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15 Mar 2004 : Column 81W—continued
Education Funding
Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money was spent on education in England (a) in total and (b) per pupil for each of the last five years. [160993]
Mr. Miliband: I refer the hon. Member to the Department's Departmental Report 2003, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in Crosby have benefited from the Excellence in Cities programme; and what the per pupil spending was in each year since the programme's inception. [160406]
Mr. Miliband: Chesterfield High School, Manor High School and Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Crosby have been included in Excellence in Cities since September 2001. The following table shows the number of children in Crosby benefiting, and the annual spend per pupil for the years in question.
| Number of children | Total EiC expenditure | Spend per pupil (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 3,524 | 208,846 | 59.26 |
| 2002–03 | 3,531 | 453,655 | 128.48 |
| 2003–04 | 3,629 | 497,246 | 137.02 |
EiC funding includes Leadership Incentive Grant and Behaviour Improvement Programme money. In addition, Manor High School also receives some funding from the Statutory Education Action Zone.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money has been allocated to schools in Crosby for information and communications technologies since 2001. [160413]
Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department does not hold information on funding allocations for ICT at town level. However, Crosby is in Sefton local education authority and since 2001, including LEA match funding, schools in Sefton have received £5,167,125.
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Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding has been spent on computers for schools in Crosby in each of the last seven years. [160445]
Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department does not hold information on funding allocations for ICT at town level. However, Crosby is in Sefton local education authority and, including match funding, allocations for the LEA are as follows:
| Allocation to Sefton LEA (£) | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99(13) | 587,146 |
| 1999–2000 | 813,934 |
| 2000–01 | 955,931 |
| 2001–02 | 1,350,818 |
| 2002–03 | 1,890,315 |
| 2003–04 | 1,925,992 |
(13) Specific funding for ICT in schools was not available in 1997–98.
Opportunity Bursaries
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students in Crosby have benefited from New Opportunity bursaries. [160412]
Alan Johnson: Information about Opportunity Bursaries is held at the level of institutions that provide higher education provision. It is not possible to extract from that data the number of awards for students in any given area.
Education Standards
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of pupils in Crosby reached the (a) mathematics and (b) English standard in each of the last seven years. [160408]
Mr. Miliband: The results from the 2003 National Curriculum tests showed that 75 per cent. of 11 year olds in England reached Level 4 in English and 73 per cent. in mathematics. These results represent a significant improvement in standards—of 12 per cent. points in English and 11 per cent. points in mathematics—since 1997, reflecting the impact of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies on primary schools. We remain absolutely committed, through our new Primary Strategy, to supporting schools to achieve the ambitious targets we have set for standards of literacy and numeracy.
The following table shows the number and percentage of pupils in Crosby who have achieved level 4 or above in the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics tests since 1997. The results for Crosby are well above the national average, with improvements since 1997 in English and 1998 in mathematics in line with the improvement in the national figures:
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English—Number of pupils(14) | 703 | 721 | 779 | 787 | 789 | 833 | 823 |
| Mathematics—Number of pupils(14) | 729 | 677 | 785 | 746 | 755 | 826 | 822 |
| English—Percentage of pupils | 77 | 80 | 83 | 85 | 84 | 85 | 86 |
| Mathematics—Percentage of pupils | 80 | 75 | 84 | 80 | 80 | 84 | 86 |
(14) The number of eligible pupils for the Key Stage 2 tests varies slightly from year to year.
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Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of 11 year old pupils in Crosby reached level four in (a) mathematics and (b) English in each of the last seven years. [160409]
Mr. Miliband: The percentage and number of pupils in Crosby who reached Level 4 or above at Key Stage 2 in (a) mathematics and (b) English in the last seven years are:
| Mathematics | English | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crosby(15) | Crosby(16) | England(16) | Crosby(15) | Crosby(16) | England(16) | |
| 2003(17) | 822 | 86 | 73 | 823 | 86 | 75 |
| 2002 | 826 | 84 | 73 | 833 | 84 | 75 |
| 2001 | 755 | 80 | 71 | 789 | 84 | 75 |
| 2000 | 746 | 80 | 72 | 787 | 85 | 75 |
| 1999 | 785 | 84 | 69 | 779 | 83 | 71 |
| 1998 | 677 | 75 | 59 | 721 | 80 | 65 |
| 1997 | 729 | 80 | 62 | 703 | 77 | 63 |
(15) Number of pupils achieving level 4+.
(16) Percentage of pupils achieving level 4+.
(17) Provisional.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of 15 and 16-year-olds in Crosby achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C or GNVQ equivalent in each of the last seven years. [160410]
Mr. Miliband: The statistical information requested is detailed in the following table:
| Academic year | Crosby parliamentary constituency | England |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 47.9 | 45.1 |
| 1998 | 49.5 | 46.3 |
| 1999 | 55.2 | 47.9 |
| 2000 | 57.5 | 49.2 |
| 2001 | 57.2 | 50.0 |
| 2002 | 57.0 | 51.6 |
| 2003 | 55.0 | 52.9 |
(18) Pupils are aged 15 at the start of the academic year, i.e. 31 August.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools in Crosby deemed to be failing since 1997 have since reached satisfactory standards. [160407]
Mr. Miliband: No schools in Crosby have been found to be failing since 1997.
Educational Databases
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether information collected by the Connexions Service can be matched with the National Pupil Database at pupil level; and whether the two databases can be used to produce information matching the later destinations of young people with their achievements on National Curriculum Tests, secondary school they attended and other pupil characteristics. [155569]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 March 2004]: Information collected by the Connexions Service cannot be accurately matched with data held by the National Pupil Database.
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Currently there is no national Connexions Service database as in the case of the National Pupil Database and without a commonly agreed identifier, linking records to the 47 different partnership databases would be extremely difficult.
However, as part of work to improve systems for young people and learners as well as providers, my Department is currently exploring the feasibility of establishing systems which would enable information held by different organisations to be shared and analysed more effectively. The results of the feasibility work should be available in the summer.
Homeless Young People
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) financial and (b) other support services are available to a young person between 16 and 18-years-old who has been refused a home by his or her family but has not been made ward of court. [155642]
Margaret Hodge: The information is as follows.
Financial assistance available to 16 to 18-year-olds
Financial assistance is available to young people aged 16 or over but under 19, who are undertaking full time non-advanced education, and out of necessity have to live away from their parents or any person acting as their parents because:
- They are estranged from their parents or that person(s) acting as their parents
- They are in physical or moral danger: or
- There is a serious risk to his physical or mental health.
- They have ceased to live in accommodation provided for them by a local authority (Part III of the Children Act 1989) and are living away from their parents or persons acting as their parents
Their parent is unable to financially support them and are either chronically sick, mentally ill, detained in custody or prevented from entering or re-entering Great Britain they will be entitled to income support.
The rule is that young people must be in full time non-advanced education. If they are not and do not satisfy any other condition of entitlement, they must claim job seekers allowance if they need benefit.
Other support service provision for 16 to 17-year-olds
Local authority social service departments have a range of powers and duties under the Children Act 1989 to provide services for children in need (0 to 18-years-old) in their area.
A general duty is placed on local authorities by section 17 of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under 18 in their area who are in need by providing a range of services appropriate to meeting those needs. The definition of a child in need is set out in section 17(10) of the Act, which applies to all children, regardless of whether or not they reside with their family.
There is also a duty under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 to provide accommodation for children in need if necessary.
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