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Newcastle Children's Fund Partnership

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will set out the sequence of changes in financial allocations to the Newcastle Children's Fund Partnership for 2004–05; whether the clawback of funds in the 2003–04 year has been reversed; what the outline annual planning figures are for the partnership for (a) 2004–05 and (b) 2005–06; and whether underspending in earlier years can be added to future planning totals. [161949]

Margaret Hodge: Newcastle Children's Fund has an allocation of £1,215,059 for 2004–05. This is a small reduction from the original allocation of £1,250,000. The partnership had £65,135 identified as genuine underspend in the 2003–04 mid-year review and this was reallocated by the Department. I am keen to give partnerships as much flexibility as possible within Government Accounting Rules. This means I have restored flexibility to re-profile from one quarter to the next during the year and I am allowing partnerships to carry forward end year underspend.

We are also giving partnerships more flexibility in delivering their commitment on joint working with local Youth Offending Teams to prevent crime. We have moved away from the rigid menu approach, although we are continuing to emphasise the need to focus on effective projects, such as Youth Inclusion Support Panels and Junior Youth Inclusion Panels. Where partnerships already have a strong focus on tackling antisocial behaviour and youth crime, they will be able to count those activities towards their collaborative working with Yots.

The allocation for 2005–06 will be announced by August 2004. However we recognise that partnerships are keen to get some indication of funding levels for 2005–06, in order to help them plan effectively. The Secretary of State has therefore indicated to partnerships at this stage that the budget for 2005–06 will be no less than £110 million. We hope this provides a clear framework for partnerships to plan and maintain Children's Fund activity right through to the end of 2005–06, the end of the current Spending Review period. Beyond that, the Chancellor, in his Budget statement, has signalled a commitment to the Children's Fund until 2008.
 
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Non-Pathfinder Schools

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what additional resources will be made available to non-Pathfinder schools after 2005–06 to provide for additional staff to meet the requirement of the workload agreement. [167000]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 April 2004]: Our approach in 2004–05 has been to ensure a rigorous analysis of average cost pressures and a guaranteed minimum level of per pupil increase that gives schools headroom above those cost pressures. The details of our approach for 2005–06 will be announced later this summer. The level of resources in school budgets after 2005–06 will be announced in due course and will take account of the spending settlement for the Department for 2006–07 to 2007–08.

However, workforce reform cannot simply be about the use of additional resources. Schools need to consider how they make best use of their existing resources, for example, by extending the role of support staff, maximising the impact of ICT and reducing reliance on expensive short term supply teachers.

Pathfinder Children's Trusts

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what basis the contribution from each relevant service to each pathfinder children's trust was determined. [166545]

Margaret Hodge: The contribution of resources to a Children's Trust is a matter for local determination between the partners of the Children's Trust board. Integration of services and resources will be based on local needs and circumstances.

Pre-school Provision (Birkenhead)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) free nursery and (b) pre-school places were available for (i) three and (ii) four-year-olds in Birkenhead in each of the last seven years. [166301]

Margaret Hodge: The information is not available in the form requested.

Figures on the number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four-year-olds in Wirral local education authority area are shown in the table.
 
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Number of free nursery education places1,2 taken up by three and four-year-old children in maintained nursery and primary schools and private, voluntary and independent providers Wirral local education authority area—1997–2003Position in January each year

	Three-year olds	Four-year-olds
1997	1,600	3,800
1998	1,700	3,900
1999	1,700	3,900
2000	2,900	3,900
2001	3,100	4,400
2002	3,200	3,000
2003	3,200	3,500

⁽³⁹⁾ Part-time equivalent number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four-year-old children.
⁽⁴⁰⁾ A free nursery education place comprises five two and a half hour sessions of early years education per week, for 33 weeks of the year, usually three terms of 11 weeks.

The latest figures on provision for three and four-year-olds in England were published in a Statistical Bulletin "Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2003" which is available on the Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.

We have made the commitment that by April 2004, six months ahead of our original target, all three-year-olds in England whose parents want one, will have access to a free, part-time early education place.

Primary Schools (Administrative Staff)

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the job evaluation schemes carried out in primary schools for administrative staff. [167980]

Mr. Miliband: Most local authorities, including Herefordshire, are party to the national agreement on   pay and conditions of local government staff (commonly known as the Single Status Agreement), which was negotiated by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services in 1997. The agreement commits authorities to carrying out job evaluations. My Department does not hold information on the job evaluation schemes either nationally or in individual local authorities.
 
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School Meals

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 22 March 2004, Official Report, column 626W, on school meals, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils live more than three miles away from the school that they attend; and how many of those are eligible for free school meals. [166999]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 April 2004]: The information requested is shown in the table.
Numbers of pupils living more than three miles⁽⁴¹⁾ from the maintained primary and secondary schools⁽⁴²⁾that they attend—January 2003

	Primary	Secondary
Number of pupils travelling more than three miles	155,187	583,446
Percentage of pupils travelling more than three miles (as percentage of all pupils)	3.7	17.8
Number of pupils eligible for free school meals travelling more than three miles	12,204	46,596
Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals travelling more than three miles (as percentage of all FSM pupils)	1.7	9.8

⁽⁴¹⁾ Distances calculated are straight line
⁽⁴²⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed
Source:
Pupil Level Annual Schools' Census

School Standards (Liverpool and Berkshire)

Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of 15 and 16-year-old pupils in (a) Liverpool and (b) Berkshire achieved five or more GCSEs at Grades A*-C or GNVQ equivalent in each of the last seven years. [166961]

Mr. Miliband: The percentages of 15-year-old pupils achieving five or more grades A*-C at GCSE/GNVQ in Liverpool and Berkshire LEAs from 1997 to 2003 are shown in the following table.

Please note that since 1997 the results of pupils within the county of Berkshire have been reported under the six local education authorities which make up this county following local government re-organisation.
Percentage of 15-year-old pupils⁽⁴³⁾ achieving five or more grades A*-C Percentage

Local education authority	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Liverpool	30.1	30.9	32.4	35.3	35.2	39.2	41.3
Berkshire	48.9	—	—	—	—	—	—
Bracknell Forest	—	45.4	45.4	46.6	49.1	45.5	49.2
Windsor and Maidenhead	—	57.2	57.9	59.2	58.8	56.4	59.8
West Berkshire	—	54.5	56.8	56.0	56.1	57.1	60.6
Reading	—	42.7	42.9	45.7	46.8	44.3	45.5
Slough	—	42.9	48.1	51.4	52.4	50.5	53.4
Wokingham	—	56.2	58.2	59.9	61.3	62.6	62.7
England	45.1	46.3	47.9	49.2	50.0	51.6	52.9

⁽⁴³⁾ GCSE/GNVQ results are reported as standard as the results of pupils aged 15 at the start of the academic year ie 31 August, and therefore reaching the end of compulsory education at the end of the school year.





 
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