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Children's Services

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the capital costs of merging children's services; and what provision he has made in his departmental budget for such costs. [179244]

Margaret Hodge: No overall estimate of the capital costs of merging children's services has been made.

A capital budget of £317.8 million is available to develop children's centres in the 20 per cent. most disadvantaged areas by March 2006. These centres will offer child care integrated with early education, health family and parenting support, Local authorities are developing them from a wide variety of existing provision such as Sure Start local programmes, early excellence centres, schools and health centres which also benefit from other sources of capital investment.

£12.6 million was made available in 2003–04 and £23.8 million has been made available in 2004–05 to support the development of extended schools for schools to provide a range of children and family services on their premises. Up to 10 per cent. of this funding can be used for minor capital works schools need to undertake in order to house services.

As part of Building Schools for the Future, we want to facilitate better joined-up planning and funding for extended schools and the co-location of services on school sites. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) will invest approximately £2.2 billion in secondary schools in 2005–06, and will contribute to the integrated children's services agenda by creating schools that are accessible to the wider community and which have flexible, multi-use areas that can be used by other services.

In addition to BSF, the Government are allocating around £2.9 billion to schools and LEAs for investment in school buildings in 2005–06. LEAs and schools decide locally how to invest the bulk of this funding, and can invest it in extended schools facilities, community of use of facilities and integrating education and other local authority services and needs, where these are prioritised locally in asset management plans.

Church Schools

Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what decisions have been taken by his Department about the capital financing of church schools. [181658]

Mr. Miliband: Ministers are reviewing the capital funding of all maintained schools, including those that are voluntary aided (VA), as part of the process of agreeing the 2004 Spending Review settlement. We are also establishing a working group, comprising representatives of the VA sector, to review and consult on all elements of VA capital strategy and delivery.
 
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As part of the review we have agreed, with other shareholders (Partnerships UK and the Church of England's National Society) to move Partnerships for Church of England Schools (PfCS) into Partnerships for Schools (PFS). This will ensure a consistent approach, economies of scale and flexibility across all school sectors. We have agreed, as part of the move, to fund 13 school projects that were planned for investment in the first wave of the PfCS programme.

Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what impact he expects the recent decision on the private finance initiative for church schools will have on the capital funding of redevelopment of church schools in Northampton as part of the town's schools' reorganisation. [181659]

Mr. Miliband: None. The reorganisation involves eight voluntary aided schools and the Department continues to work with the local education authority and the relevant Dioceses to ensure that those schools are able to play their full part in the reorganisation. To date we have agreed funding of some £47 million for the schools concerned.

Dentistry

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the Research Assessment Exercise 2008; and whether it will take into account the clinical workload of dental clinical academics. [181643]

Alan Johnson: Following the wide ranging consultation on the review of research assessment carried out by Sir Gareth Roberts in 2003, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the other UK funding bodies announced in February 2004 the format and timing of the next Research Assessment Exercise. The new RAE framework will retain the features which the majority supported in the consultation exercise. In addition, the new process will be designed to better recognise and assess excellence in applied research, including clinical work within the health professions. It remains the responsibility of individual institutions to determine and plan the management of staff on research strategy, including workload and submissions to the RAE.

Departmental Spending

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) Sir Peter Gershon regarding the scope for reducing administration spending in his Department. [180533]

Mr. Charles Clarke: There have been a range of discussions on this topic both at ministerial and official level.

Departmental Staff

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total amount paid by his Department to employment agencies for the supply of temporary staff was in financial year 2003–04. [178916]

 
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Mr. Charles Clarke: The following table gives the figures for the total expenditure in my Department on agency staff in the financial year 2003–04.
£

Financial year	Agency spend for the financial year
2003–04	2,341 814.06

Dyslexia

Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to improve the screening and assessment of children for dyslexia. [180530]

Margaret Hodge: When dealing with dyslexia, as with other recognised special educational needs conditions, schools and local authorities are expected to have regard to the SEN 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. However, the precise arrangements for any screening and assessment arrangements are for local determination.

The National Literacy Strategy includes a range of specific guidance material for teachers and SEN Co-ordinators on dyslexia. Officials are currently working with both the Dyslexia Institute and the British Dyslexia Association to develop new resources in this area. The Department has also supported a number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness to help teachers to identify pupils with dyslexia and to take appropriate action at an early stage.

The Government's recently published Strategy for SEN, 'Removing Barriers to "Achievement", sets out a long term vision for SEN, together with a programme of sustained action and review, both nationally and locally. Among the initiatives outlined in the Strategy is a new Inclusion Development Programme to help schools become more effective in responding to the needs of individual pupils. The programme will support partnership projects involving education, health and social care, as well as a wide range of other partners, to develop and pilot effective practice. The aim is to improve the evidence base about what works and build consensus about how to implement good practice more effectively for particular types of SEN including dyslexia.

Education (Isle of Wight)

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had with the Isle of Wight council about changes to the structure of education on the island; and what funding streams are available to meet costs associated with restructuring, broken down by (a) grants and (b) loans. [181678]

Mr. Miliband: The Secretary of State has had no discussions with representatives of Isle of Wight LEA about the structure of education on the island. The organisation of schools is a matter for the LEA. If changes are proposed these will be decided under local decision making arrangements and Ministers have no powers to intervene.
 
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Capital funding is available to support school reorganisation where this is a local priority. The bulk of capital funding is now allocated to LEAs and schools by needs-related formula so that they can decide how to target the increasing resources which they are now receiving to address their highest priority needs. The funding available also includes Building Schools for the Future, where the government are committed to renewal of all secondary schools in England within 10–15 years from 2005–06, subject to future public spending decisions. All authorities will be given an indication of the likely timing of investment in their area in the autumn. Capital funding is now delivered as PFI credits, capital grant and supported borrowings. The balance of what sort of funding is delivered to any authority will depend on the funding available and local circumstances.

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