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10 Jan 2005 : Column 205W—continued

Specialist Schools

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many applications the Department received in 2003 from schools in England for specialist status; and how many of these were successful. [206265]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: 787 secondary schools in England applied for specialist school status in 2003, and 484 of these were successful (61.5 per cent.). In the first applications round of 2004, 385 secondary schools applied and 284 (74 per cent.) were successful. 289 schools have applied in the most recent applications round. The results of this round will be announced in January. The total number of operational specialist schools is 1,955.

Statementing

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were statemented in each year since 1997 in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each local authority. [205053]

Margaret Hodge: Tables showing the number of statements of special educational needs (SEN) maintained by each local education authority and the number of children for whom a statement was made for the first time have been placed in the House of Commons Libraries.
 
10 Jan 2005 : Column 206W
 

Sure Start

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what entitlement schools in the Vale of York have to access Sure Start funding. [206544]

Margaret Hodge: The General Sure Start Grant includes all funds made available to local authorities from the Sure Start budget with the exception of those to support local Sure Start programmes. Local authorities are required to use General Sure Start Grant funds to meet specific objectives and targets set for them by the Sure Start Unit.

Although schools have no specific entitlement, it is open to local authorities to allocate Sure Start funds to local schools where they consider it meets objectives. Schools in the Vale of York could potentially have access to funding related to the development of extended schools (from 2005–06) and revenue grant funding for the provision of breakfast and out of school clubs.

Local authorities are also encouraged to develop children's centres for families with children aged 0–5 years on school sites and can allocate funds to schools to achieve that. However, such funding is only currently available in areas—unlike the Vale of York—which are considered to be disadvantaged.

In December 2004 the Government published "Choice for parents, the best start for children: a ten year strategy for childcare". That set out our vision for the future, whereby all families—in the Vale of York, as elsewhere—with children aged up to 14 and who need it will have an affordable, flexible, high quality child care place between the hours of eight and six, all year round. We have also said that we intend all schools to become extended schools over time and funding will be made available to all local authorities to support that.

Surplus School Places

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many times the working party on surplus school places has met since it was established in February 2004; and who its members are. [207545]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The working group on falling primary school rolls has met four times-in May, July, November and December 2004. The next meeting will be in January 2005. Key stakeholder organisations were invited to nominate representatives. Members and their organisations are listed in the following table. The working group is serviced by DfES officials and meetings are attended by Audit Commission officials whose work the group is overseeing.
Working group members

Kathryn James	National Association of Head Teachers
Lindsey Wharmby	Secondary Heads Association
Judith Bennett	National Governors Council
Hadrian Southern	National Association of Governors and Managers
Ian Elliott	Local Government Association—to November 2004 awaiting—replacement
Bryan Slater	Norfolk LEA
Brian Edwards	Northumberland LEA
Selina Timmins	Birmingham LEA
Ian Craig	Kent LEA
David Whittington	Church of England Board of Education
Paul Briggs	Catholic Education Service
Robert Barr	Ofsted HMI LEA Division—to December 2004
Marianick Mellender-Gele	Ofsted HMI LEA Division—from January 2005
Jean Scott	Countryside Agency/DEFRA
Steve Sanderson	Primary Heads Reference Group—from January 2005

 
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10 Jan 2005 : Column 208W
 

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what proportion of surplus (a) primary and (b) secondary school places there are in each local education authority. [207546]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The following table shows the number of surplus school places and the surplus as a percentage of total places at primary and secondary level, broken down by local education authority. The figures state the position at the beginning of the calendar year 2003.
Number of surplus school places by LEA at January 2003

	Primary		Secondary
LEA name	Number of places	Surplus as a percentage of total places	Number of places	Surplus as a percentage of total places
Barking and Dagenham	1,342	8	604	5
Barnet	2,520	10	960	4
Barnsley	1,175	6	805	6
Bath and NE Somerset	1,520	11	843	6
Bedfordshire	3,265	12	3,060	8
Bexley	1,779	8	812	4
Birmingham	7,162	7	2,998	4
Blackburn	1,048	7	795	8
Blackpool	719	6	335	4
Bolton	1,690	7	373	2
Bournemouth	1,182	10	490	5
Bracknell Forest	972	10	895	13
Bradford	7,150	14	2,992	8
Brent	2,950	13	1,185	7
Brighton and Hove	1,790	10	889	7
Bristol	3,880	13	2,039	11
Bromley	1,559	6	480	2
Buckinghamshire	4,332	10	1,257	4
Bury	1,102	7	253	2
Calderdale	1,891	10	497	3
Cambridgeshire	5,819	12	3,236	9
Camden	1,077	10	84	1
Cheshire	7,505	12	2,837	6
Cornwall	4,154	10	1,376	4
Corporation of London	6	3	0	0
Coventry	2,935	10	1,542	7
Croydon	2,414	8	1,923	10
Cumbria	3,450	8	4,207	11
Darlington	849	9	548	8
Derby City of	2,356	10	755	5
Derbyshire	6,504	10	3,117	6
Devon	5,291	9	1,523	4
Doncaster	3,152	14	1,712	7
Dorset	3,185	11	1,731	5
Dudley	2,687	9	595	3
Durham	8,552	18	4,079	11
Ealing	2,523	10	666	4
East Riding of Yorkshire	2,606	9	1,011	4
East Sussex	2,791	7	1,670	6
Enfield	995	4	2,326	10
Essex	13,462	11	6,003	6
Gateshead	2,710	15	972	8
Gloucestershire	4,794	10	2,737	6
Greenwich	2,289	11	1,905	12
Hackney	1,947	117	931	11
Halton	1,258	11	383	4
Hammersmith and Fulham	1,254	13	1,369	18
Hampshire	10,414	10	5,001	7
Haringey	1,616	8	698	6
Harrow	2,832	13	283	3
Hartlepool	837	9	629	9
Havering	1,155	6	974	6
Herefordshire	1,421	10	495	5
Hertfordshire	13,231	13	9,832	11
Hillingdon	2,528	11	1,133	6
Hounslow	2,174	11	441	3
Isle of Wight	1,012	12	1,543	11
Isles of Scilly	265	0	0	0
Islington	1,760	12	589	7
Kensington and Chelsea	617	9	202	5
Kent	9,455	8	6,915	7
Kingston upon Hull City of	3,913	15	1,070	6
Kingston upon Thames	768	7	619	7
Kirklees	3,948	11	2,989	10
Knowsley	3,595	20	1,768	15
Lambeth	1,826	9	762	10
Lancashire	12,466	12	4,816	6
Leeds	8,487	13	3,647	7
Leicester City	4,120	14	744	4
Leicestershire	5,629	10	1,816	4
Lewisham	2,343	11	711	6
Lincolnshire	6,844	11	3,533	7
Liverpool	5,906	14	2,286	6
Luton	1,756	9	344	3
Manchester	5,690	14	1,614	6
Medway Towns	2,574	10	1,649	8
Merton	2,836	19	870	9
Middlesbrough	2,245	15	797	10
Milton Keynes	3,266	13	1,542	11
Newcastle upon Tyne	2,280	11	1,427	7
Newham	1,729	6	1,326	7
Norfolk	8,197	11	2,939	6
North East Lincolnshire	1,865	12	931	7
North Lincolnshire	1,101	8	1,167	10
North Somerset	782	5	250	2
North Tyneside	2,726	15	826	6
North Yorkshire	6,229	12	3,417	8
Northamptonshire	5,847	10	4,598	8
Northumberland	2,550	13	2,465	8
Nottingham City of	3,940	15	1,540	10
Nottinghamshire	6,121	9	3,670	7
Oldham	2,332	10	888	5
Oxfordshire	6,813	14	2,341	6
Peterborough	2,756	15	1,898	13
Plymouth City of	3,017	13	863	5
Poole	726	6	205	2
Portsmouth	2,384	14	802	7
Reading	1,751	16	854	12
Redbridge	1,091	5	1,245	6
Redcar and Cleveland	1,762	13	1,204	11
Richmond upon Thames	732	6	359	5
Rochdale	2,818	13	1,224	8
Rotherham	1,988	8	1,312	6
Rutland	608	19	345	13
Salford	3,097	14	2,154	15
Sandwell	4,096	13	1,917	9
Sefton	3,344	13	874	4
Sheffield	4,587	10	700	2
Shropshire	3,787	15	573	3
Slough	1,564	13	309	4
Solihull	1,162	6	164	1
Somerset	4,936	12	2,550	7
South Gloucestershire	2,942	11	1,462	8
South Tyneside	1,853	13	1,461	12
Southampton	1,776	10	1,478	11
Southend	723	5	638	5
Southwark	2,737	11	686	6
St. Helens	1,402	9	298	2
Staffordshire	8,256	11	2,602	4
Stockport	2,302	9	794	5
Stockton on Tees	1,947	11	839	6
Stoke on Trent	3,663	16	487	3
Suffolk	5,688	11	4,957	8
Sunderland	3,844	14	2,146	10
Surrey	8,501	10	3,706	6
Sutton	915	6	598	4
Swindon	2,146	11	877	7
Tameside	1,824	9	808	5
Telford and the Wrekin	1,542	10	854	8
Thurrock	2,271	15	760	9
Torbay	807	8	145	2
Tower Hamlets	2,013	9	1,424	9
Trafford	1,187	6	993	6
Wakefield	3,846	12	614	3
Walsall	3,334	12	998	4
Waltham Forest	1,272	6	980	7
Wandsworth	2,025	12	679	6
Warrington	1,857	10	395	3
Warwickshire	4,263	10	2,652	7
West Berkshire	1,328	10	330	3
West Sussex	7,348	11	3,804	8
Westminster	1,122	11	840	9
Wigan	2,676	9	1,441	7
Wiltshire	6,877	16	3,974	12
Windsor and Maidenhead	670	8	524	5
Wirral	3,735	13	1,472	6
Wokingham	1,304	10	316	3
Wolverhampton	3,436	14	1,713	9
Worcestershire	4,616	11	2,589	6
York	2,455	16	608	6
Total	482,078	11	231,391	7

 
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