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Special Educational Needs

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what resources are available to assist children whose special educational needs are identified before the start of compulsory schooling. [157152]

Mr. Miliband: In all but exceptional cases, children below statutory school age will be supported through the resources and intervention arrangements that are normally available to schools and early years settings. Resources have also been made available to local authorities and their Early Years Development

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Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) to ensure that all early years settings have access to advice and support from Early Years Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators as well as specialist teachers and educational psychologists.

In September 2002, we launched the Early Support Pilot Programme (ESPP) to improve services for babies and very young disabled children and their families. This is a four-year, £13 million programme to develop more co-ordinated, multi-agency support for children and their families. Pathfinder programmes were launched in nine areas in 2003.

Local authorities are also able to provide access to a home-based learning programme, such as Portage, or the services of a peripatetic support teacher, to help children with SEN learn how to learn.

For those children with particularly severe and complex needs, local authorities are able to provide places in special schools or resourced provision within mainstream settings from their schools budget.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many places there were in special schools in (a) the state sector and (b) the non-state sector in (i) 1997 and (ii) 2003. [157154]

Margaret Hodge: The figures are available for the numbers of pupils in special schools but we do not collect data for the numbers of places in special schools.

In January 1997, there were 93,018 pupils in maintained special schools, 5,810 pupils with statements of SEN in independent schools and 4,992 pupils with statements of SEN in non-maintained special schools.

In January 2003, there were 88,930 pupils in maintained special schools, 6,990 pupils with statements of SEN in independent schools and 4,840 pupils with statements of SEN in non-maintained special schools.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of pupils with special educational needs (a) with a statement and (b) without a statement are educated in (i) special schools, (ii) specialist classes or units within mainstream schools and (iii) other classes within mainstream schools. [157750]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 March 2004]: Information about the provision being made for pupils with statements of special educational need is collected from local authorities in January each year. In January 2003, the proportions were as follows:

Special educational needs	Percentage
Special schools (including maintained, non-maintained and independent)	37.5
Resourced provision, specialist classes or units within mainstream	7.5
Maintained mainstream schools	53.8
Pupil referral units	0.7
Other independent schools	0.5

Data about the provision for pupils with SEN but without a statement is not collected from local authorities but information is available from the Pupil

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Level Annual Schools Census. Pupils in specialist classes or units within mainstream are not identified separately. In January 2003, the proportions were as follows:

Special educational needs	Percentage
Special schools (including maintained, non-maintained and independent)	0.2
Maintained mainstream schools (including resourced provision, specialist classes or units within mainstream)	95.7
Pupil referral units	0.5
Independent and non-maintained schools	3.6

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the extent to which statemented needs are being met. [157284]

Margaret Hodge: The Education Act 1996 places duties on local education authorities (LEAs) and all LEA-maintained schools to identify, assess and make suitable provision to meet children's special educational needs (SEN). They may make and maintain statements on such children where appropriate, and section 324(5)(a) of the Act imposes a statutory duty on LEAs to arrange that the special educational provision specified in statements they maintain is made for the child, unless the child's parent has made suitable arrangements. We have no reason to believe that LEAs do not meet the needs of statemented children in the great majority of cases. However, it is open to parents and others to complain to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if they consider that an LEA is failing in its statutory duties in relation to implementing and maintaining statements, with a view to him exercising his powers under sections 497 and 497A of the 1996 Act. We consider any such complaints carefully. In addition, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) monitors the performance of LEAs in meeting their statutory duties, including those relating to children with special educational needs.

The Government's new SEN "Strategy Removing Barriers to Achievement", launched on 11 February, will build on the improvements to the statutory framework brought about by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act and the SEN Code of Practice, both 2001. We believe that all children with SEN will benefit from the proposals in the Strategy, on which we consulted widely prior to publication.

Student Finance

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the Student Loan Company's latest estimate is of the likely future level of bad debt from income contingent student loans. [155454]

Alan Johnson: There is no real concept of bad debt under the income-contingent loan repayment scheme. This is because repayments are in line with earnings, not in accordance with a credit agreement, and income-contingent loans repayments are collected through the tax system, apart from a few exceptions. Loans are written off only for policy reasons—due to death, becoming disabled and unfit for work, or at the age of 65—which are not considered as bad debt.

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Sure Start

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to extend Sure Start's Business Success for Childcare programme to more areas of England in 2004–05, with particular reference to Bassetlaw. [158591]

Margaret Hodge: The Business Success for Childcare Programme currently delivers free business support training to childcare providers through a series of workshops supported by workbooks. The programme covers all areas of England.

To date 11,481 providers have been trained. On evaluation feedback received so far, over 90 per cent. of childminders and group providers have said that they feel able to improve their business as a result of the training they have received.

Teachers

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Government are taking to retain teachers. [146662]

Mr. Miliband: We have the highest number of teachers in schools for over twenty years, which is a reflection of our success not only in recruitment but also retention. We are encouraging teachers to remain in the profession by improving the environment and working conditions in which they are employed, through our key worker housing scheme, through ongoing and improved investment in behaviour management, through our radical school workforce reforms— supported by our union and other partners on the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group—and through the significant increases in teachers' salaries since 1997. These policies have met the key concerns of teachers and are all designed to make the profession more attractive both to potential new recruits and those already in our schools. We are also funding recruitment strategy managers who are currently working in over 100 LEAs across the country helping to provide a co-ordinated local approach to recruitment and retention.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Drugs Training

John Mann: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many magistrates have received specialist drugs training. [159472]

Mr. Leslie: Statutory responsibility for the training of magistrates currently rests with the 42 independent Magistrates' Courts' Committees (MCCs). There is no central data collected on the information requested.

However, following a survey that was undertaken by the Justices' Clerks' Society (JCS) towards the end of last year, it is known that all magistrates have had access to basic training on Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTO). The survey also revealed a general desire from magistrates for more information to be made available to them and as a consequence a working group was established and is currently producing guidance materials under the auspices of the Criminal Justice Intervention Programme (CJIP). In addition a specialist

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training pack is being developed by the JCS with the approval of the Judicial Studies Board (JSB), for magistrates who deal with DTTO review hearings.

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