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Specialist Schools

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps her Department is taking to encourage head teachers who have not applied for specialist status for their schools to do so. [212315]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Within the framework of the Specialist Schools Programme it is for individual schools to decide on whether to apply for specialist school designation. We fund the Specialist Schools Trust and the Youth Sport Trust to offer advice and to support schools wishing to apply for specialist status.

Sure Start

Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many children in North Durham have benefited from the Sure Start programme since its inception; [214673]

(2) how much money has been spent on the Sure Start programme in North Durham since its inception. [214674]

Margaret Hodge: Durham North has two Sure Start local programmes; Sure Start Stanley and Sure Start Chester-le-Street.

Sure Start Stanley was approved as a local programme in October 2000 and supports around 940 young children and their families living in the Stanley area of North Durham. The local programme provides a wide range of services to support local families including: access to good quality and affordable childcare, crèche provision, playgroups and parent and toddler groups; improved local health care and family support and an extensive range of training and work related courses.

Since opening Sure Start Stanley has worked toward improving the quality of life for local families. The number of women smoking during pregnancy has fallen from 36 per cent. to 28 per cent.; the usage of libraries by young children and their families is 7 per cent. above the national average; there has been a significant improvement in the personal and social development of children at school-age. The programme has contacted 869 children out of the total of 943 under 5s in the catchment area and has seen 100 per cent. of newborns within two months of birth.

There is strong parental involvement in this programme through the Parent Communications Group, (a decision-making group of 18 parents),
 
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training programmes facilitated by Sure Start Stanley (340 training places taken up by parents) and parents involved as volunteers delivering a range of Sure Start activities and services.

Sure Start Chester-le-Street was approved as a local programme in April 2001 and has a semi rural catchment area. It supports around 800 young children living in the Chester West area and surrounding villages. The local programme provides a range of services from its main centre including: high quality daycare, parent and toddler and crèche facilities; successfully integrated health services and a wide range of work based training courses.

Sure Start Chester-le-Street is working toward delivering a rotating service to the outlying villages within its boundary to ensure regular access to Sure Start activities and services for those families living in remote areas.

The local programme has been successful in improving the quality of life for young children and their families. Following the programme being established, breastfeeding has increased by 5 per cent., a storyline and Bookstart service has promoted the use of libraries by 100 per cent. and a successful baby massage service has led to an extension of the programme to include baby yoga and training for parents for them to deliver the service in the future.

There is strong parental involvement in Sure Start Chester-le-Street. A Parents' Committee (14 elected parents) is represented on the Management Committee (two parents) and Partnership Committee (two parents), the decision making bodies for this local programme. Parents are actively involved in a childcare NVQ level 2/3 training programme run jointly by Sure Start Chester-le-Street and The Bridge, a local women's charity.

Durham North has six neighbourhood nurseries. Durham city council is developing four children's centres from these settings that are delivering 169 integrated early learning with childcare places. Around 700 three-year-olds and 830 four-year-olds are receiving free nursery education in maintained nursery and primary schools and other maintained schools.

The Sure Start local programmes have received DfES funding of £2,286,323 revenue and been allocated £2,075,000 in capital grants since being opened in October 2000 and April 2001 respectively. The neighbourhood nurseries have been allocated a total revenue grant of £777,062 and have received a total of £255,528 in capital grants.

These programmes are developing into children's centres and will contribute towards achieving our goal of a children's centre in every community by 2010.

A well thought-through careers advice service has enabled 49 parents to complete the Parent Employability Programme.
 
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Unauthorised Absence (London)

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many half-days have been lost owing to unauthorised absence of pupils in (a) Greater
 
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London and (b) each London borough in each year since 2002–03 (i) in absolute terms and (ii) as a proportion of the total number of half-days. [220108]

Derek Twigg: The information requested is shown in the following table:
Unauthorised absence in primary and secondary schools in Greater London

	Academic year 2002/03		Academic year 2003/04
	Number of half days missed	Percentage half days missed	Number of half days missed	Percentage half days missed
Greater London	2,671,594	1.02	2,665,298	0.99
Barking and Dagenham	119,169	1.60	121,981	1.60
Barnet	87,718	0.74	99,017	0.83
Bexley	50,333	0.51	74,947	0.71
Brent	57,691	0.61	68,193	0.70
Bromley	87,561	0.73	96,235	0.78
Camden	55,645	1.14	42,197	0.84
Croydon	110,841	0.87	119,055	0.92
Ealing	48,907	0.49	49,137	0.48
Enfield	173,070	1.44	140,460	1.11
Greenwich	166,073	1.85	180,309	1.94
Hackney	105,774	1.62	90,997	1.40
Hammersmith and Fulham	48,180	1.19	49,281	1.16
Haringey	129,538	1.63	122,052	1.41
Harrow	25,072	0.32	22,373	0.28
Havering	37,431	0.39	40,453	0.41
Hillingdon	111,853	1.10	100,667	0.97
Hounslow	95,439	1.11	101,909	1.16
Islington	80,662	1.36	70,282	1.14
Kensington and Chelsea	24,846	0.97	16,707	0.62
Kingston upon Thames	17,616	0.35	13,147	0.27
Lambeth	62,317	0.92	59,449	0.82
Lewisham	136,429	1.57	140,500	1.55
London, City of	0	0	152	0.29
Merton	41,819	0.77	43,868	0.76
Newham	150,817	1.29	117,667	0.94
Redbridge	76,663	0.73	90,365	0.85
Richmond upon Thames	56,648	1.09	57,358	1.04
Southwark	157,226	1.75	155,229	1.66
Sutton	35,024	0.46	39,458	0.51
Tower Hamlets	138,820	1.56	141,381	1.53
Waltham Forest	81,085	0.90	100,796	1.07
Wandsworth	52,766	0.78	43,182	0.66
Westminster, City of	48,561	1.08	56,494	1.18

Unauthorised absence is absence without leave from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. It includes pupils who are late or who take time off with parents' consent—for example for a holiday which the school will not authorise.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Business Rates

Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on progress with the business rate property revaluation. [219780]

Mr. Raynsford: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has successfully completed the revaluation of all business properties. The draft rating lists were published, as planned, on 1 October 2004. At the same time, as part of a comprehensive programme to make more information available to ratepayers, a summary valuation (an explanation of how the valuation is determined) was issued for the bulk of the properties. This was sent to many ratepayers and made available on the VOA website. Final lists have been given to billing authorities enabling them to issue the rate bills for 1 April 2005 using the new valuations.

Departmental Policies (Hull, North)

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Kingston-upon–Hull, North constituency, the effects on Kingston-upon–Hull, North of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [211811]

Yvette Cooper: Along with other Government Departments, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to improving the lives of people across the whole of the UK. For example, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is determined that everyone should have the opportunity to have a decent home, and since 1997 we have reduced the number of non-decent homes nationally by one million.

North Hull Housing Action Trust, which operated between 1991 and 1999, invested £109 million of public funds to modernise 2,083 homes, provide community
 
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facilities and services, promote training and employment initiatives and undertake environmental improvements in the North Hull area.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister provides grant funding that benefits the Kingston-upon–Hull, North constituency through a number of programmes.

For example over the period 2001–06, Kingston-upon-Hull has been allocated over £39 million Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) resources to help the local authority, in collaboration with the Local Strategic Partnership, improve services in the most deprived neighbourhoods in the area.

More broadly, since 1997 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has been able to increase the total amount of government grant given to local authorities by £22.6 billion. This is a 33 per cent. increase in real terms. Kingston-upon-Hull has received an average annual increase in formula grant since 1997 of 3.7 per cent.

The Neighbourhood Statistics Service provides a wide range of statistical information at parliamentary constituency level, taken from the 2001 Census and other sources. This service is available on the National Statistics website at: http://neighbourhood.statistics. gov.uk./.

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