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2 Mar 2004 : Column 898W—continued
Educational Achievement
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of pupils achieved three grade As or above at A-level in each of the last five years. [155425]
Mr. Miliband: The percentage of 16 to 18-year-old A-level candidates achieving at least three A grades at A-level over the last five years in all schools and colleges in England:
| Percentage of 16 to 18-year-old A-level candidates achieving at least three A grades at A-level | |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 7.0 |
| 2000 | 7.4 |
| 2001 | 7.4 |
| 2002 | 7.9 |
| 2003 | 8.3 |
EU Accession Countries
Glenda Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the children of citizens of EU accession countries working in the United Kingdom will (a) be permitted to attend without charge state (i) schools, (ii) colleges and (iii) universities, (b) qualify for free school meals, (c) qualify for assistance with travel costs to and from school and (d) qualify for assistance in providing school uniforms. [156978]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Children of citizens of EU accession countries working in the UK will have access to schools when their parents enter the UK.
Generally, students from the accession countries in colleges and universities will be entitled to receive education at the home student fee rate from the beginning of the 2004/05 academic year, in the same way as current EU students. Young people aged 16–19 in further education with home fee status are exempt from tuition fees.
Registered pupils in schools maintained by a local education authority, whose parents are in receipt of the following support payments, are entitled to receive free school meals:
- Income Support (IS);
- Income Based Job Seekers Allowance (IBJSA);
- support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
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- Child Tax Credit provided they do not receive Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by The Inland Revenue) which does not exceed £13,230.
Children who receive IS or IBJSA in their own right are also eligible to receive free school meals.
(c) Free transport is always necessary for a pupil of compulsory school age (5–16) who attends the nearest suitable school if it is beyond statutory walking distance. These are two miles for pupils aged up to eight and three miles for those aged eight and over. This is measured by the shortest route along which a child, accompanied as necessary, may walk with reasonable safety.
(d) The payment of grants for uniform or clothing is at the discretion of each local education authority, and they determine the eligibility criteria and the amount of any such support.
Family Courts
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Educaiton and Skills what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time is for care proceedings in family courts. [156527]
Mr. Leslie: The average time taken for a care case to pass through a Care Centre, which deals with the more complex cases, was 52.5 weeks in December. The average time taken for a care case to pass through a Family Proceedings Court (FPC), which deals with about half of all cases of this type, is lower. Centrally held data does not record the longest waiting time. More complete and accurate figures for both FPCs and Care Centres will be available by the end of March.
Home Assessment Visits
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average waiting time is in Gloucestershire for a home assessment visit by Ofsted when a person in receipt of child tax credit or working tax credit needs their home to be assessed as this is the place where their children are being looked after rather than the home of the child minder. [156391]
Margaret Hodge: The Home Childcarer Scheme allows registered childminders to gain an additional approval to care for children in the children's home. This approval process does not involve an assessment of the children's home, where the carer is already registered by Ofsted as a child minder.
Information Sharing
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has for new information referral and tracking systems; and how these will work sub-regionally to allow for effective information sharing on children and families who move across different local authorities. [155073]
Margaret Hodge: The Queen's Speech said that a Bill will be introduced to improve services designed to protect children. This will implement proposals contained in the Children's Green Paper "Every Child Matters", and, subject to consideration of responses to the Green Paper consultation, will include proposals for information sharing systems to enable practitioners to
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share early information about children and young people where this will enable better services to be provided to them and their families.
Information sharing systems must have the capacity to link together to ensure that children moving between local authority areas do not slip through the net. The Government have provided £1 million each to ten trailblazers, involving 15 local authorities, to test new ways of information sharing. The trailblazers are examining the important issue of linking databases and their experiences will inform subsequent developments.
Minister for Children
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for which funding schemes the Minister for Children is responsible. [155933]
Margaret Hodge: Table A which sets out funding schemes where I have responsibility is as follows. It has been drawn from last year's Departmental Report and includes Sure Start, which is a cross-government programme where I work closely with Baroness Catherine Ashton who is the Minister for Sure Start in both the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions. Table B is an extract from the Local Authority Social Services Letter, LASSL (2003) 7, and sets out the schemes that have transferred from the Department of Health to become my responsibility. In addition to these schemes the Home Office has transferred Family Grants, including Parentline, The Department for Constitutional Affairs has transferred Marriage and Relationship Support (MARS) grants, and Treasury have transferred the Parenting Fund.
| Early Years and Child Care | |
| Sure Start | |
| Support for Young People | |
| Connexions Service Neighbourhood Support Fund Millennium Volunteers Youth Services Children's Fund |
| Unhypothecated Revenue | |
| Formula Spending | |
| Safeguarding Children | |
| Ring fenced Revenue Grants | |
| Quality Protects | |
| Adoption Support and Special Guardianship | |
| Choice Protects | |
| Children's Trusts | |
| Teenage Pregnancy Local Implementation | |
| Regional Development Workers | |
| Secure Accommodation (Bed Bank) | |
| Capital | |
| SCE(R) Single Capital pot | |
| Secure Accommodation Grant | |
| Children's Services |
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Munchausen's Syndrome
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he was first informed of children being wrongfully removed from their parents owing to misdiagnosis of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy; and when he was first informed that Munchausen's syndrome by proxy was responsible for serious miscarriages of justice. [152113]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 30 January 2004]: We are not aware of any such situations. Local authorities have a duty to make inquiries where a child is thought to be at risk of significant harm, following Government guidance "Working Together to Safeguard Children".
Where a local authority should seek a Care Order in respect of a child, it will be for the courts to decide if this is appropriate.
However, I would refer you to the statement that I made to the House on 23 February 2004, in which I set out the action that I asked local authorities with social services responsibilities to take following the Appeal Court's judgment in the appeal against the conviction of Angela Cannings.
North Korea
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to promote academic links between the United Kingdom and North Korea. [157540]
Alan Johnson: The Department for Education and Skills has no plans to promote academic links with North Korea.
Postgraduate Education
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people (a) applied for places on Post Graduate Certificate in Education courses, (b) were offered a place on a course and (c) successfully completed the course; in each year since 1990. [157493]
Mr. Miliband: Data on the number of people offered places on Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses is not collected. The following table shows the numbers of PGCE applicants in each year since 1991/92 and the number of candidates who accepted the offer of a place in each year since 1996/97. These are the earliest years for which this information is available. The number of entrants to PGCE courses is also shown.
Source:
(31) Graduate Teacher Training Registry
(32) DFE Recruitment Survey 1990/91 to 1993/94; HESES 1994/95; TTA Survey of ITT Providers 1995/96 to 2003/04
Note:
Excludes Fast Track—Data for these years not available
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The number of candidates who successfully completed PGCE courses in each calendar year from 1990 to 2002, the most recent available, is shown in the following table.
| Year of completion | Completers |
|---|---|
| England and Wales(33) | |
| 1990 | 9,600 |
| 1991 | 10,380 |
| 1992 | 13,460 |
| 1993 | 15,110 |
| 1994 | 16,130 |
| 1995 | 17,330 |
| 1996 | 16,900 |
| 1997 | 17,780 |
| 1998 | 17,150 |
| 1999 | 16,500 |
| 2000 | 16,160 |
| England (34) | |
| 2000 | 14,850 |
| 2001 | 16,150 |
| 2002 | 16,940 |
Source:
(33) DfES Database of Teacher Records
(34) TTA Performance Profiles
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to widen participation in postgraduate education. [157495]
Alan Johnson: The government are already investing significant sums in widening access to higher education, which will also increase the supply of potential postgraduate students. The additional funding available for science and research (up £1.25 million by 2005/06 compared to 2003/04) will also increase the volume of research and opportunities for postgraduate study. Financial support for postgraduate study is available through the Career Development Loan Scheme which is administered by my Department.
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