| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
28 Jun 2004 : Column 68W—continued
Latin and Greek
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what correspondence he and his Ministers have had with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority on the decision of the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance to cease examining Latin and Greek after 2006. [180630]
Mr. Miliband: There has been no ministerial correspondence with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) on this issue.
Local Authority Secure Units
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his assessment is of unmet need for local authority secure unit beds. [180028]
Margaret Hodge: Following the Youth Justice Board's commissioning decisions earlier this year, DfES carried out jointly with the Association of Directors of Social Services a survey of local authorities to gauge any hidden demand for welfare placements in secure children's homes. The response to this survey was disappointing, which may in itself demonstrate that unmet need is not a widespread issue of concern to local authorities. Of the 22 responses received, only a small minority expressed concern about unmet need.
Mathematics (Multiplication Tables)
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the teaching of multiplication tables in primary schools. [177274]
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
The teaching of multiplication tables is an important part of the daily mathematics lesson in primary schools. Teachers are provided with key teaching objectives through the Primary Strategy's yearly teaching programmes and are encouraged to give priority to multiplication tables.
28 Jun 2004 : Column 69W
Children's skills in using a range of mental computation methods—including recall of multiplication facts up to 1010—are tested in the national tests at Key Stage 2.
The Qualification and Curriculum Authority recommends that teachers encourage children to memorise multiplication facts using a variety of learning skills.
Parenting Fund
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for what reasons work to support adult relationships was not included in funding allocations from the Parenting Fund. [179440]
Margaret Hodge: The Parenting Fund was announced in the 2002 Spending Review specifically as a fund to "help parents improve their parenting skills". This focuses on supporting parents in their parenting role, rather than support of the couple relationship.
My Department's Marriage and Relationship Support (MARS) Grant already supports work focused on the couple relationship. I announced £4.9 million MARS funding on 10 May.
Pre-school Education
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children aged three to five years had access to education in West Bromwich East in each of the last eight years. [180256]
Margaret Hodge: The information requested 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 Sandwell local education authority area are shown in the table.
The latest national figures on provision for three and four year olds were published in a Statistical Release Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2004' which is available on the Department's website www.dfes.qov.uk/rsgateway.
| Year | 3 year olds | 4 year olds | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 3,300 | 3,700 | 7,000 |
| 2002 | 3,100 | 3,800 | 7,000 |
| 2001 | 3,200 | 3,500 | 6,700 |
| 2000 | 3,200 | 3,500 | 6,700 |
| 1999 | 3,100 | 3,900 | 7,000 |
| 1998 | 3,100 | 4,000 | 7,100 |
| 1997 | 3,000 | 4,000 | 7,000 |
(35) Part-time equivalent number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four year old children.
(36) A free nursery education place comprises five two and a half hour sessions of early years education per week, for thirty-three weeks of the year, usually three terms of eleven weeks. Children aged three and four in maintained nursery and primary schools are counted as taking up one place.
28 Jun 2004 : Column 70W
School Admissions
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what steps he has taken to ensure consistency in the decisions of different school admissions appeal panels; [180323]
(2) what guidance he has issued to school admissions appeals panels on the criteria that they should use in determining appeals. [180325]
Mr. Miliband: The School Admission Appeals Code of Practice is statutory guidance for admission appeal panels and fully explains how they should hear appeals and reach their decisions. It is important that the panel should consider all the evidence and balance the needs of the school against the needs of the individual pupil.
My Department has commissioned training materials for panel members and chairs of panels, which are available free of charge, and funded a number of events in recent years where training materials are disseminated. Over the next year this will be focused on those who train panel members at a local level. In addition, my Department funds a dedicated internet message board which provides a forum for discussion and the sharing of information and good practice on admission and appeals issues.
Schools (Kent)
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will ensure that Kent schools receive funding in an early phase of Building Schools for the Future. [180250]
Mr. Miliband: We published the prioritisation criteria for Building Schools for the Future in July 2003; a copy of this guidance is in the House of Commons Library. We will consider Kent LEA's expression of interest against these criteria, along with all other authorities. The Department aims to announce which LEAs will make up waves 2 and 3 later this year—probably in the autumn. We hope also to provide some further BSF information to help all LEAs plan their capital strategies.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what systems are in place to ensure that children with learning difficulties are identified at an early age; and how many were identified in each local authority in the last year for which figures are available, as a proportion of the total school population. [180038]
Margaret Hodge: Local authorities, maintained schools, early years settings and others have to have regard to the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, published in November 2001, which gives practical advice on carrying out their statutory duties to identify, assess and make suitable provision for children with SEN.
The Code of Practice emphasises the importance of early identification, assessment and provision for any child who may have SEN, and that assessment should be seen as a continuing process and not a single event. The
28 Jun 2004 : Column 71W
importance of early intervention is also a cornerstone of the Government's recently published Strategy for SEN, 'Removing Barriers to Achievement'. This sets out our long term vision for SEN, together with a programme of sustained action and review, both nationally and locally.
We want to ensure that children with learning difficulties receive the help they need as soon as possible. As part of our strategy, we are for example looking to embed in practice nationally the principles of the Early Support Pilot Programme for very young disabled children under three and their families, and to ensure that parents of children with SEN have access to suitable child care. It is also important to identify and disseminate good practice. That is why we have
28 Jun 2004 : Column 72W
commissioned MENCAP to undertake a feasibility study for establishing a National Early Intervention Centre of Excellence.
The available information is given in the following table. It shows numbers of children for whom statements were made for the first time in 2003 together with the relevant LEA school populations. It should be noted that some children have a statement maintained by one LEA but attend a school situated in a different LEA. The school population figures are based upon location of school rather than home residence of the pupils and so cannot be used to produce reliable proportions. Information is not collected centrally on when pupils are first identified as having special educational needs.
(37) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, therefore there may be discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and the total shown.
(38) Total number of pupils in schools in each local education authority as at January 2003. These figures reflect the location of the school rather than the home residence of the pupils.
less than 5 pupils.
Source:
SEN2 Survey 2004 and the Annual Schools' Census 2003
28 Jun 2004 : Column 75W
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |