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"Every Child Matters"
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost was of drafting, publishing and circulating "Every Child Matters: Next Steps"; and to how many people the document was sent. [162265]
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Margaret Hodge: "Every Child Matters: The Next Steps" was published for three purposes:
- To reflect what the Government was told in consultation on the Children's Green Paper, "Every Child Matters". Some 4,500 responses were received, two-thirds of them from children and young people;
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- To put into context the Children Bill, published on the same day as the document;
- To provide information to external partners, assisting them in taking forward the changes set out in the Green Paper and developed through discussions with a wide range of external partners.
The figures in the following table are estimates of the costs involved in drafting, publishing and distributing 'Every Child Matters: The Next Steps'.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Drafting | 17 |
| Publishing | 24 |
| Initial distribution | 3 |
The cost so far is therefore approximately £44,000.
Around 4,000 copies were distributed initially, leaving around 11,000 copies available for ordering by interested parties. We anticipate that many others will download the documents from the DfES website.
Child Care
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much the Government has spent on pre-school education and child care per head of children below compulsory school age in each year since 1998. [161018]
Mr. Miliband: My Department does not collect this information.
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to tackle the regional disparities in the availability of child care places for children under compulsory school age. [161019]
Margaret Hodge: The Government are providing substantial new resources to increase the availability of high quality child care for all age groups of children. Funding for 2004–06 has been specifically targeted towards those local authorities with lower levels of child care in order to reduce regional disparities.
By December 2003, more than 920,000 new child care places had been created since 1997, benefiting over 1.6 million children. We are on track to create places for over 2 million children by 2006. All four-year-olds have been guaranteed a free early education place since 1998. With effect from 1 April 2004, every three-year-old will be able to access a free place, six months earlier than originally planned.
Children (Classifications)
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills within which age ranges a young child is classified as (a) a baby and (b) an infant for official purposes. [162802]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
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Letter from Karen Dunnell to Charles Hendry, dated 22 March 2004:
- The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking within which age ranges a young child is classified as (a) a baby and (b) an infant for official purposes. (162802)
- In National Statistics there is no single official definition of the word 'baby' or the word 'infant' in relation to age. Both may have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used.
Children's Services Authority (Lancashire)
Mr. Dawson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the possible problems of co-ordination that might arise from the establishment of a local safeguarding board to cover a Lancashire children's services authority under Clause 9 of the Children Bill. [161979]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 16 March 2004]: The responses to the consultation on the Green Paper, "Every Child Matters", strongly supported the vision it set out and included a great deal of helpful feedback on the practical issues county councils and other partners will need to address in implementing the proposed changes. "Every Child Matters: Next Steps", published on 4 March, sets out the Government's proposals for both legislative change and a programme for change and support for local leadership in delivering those reforms, ahead of the 2004 Spending Review.
We have also begun informal discussions with local authority associations including the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Social Services. We will consult formally on regulations and guidance on Local Safeguarding Children Boards in due course.
Mr. Dawson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the possible practical problems that might arise from the designation of Lancashire county council as a children's services authority under Clause 6 of the Children Bill. [161980]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 16 March 2004]: The responses to the consultation Green Paper, "Every Child Matters" included a great deal of helpful advice on the practical challenges that large and complex county councils such as Lancashire face in implementing the proposed changes. We do not underestimate those challenges and will work in close partnership with councils, local authorities and other partners to address them. Our plans to support authorities include appointing regional change advisers, producing statutory guidance, and developing and sharing good practice and examples of delivery models.
Class Sizes
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in Buckingham were taught in classes of more than 30 on the latest date for which figures are available. [161309]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The data requested are shown in the table.
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| Total numberof classes | Total numberof pupils | Number of classes with more than 30 pupils | Number of pupils in classes of more than 30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary schools | |||
| Key Stage 1 | |||
| 113 | 2,610 | 1 | 33 |
| Key Stage 2 | |||
| 161 | 4,208 | 26 | 838 |
| Secondary schools | |||
| All secondary classes | |||
| 180 | 3,976 | 7 | 229 |
(31) One teacher classes.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census
Connexions
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the progress central Government has made in supporting Connexions Partnerships by (a) linking its policies together at national level, (b) sending consistent messages to all Connexions partner agencies and (c) reducing bureaucracy, as set out in Youth Support Services for 13 to 19-year-olds: A Vision for 2006. [161033]
Margaret Hodge: From the outset of Connexions, Government departments have worked together in partnership with external groups such as the police, social services, health services, schools and local communities to implement coherent policies for young people. Through joint working, central Government have developed guidance and targets to support consistent approaches by Connexions Partnerships and other agencies in tackling a wide range of challenging objectives, including reducing the number of young people not in education training or employment; halving the number of teenage conceptions and raising the participation of teenage mothers in learning; improving outcomes for disabled children and looked after children; supporting runaways; tackling drugs misuse; preventing offending by young people and building community cohesion.
Bureaucracy has been reduced through a range of approaches initiated by central Government including, a Supporting Better Delivery Action Plan in which central Government has reduced administrative burdens on Connexions Partnerships; 'reality testing' with 'twinned' Government Offices and Connexions Partnerships; controlling the volume of paperwork distributed from the centre; structured communication channels; and the setting up of a bureaucracy log on the Connexions website.
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance his Department has issued to Connexions partnership Chief Executives concerning partnerships' VAT liability. [161075]
Margaret Hodge: Connexions Partnerships were advised in November 2002 that HM Customs and Excise had ruled that the Connexions grant would fall
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outside the scope of VAT from 1 April 2004. This means they will be unable to recover any VAT they incur on Connexions business from that date. We are asking Partnerships to look at improving their tax efficiency by moving to different structures where they feel this is appropriate.
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what initiatives have developed from the Achieving Together conference for Connexions partnerships and the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and other youth service providers to ensure that Connexions works better with the VCS. [161091]
Margaret Hodge: The "Achieving Together for Young People" conference, which was held in Solihull in June 2003, was the first national event bringing together representatives from Connexions Partnerships, Connexions teams in Government Offices for the Regions, voluntary and community organisations and Neighbourhood Support Fund (NSF) Projects, The event was designed and delivered in partnership with the VCS. It used NSF as a case study of how voluntary and community organisations could deliver services to young people. The conference was attended by 300 delegates.
Feedback from the event suggests that the conference was largely successful in meeting its aims, in particular, in helping to facilitate the further development of partnership working between Connexions Partnerships and the Voluntary and Community Sector in providing better services for young people and in sharing good practice on joint working. The conference was also a showcase for Connexions to demonstrate its commitment to involving young people who were actively involved in running workshops and in producing the conference report.
The conference confirmed earlier evidence that some Connexions partnerships were further ahead in terms of involving the VCS in their work than others, and that newer partnerships in particular could benefit from the help of others. This led to the establishment of a small informal advisory group of six VCS Co-ordinators from partnerships who were leading the field in terms of their involvement with the Sector. Members of the advisory group are contacted by other Partnerships for advice on building their engagement. In addition, a smaller follow-up national event was held in February 2004 for Connexions VCS Co-ordinators that enabled the exchange of ideas and good practice.
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