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18 May 2004 : Column 925W—continued

Prison Education

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which contract holders for prison education have advised his Department that they do not wish to provide services beyond the lifetime of the current contract. [172422]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: To date neither HM Prison Service nor DfES has received any communication from existing contractors to advise of their intention not to an accept offer to extend their contract(s).
 
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School Expulsions

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils have been expelled from (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in each year since 1997. [172810]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is given in the table which shows data up to 2001/02, the latest available.
 
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Number of permanent exclusions in primary and secondary schools England: 1997/98–2001/02(42)

1997/981998/991999/20002000/01(42)2001/02
Primary schools(43)
Number of permanent exclusions1,5391,3661,2261,4361,451
Percentage of permanent exclusions(44)1313151615
Percentage of school population(45)0.030.030.030.030.03
Secondary schools(43)
Number of permanent exclusions10,1878,6366,7137,3057,741
Percentage of permanent exclusions(44)8383818081
Percentage of school population(45)0.330.280.210.230.24


(42) Permanent exclusions for 2000/01 are estimated as a number of local education authorities have not confirmed the data for their schools.
(43) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(44) The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the total number in primary, secondary and special schools. The figures for special schools are not given in the table.
(45) The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) of all pupils (excluding dually registered pupils in special schools) in January each year.
Source:
Annual Schools Census




School Inspections

Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if he will make a statement on the model of inspection proposed by HM Chief Inspector of Schools in his recent letter to all primary schools in England; and what assessment he has made of the accordance of that model with his Department's guidelines on earned autonomy and staged intervention in schools; [173683]

(2) what plans he has to instruct Ofsted to use a range of electronic and other performance indicators to undertake a distance review of a school before deciding on the most appropriate way to carry out inspection; and if he will make a statement; [173684]

(3) what plans he has to instruct Ofsted to send single inspectors to validate (a) schools clearly demonstrating success in a range of existing performance indicators, (b) school self-evaluation systems and (c) the evaluation of other processes; [173685]

(4) what plans he has to introduce the principle of minimum notice to the school inspections process; what assessment he has made of its efficacy in the day-to-day performance of schools; and if he will make a statement; [173687]
 
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(5) what plans he has to introduce a two-tier system of reporting on schools to provide for professional confidentiality and staff anonymity; and if he will make a statement. [173688]

Mr. Miliband: HM Chief Inspector, David Bell, recently conducted a consultation on proposals for changing the arrangements for school inspections. He has now submitted his proposals for change to the Secretary of State for consideration. We will publish our intentions shortly.

Schools (South Ribble)

Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding was spent per pupil in South Ribble in each of the last seven years. [171655]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is submitted to the Department according to local education authority areas rather than districts within an area. South Ribble is a district of Lancashire Local Education Authority. The information for Lancashire LEA is as follows:
Net current expenditure per pupil

Pre-PrimaryEducationPrimaryEducationPre-primary and Primary Secondary Education
1996–97n/an/a1,8002,59015,990
1997–98n/an/a1,8202,63017,320
1998–99n/an/a2,0002,70017,770
1999–20007,1302,1102,1702,76018,490
2000–0111,0302,3302,4402,91018,770
2001–0216,3902,6302,8003,23020,600
2002–032,9003,400




Notes:
1. The financial data are taken from Lancashire LEA's Section 52 Outturn Statement submitted to the DfES from 1999–00 onwards and the ODPM's RO1 statement previously. Figures up to and including 1997–98 figures are for Lancashire LEA prior to local government reorganisation. From 1998–99 onwards parts of Lancashire LEA became Blackpool and Blackburn LEAs. Expenditure was not distinguished between pre-primary and primary sectors until the inception of the Section 52 outturn statement in 1999–00. 1999–00 figures reflect the return of GM schools to local authority maintenance.
2. The outturn 2002–03 tables captured the data in a fundamentally different way to the previous years. Categories were aligned with the Consistent Financial Reporting framework and the spending by LEAs was no longer split by school sector. Consequently the unit costs per pupil in 2002–03 are not strictly comparable with earlier years as they include an apportionment of LEA expenditure based on pupil numbers. 2002–03 data is subject to change by the LEA. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
3. Net current expenditure (NCE) includes expenditure within schools and also that incurred centrally by the LEA.
4. The NCE per pupil figures for pre-primary and primary relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in the pre-primary sector and maintained primary schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained nursery and primary schools sector.
5. The NCE per pupil figures for secondary relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in maintained secondary schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained secondary schools sector.
6. The NCE per pupil figures for special schools relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in maintained special schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained special schools sector.
7. Pupil data are drawn from the Annual Schools Census adjusted to be on a financial year basis.





 
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Secure Children's Homes

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what plans there are to change the number of beds in local authority secure children's homes; and if he will make a statement; [172850]

(2) if he will list the secure children's homes in England; [172851]

(3) if he will make a statement on the future of secure children's homes in England. [172852]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 13 May 2004]: Officials have been working closely, both with the Youth Justice Board and the Association of Directors of Social Services, to consider the implications for local authority secure children's homes of the results of the Youth Justice Board's re-tendering exercise to determine the extent to which these homes will be used by the Youth Justice Board over the next two to five years for the placement of children through the youth justice system.

We understand that a few secure children's homes will now close on the basis that they will no longer be viable.

Officials are looking very closely at the demand, including any unmet need, for welfare placements in order to ensure that there are sufficient beds across the country for children who need to be placed in secure accommodation for welfare reasons.

Our aim is to achieve the best quality service for vulnerable children who, for whatever reason, need to be placed in secure accommodation.

The secure children's homes in England are as follows:


 
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