practice which was jointly drawn up by the Regulatory Authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) as Regulator, is responsible for ensuring the three unitary awarding bodies in England fulfil their obligations under the Code of Practice and conduct regular reviews to ensure parity.

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Following a recommendation from Mike Tomlinson's Inquiry into A Level standards last year, QCA strengthened the Code of Practice for the 2003 examinations, paying particular attention to the section governing the setting of grade boundaries.

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