House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 15 Mar 2004 (pt 20)

15 Mar 2004 : Column 85W—continued

Special Educational Needs

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of outreach programmes carried out by moderate learning difficulty schools in mainstream secondary and primary schools; and if he will make a statement. [159382]

Margaret Hodge: The Department for Education and Skills has not conducted an assessment of special school outreach programmes which support pupils with moderate learning difficulties based in mainstream schools. Ofsted has responsibility for school inspections, including an assessment of any support that schools offer to other schools. In his annual report for 2002–03, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools noted that 'good support is provided by the special schools for pupils attending mainstream schools and colleges and this contributes significantly to the quality of the programmes. A small number of schools also provide outreach support and advice to staff in mainstream schools. However, the role of special schools in this respect is weak and developing slowly.'

The Government's new SEN Strategy—Removing Barriers to Achievement—launched in February 2004, encourages special schools to do more to share their expertise with mainstream schools in support of greater inclusion. While there is clearly scope for them to develop this aspect of their role, it is important that the quality of advice and support they offer is of a high standard. Some special schools already achieve this, but it is clear from HMCI's report that the quality overall is variable. The SEN strategy therefore includes the development of generic minimum standards for SEN support services which would extend to outreach offered by special schools. It is envisaged that these will be used for self-evaluation by local authorities and schools and in Ofsted inspections and will be a form of quality assurance for schools obtaining support from external sources.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many area special educational needs co-ordinators have been created to support non-maintained schools; [157836]

(3) what proportion of registered early years settings have special educational needs co-ordinators. [157838]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 March 2004]: All SENCOs based in early years settings will have benefited from three days relevant training by 2004. We are currently in the process of evaluating how local authorities are delivering the new SEN training materials. We are also asking local authorities how they are ensuring that SENCOs based in yearly years settings receive the appropriate training to be able to deliver services to meet local needs.

SENCOs are based in private, voluntary and independent sector early years settings. It is a requirement that all publicly funded early years provision has a SENCO. These SENCOs are supported by approximately 850 Area SENCOs who have been

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employed to support early years settings. Encouragingly the assessment of LEA/EYDCP plans for 2002/03 revealed that 90 per cent. of local authorities had Area SENCOs in place. Figures for 2003/04 will be available later this year.

Pre-school Education

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many new nurseries have been established in Crosby since 1997; [160401]

(a)

(b)

Margaret Hodge: There are no Early Excellence Centres in Crosby. However, part of the catchment area for the Sure Start Seaforth and Bootle local programme is located in the church ward within the Crosby constituency. Since 1997, five new nurseries have been established in the constituency creating 189 additional places. A neighbourhood nursery attached to the Sure Start local programme is due to open in June 2004. and will deliver 65 new childcare places.

School Sports

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action his Department is taking to encourage local education authorities to work with primary care trusts to improve delivery of sports and physical activity. [159949]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Encouraging local education authorities and primary care trusts to work together to support the improved delivery of sports and physical activity opportunities is central to the work of the Government's Activity Co-ordination Team. The Department for Education and Skills is a full and active member of this group and is responsible for developing the education strand.

In developing the education strand and in taking forward new action to support local education authorities and primary care trusts, we will seek to build and maximise the impact of:

the national PE, School Sport and Club Links Strategy;

the 'Healthy Living Blueprint'—announced by the Secretary of State while speaking at the Institute of Public health last autumn. The blueprint will cover all areas of nutrition and how schools can make changes that will improve the health and lifestyle of their pupils;

the National Healthy Schools Standard (NHSS)—a joint initiative between the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health where one of the key strands of the programme is physical activity.

The Activity Co-ordination Team will publish proposals later this year.

Specialist Sports Colleges(Out-of-hours Provision)

James Purnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will publish the progress reports the Department receives from specialist sports

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colleges monitoring their commitment to the provision of out-of-hours community use of their sports facilities. [160503]

Mr. Miliband: It would be disproportionately costly to provide the progress reports received from all specialist sports colleges. However, it may be useful to refer to the report template filled in by specialist schools after two years of each four year designation phase. This is available on the specialist schools website http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/progress/?version=1.

The Department funds the Youth Sport Trust (YST) to work with sports colleges locally, with, for example, regular visits which include a specific focus on developing the community dimension and challenging the school about their practice. Where appropriate, the YST also works with key local stakeholders (e.g. local authority) on issues relating to community provision.

There is further information about out-of-hours access to sports college facilities in Section E of the Youth Sport Trust's 2003 National Survey of Specialist Sports Colleges, available at http://www. youthsporttrust.org/scnational/YST%20Documents/Forms/Allltems.htm.

Streaming

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of lessons inspected by Ofsted in 2002–03 in (a) year 7, (b) year 8, (c) year 9, (d) year 10 and (e) year 11 were set by ability in (i) grammar schools, (ii) secondary modern schools and (iii) comprehensive schools. [160778]

Mr. Miliband: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, David Bell, will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of his letter in the Library.

Student Loans

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what proportion of student loans he estimates will not be paid off after 25 years following the introduction of top-up fees; [161137]

(a)

(b)

(c)

Alan Johnson: Estimates of the cost of subsidising both maintenance and fee loans in 2006/07 were set out in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) published on 8 January alongside the Higher Education Bill.

We estimate that about 5 per cent. of borrowers, starting from 2006/07, may benefit from the proposal to write off loan balances after 25 years; the corresponding cost to the public purse is estimated at £30 million in steady state.

Copies of the Regulatory Impact Assessment were placed in the Library of the House; it is also available on the Department for Education and Skills website.

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Teachers (Crosby)

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of teachers in Crosby have received computer training. [160444]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Statistics on teacher training in ICT are not compiled on a constituency basis, but all teachers are expected to be able to use ICT effectively in the classroom. In-service training was largely addressed by the UK-wide National Lottery-funded New Opportunities Fund (NOF) ICT training, which ran between 1999 and 2003, and to which some 96 per cent. of teachers in England signed-up.

Training in the effective use of ICT in teaching is also a mandatory part of teacher training institute courses.

Further training opportunities to address teachers' continuing professional development needs (CPD) in embedding ICT in classroom teaching are now being developed across a range of subjects, and teachers are able to buy into this training using Standards Fund monies.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in Crosby on the latest date for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to reduce them. [160396]

Mr. Miliband: The information is not available in the form requested. In January 2003, there were 10 vacancies for full-time teachers in maintained schools in the Sefton local education authority (LEA) area, which includes Crosby.

Like other areas, since 1997 Sefton has benefited from the initiatives that the Government have put in place to recruit and retain teachers and to increase the number of staff supporting them in schools. Since 1997, the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained schools in Sefton LEA has risen by 120, from 2,540 to 2,660 in 2003. Over the same period, the number of full-time equivalent school support staff in the LEA has grown by 540, from 780 to 1,320.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teaching assistants there were in schools in Crosby in (a) each of the last seven years and (b) on the latest date for which figures are available. [160397]

Mr. Miliband: In Crosby constituency there were 148 full-time equivalent teaching assistants in service in maintained schools in 2003. This is the latest information available. The table gives the corresponding numbers since 1997.

Number of teaching assistants

1997 89

1998 92

1999 103

2000 123

2001 145

2002 131

	Number of teaching assistants
1997	89
1998	92
1999	103
2000	123
2001	145
2002	131

Source:

Annual Schools' Census.

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