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26 Jan 2005 : Column 366W—continued
School Governors
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of a school's governing body is required to be filled by parent governors for (a) community, (b) foundation, (c) voluntary aided, (d) voluntary controlled and (e) academy schools; and whether the proportion has changed since 1997. [211072]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Before the introduction of the Education Act 2002 the number of each category of school governor on a school's governing body was fixed according to the type and size of school.
Governing bodies can now choose their own size and the proportion of membership of the various stakeholder groups with an interest in the school: parents, staff, the local authority, the community, and the school's foundation body if it has one; in accordance with guiding principles. In all categories of maintained schools parents must constitute at least one third of the total governing body membership. This compares favourably with the proportion of governors of maintained schools required to be parents in 1997. The Academies programme was launched in March 2000 and the first Academies opened in 2002. Academies have different governance arrangements to maintained schools. Their Funding Agreements have required that at least one parent governor is represented on the Governing Body.
Secondment
Alan Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the people working within her Department on secondment from the private
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sector, broken down by (a) the organisation or industry they came from and (b) the policy responsibilities they have been given. [208628]
Derek Twigg: There are currently no people from the private sector working in the Department.
Sixth Form Colleges
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many sixth form colleges have been (a) opened and (b) closed since 1997. [210178]
Dr. Howells: Since 1997, we have incorporated three new sixth form colleges in the FE sector, one of which was the result of the merger of two existing sixth form colleges. A further six sixth form colleges have been dissolved, with their property, rights and liabilities transferred to other FE sector colleges.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children with a statement of special educational needs have transferred from (a) mainstream schools to special or independent schools and (b) independent or special schools to mainstream schools in each year since 1997. [210752]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 24 January 2005]: The requested information is given in the table.
Note:
Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
SEN2 Survey
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils with special educational needs are participating in 16–19 education in (a) maintained school sixth forms, (b) sixth form colleges, (c) further education colleges and (d) special schools. [210189]
Margaret Hodge: The available information relates to maintained school sixth forms and special schools only and is given in the table.
Assessments of Special Educational Needs are not made outside schools in the LSC funded post-16 learning sector. So, it is not possible to provide figures on a consistent basis for sixth form colleges and further education colleges.
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(44) Excludes general hospital schools.
(45) Full-time equivalent number of pupils in year groups 12, 13 or 14. Includes dually registered pupils.
(46) Less than 5.
Note:
Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and totals as shown.
Source:
Annual Schools Census
Staff Vacancies
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much her Department spent on advertising staff vacancies in (a) 2002 and (b) 2003. [209582]
Derek Twigg: The following table gives the advertising costs for civil servants recruited to work within my Department for financial years 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04:
| Central recruitment relating to Grades AA-Grade 6 | Senior civil service recruitment | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 187,890.24 | 111,266.54 |
| 2002–03 | 134,016.11 | 256,669.66 |
| 2003–04 | 124,026.77 | 170,603.38 |
Student Loan Company
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent representations she has received regarding problems with the Student Loan Company; and if she will make a statement. [210000]
Dr. Howells:
The Secretary of State received a representation dated 5 January from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr. Bradley), on behalf of a constituent whose children received delayed student loan payments. I am going to reply, as I have ministerial responsibility for student support, to explain that this is now administered through a new system called Protocol", aimed at improving the administration of the system and in particular streamlining the application and assessment process. However, as with any new system, there were initial difficulties to overcome and we are now reviewing with the Student Loans Company what worked well and what could be improved.
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Sure Start
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the total expenditure on Sure Start was in each year that the scheme has been in operation; [210054]
(2) what proportion of the budget for Sure Start was spent on administration in each year that the scheme has been in operation. [210059]
Margaret Hodge: The information is as follows:
|
Total expenditure (£ million) | Proportion spent on administrative costs(47) (percentage) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 7 | 15 |
| 2000–01 | 56 | 4 |
| 2001–02 | 134 | 3 |
| 2002–03 | 216 | 2 |
| 2003–04 | 718 | 2 |
(47) Administrative costs comprises of salaries and general office administration costs for all activities undertaken by the wider Sure Start Unit, including its regional teams.
The expenditure data quoted for 1999–00 to 2002–03 relate to Sure Start Local Programmes only (the Sure Start Scheme").
During 2002, Sure Start merged with the Early Years and Childcare Functions and as a consequence, only combined data are available from 2003–04.
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what funding has been allocated to Stoke-on-Trent under the Sure Start scheme in each of the past three years; [210859]
(2) what the total expenditure on Sure Start in Stoke-on-Trent has been in each year since the scheme has been in operation; [210956]
(3) how many children have participated in Sure Start in Stoke-on-Trent in each year since the scheme has been in operation. [210871]
Margaret Hodge: There are six Sure Start local programmes in Stoke-on-Trent: Stoke North, Blurton, Longton South, Abbey Bucknall, Shelton Cobridge and Bentilee.
Some £6.25 million of capital funding has been allocated to these programmes over the last three years.
The amount of revenue funding allocated to these programmes since they began totals £14.67 million and is broken down as follows: 1999/2000—£0.14 million (Stoke North only); 2000/01—£1.07 million (Stoke North only); 2001/02—£1.48 million (Stoke North and Blurton only); 2002/03—£2.83 million (all current programmes except Bentilee); 2003/04—£4.49 million; 2004/05—£4.66 million.
The figures for numbers of children participating in these Sure Start local programmes are available on a consistent basis only for the period from September 2002 to September 2004. Across these programmes, an average of 28 per cent. or 1,392 of the children aged four or under in the areas covered by the programmes were seen by their local programme in each quarter in 2002–03 and an average of 29 per cent. or 1,556 of the children in each quarter in 2003–04.
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