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15 Nov 2004 : Column 976W—continued
Departmental Salaries
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people in his Department earn more than a whole-time equivalent salary of £57,485 per year. [195333]
Mr. Charles Clarke: I would refer the right hon. Member to the reply given by Cabinet Office on Thursday 11 November 2004, Official Report, column 856W.
Free School Meals
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the take-up rate of free school meals. [196994]
Mr. Timms:
The information requested is shown in the following table.
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(23) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(24) Includes dually registered pupils and boarding pupils.
(25) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census
Free School Transport
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the School Transport Bill will allow local authorities to introduce free or concessionary fares for pupils over 16 years old remaining in full-time education. [196966]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: All pilot schemes must aim to cut car use on the home to school journey. Beyond that, they should be designed to meet local priorities. This might, for example, include a trial which creates closer links with post-16 transport policies leading to more consistent provision for older pupils.
Mr. Keith Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in the City of Manchester receive free transport to school provided by Manchester city council. [196908]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: We do not routinely collect that information. However a joint survey of school transport policies, expenditure and pupil numbers transported, conducted in 2003 by DfES and the Confederation of Education Service Managers (ConfEd), reported the following for Manchester local education authority.
Source:
DfES/ConfEd "Home to School Transport Survey" 2003
Graffiti
Mr. Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment his Department has made of the role to be played by schools in tackling graffiti; and if he will list examples of best practice in this area. [197243]
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
Teaching honesty, respect for the individual and social responsibility is part of school life and in every curriculum particularly in the citizenship education curriculum. Allowing pupils to help manage a part of the budget earmarked for combating vandalism can encourage a sense of responsibility and produce a reduction in criminal damage. This may be done through a school council or youth action group.
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Various agencies can help. For example, most police forces have a school liaison officer. The success of this approach depends on it being sustained over the full age range. Intermittent, one-off projects, however attractive or successful they appear, will have little effect over the longer term. DfES has not carried out an assessment of the role schools can play in tackling graffiti but has produced guidance on graffiti in Managing School Facilities Guide 4 "Improving Security in Schools", and in Design Note 48 "Removal and Control of Graffiti", see www.teachernet.gov.uk/schoolbuildings. We do not know of examples of best practice in this area.
Integrated Children's Register/System
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many hours' training each social care practitioner will receive before they can use the Integrated Children's Register. [195319]
Margaret Hodge: The Department for Education and Skills has developed a training pack for Councils to use when training staff on the Integrated Children's System. Each Council will need to do an audit of their staff's training needs and decide on the nature and duration of their training before providing it.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what training will be made available to (a) social workers and (b) others expected to use the Integrated Children's Register. [195320]
Margaret Hodge: The Integrated Children's System training pack is available on the Integrated Children's System website, which can be found at www.dfes.gov.uk/inteqratedchildrenssvstem
However, it is for local authorities and partner agencies do an audit of their staffs training needs and decide on the nature and duration of their training before providing it.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money each local authority will be given to run the Integrated Children's System in the first year of operation. [195324]
Margaret Hodge:
The LASSL(2003)7 Children's Social Services Funding 2004/05 set out the main aspects of the 2004/05 local government finance settlement which is relevant to the funding provided for children's social services. It announced a capital grant of £10 million to support the development of information
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technology systems for children's social services. The £10 million is the first tranche of a total grant of £30 million payable in 2004/5 and 2005/6.
LAC(2004)22 provided more detailed guidance. It required the grant to be spent on building the information technology systems required to support the implementation of the Integrated Children's System (ICS). This grant is therefore primarily concerned with enabling staff to record and manage electronically case record information about children being served in the context of the Children Act 1989.
The grant is allocated in a way that reflects the size of local children's social services operation. The FSS formula is used for this purpose. This grant is in addition to the Capital Grant for Improving Information Management supporting Information for Social Care described in Local Authority Circular LAC(2003)17. £25 million was paid in 2003/04 to local authorities with social services responsibilities for the purposes of the developmental, improvement or acquisition of systems for improving information management.
In total, we provided an extra £90 million this year to support councils in improving their services to safeguard children including responding to the recommendations made in Lord Laming's report and the Joint Chief Inspectors' report "Safeguarding Children". No conditions have been attached to this money to enable councils the freedom to choose how to target the extra resources so that they can maximise the outcome for children's services in their area.
It is for local authorities to decide how best to provide support and services for all children in need in its area. There is no current specific earmarked funding for services, instead, Government funding is allocated to councils with social services responsibilities on the basis of the needs of their populations. A weighted capitation formula is used to determine each body's target fair share of available resources. It is, therefore, for councils, working in partnership with relevant local stakeholders, to determine their spending priorities on the basis of local needs.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in which year planning for the Integrated Children's System began. [195339]
Margaret Hodge: Planning began in 2000. The development of the Integrated Children's System was first signalled in 'Learning the Lessons' (Department of Health, 2000) the Government's response to the Waterhouse report, 'Lost in Care'.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who has been involved in the planning of the Integrated Children's System. [195341]
Margaret Hodge:
The Department of Health and the Welsh Assembly Government developed the system. The Department for Education and Skills is now responsible for the project together with the Welsh Assembly Government. There was extensive public consultation on the Integrated Children's System during the winter of 2002/03, and further discussion at regional seminars held early in 2004. Feedback from children and families is also informing the development of the system. A full list of participants in the planning and development of the
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Integrated Children's System can be found in the consultation document, "Integrated Children's System -Working with Children in Need and Their Families" published in December 2002. The list of participants includes relevant Other Government Departments, the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Local Government Association, the relevant royal colleges, academics, researchers, practitioners and managers.
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