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4 Oct 2004 : Column 1798W—continued

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Child Care

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate the Government have made of the percentage of GDP the UK has spent on child care provision in each year since 1997. [186826]

Margaret Hodge: The latest available data on child care expenditure, reported in the 2004 DfES Department Report and by Sure Start, show that child care expenditure has risen from 0.001 per cent. of GDP in England in 1997–98 to 0.02 per cent. in 2002–03. Expenditure on Early Years services has risen from 0.2 per cent. of GDP in England in 1997–98 to 0.251 per cent. of GDP in 2002–03.

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate the Government have made of the number of privately run nurseries in each year since 1997 (a) broken down by region and (b) in St. Helens. [187363]

Margaret Hodge: The Department does not collect this information on a regular basis. According to the Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey for 2003–04 there were 7,700 privately—owned full day care providers in England in 2003 but these are not broken down by region or local authority district.

Of the 1216 neighbourhood nurseries that are now open, 498 are operated by the private sector—over 40 per cent. The regional breakdown is set out in the table.
 
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Region	Number of private neighbourhood nurseries
East of England	18
East Midlands	42
London	61
North East	67
North West	113
South East	27
South West	32
West Midlands	62
Yorkshire and the Number	76

Nine neighbourhood nurseries have been developed in St. Helens. Of these six are privately-run.
 
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Adult Education (London)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in (i) Greater London and (ii) each London borough in each year since 1997. [189474]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the London Learning and Skills Council (LSC) areas is set out in the table:
£000

	April 2001 to July 2001(5)		August 2001 to July 2002		August 2002 to July 2003
Learning and Skills Council Area	Basic skills	Key skills	Basic skills	Key skills	Basic skills	Key skills
London North	8,753	985	14,099	1,395	18,829	1,921
London West	13,671	858	24,013	1,629	29,303	1,652
London Central	18,207	1,119	38,694	1,733	38,130	1,204
London East	14,746	1,476	31,412	2,114	39,783	2,367
London South	5,758	998	13,241	1,488	15,398	1,728
Total	61,135	5,436	121,459	8,359	141,443	8,872

⁽⁵⁾ The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001.

From the information available to the LSC it has not been feasible to obtain estimates at borough level or separate figures by subject without incurring disproportionate cost. Likewise it has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.

Bullying

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the Department's guidance to schools on its anti-bullying strategy addresses identifying the individual needs of children who are being bullied. [188122]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: We take all bullying seriously and attach great importance to tackling it. All secondary and middle schools have received a copy of our "Don't Suffer in Silence" guidance and it is available free on request to all others. It sets out a range of strategies for supporting children who are being bullied and recognises that different situations require different responses, in order to meet different needs. The guidance emphasises the importance of tackling all sorts of bullying, including bullying because of race, gender, sexual orientation or disability and highlights the rise in bullying via new technology such as mobile phones.

The Anti-Bullying Charter for Action not only reinforces existing guidance but also offers suggestions for dealing with bullying via the use of school councils and peer support and by regularly canvassing children's opinion on the nature and extent of bullying. The Anti-Bullying Alliance has been formed, which will give schools support in implementing the charter.

CAFCASS

Mrs. May: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the backlog of Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reports is; and how many children are involved in those cases. [186991]

Margaret Hodge: At 31 July 2004 there were 469 unallocated cases requiring private law reports, representing 5.4 per cent. of the CAFCASS caseload. There has been a dip in performance over the summer, but the overall trend has shown improvement. In March 2004 CAFCASS had 272 unallocated cases, representing 3.2 per cent. of the caseload, compared with 365 unallocated cases in March 2003, representing 4.5 per cent. of the caseload.

At 31 July 2004, there were 287 unallocated public law cases, representing 2.4 per cent. of the caseload. CAFCASS has reduced the backlog considerably; at 31 March 2003 there were 639 unallocated cases, representing 5.1 per cent. of the caseload.

CAFCASS has two measurements for allocating public law cases:

Section 31 cases (care and supervision proceedings) should be allocated within two days from receipt of the request. The current target for CAFCASS is to achieve 70 per cent. of allocations within 2 days by March 2005. CFACASS began collecting information on this basis in November 2003, with the introduction of the "Protocol for Judicial Case Management in Public Law Children Act Cases". In November 2003 CAFCASS was allocating 37.3 per cent. of cases within two days. By July 2004, the proportion had risen to 54.4 per cent.

CAFCASS also has a target to allocate 98 per cent. of all case types within 28 days from receipt of the request. At the end of July 2004, CAFCASS was allocating 93.8 per cent. of cases within 28 days, compared with 79.9 per cent. of cases at the end of April 2003.

CAFCASS does not keep central statistics about how many children are involved in each case.
 
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Cambodia (Adoption)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the suspension of adoption arrangements with Cambodia. [188387]

Margaret Hodge: I made a statement to the House on 22 June 2004 announcing my decision to temporarily suspend the adoption of Cambodian children by UK residents. A copy of my statement has been placed in the House of Commons Library for information.

The temporary suspension was introduced in response to concerns raised by and investigated by officials from the Department for Education and Skills who visited Cambodia, by the British Embassy in Cambodia and, separately, by other relevant stakeholders about the intercountry adoption process in Cambodia.

As explained in my statement, I believe that the safeguards in the Cambodian adoption system are insufficient to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given by their birth parents and improper financial gain being made by individuals involved in the adoption process.

As stated, I intend to review the temporary suspension when the Cambodian Government passes new adoption legislation or if there is another development I consider to be significant, for example if Cambodia were to implement the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

Only in exceptional circumstances will I consider that the temporary suspension should not apply in a particular case. Any decision relating to a particular case will of course take account of what is in the best interests of the child and all the facts of the particular case.

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