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Children Act Databases

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her latest estimate is of the cost of (a) establishing and (b) maintaining the databases of children established by the Children Act 2004. [222033]

Margaret Hodge: The detailed costings for a national system of databases or Indexes' are not yet available. We know that the 15 authorities involved in our 10 Trailblazers have been able to make good progress towards introducing both indexes and the vital training and culture change required, within overall budgets of around £1 million per Trailblazer. We will take decisions on the funding of a national infrastructure in the light of further work on the technical feasibility and an analysis of costs and benefits. We will not move to this phase until we are clear that the processes and systems are deliverable, and that we have secured sufficient funding.
 
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Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the role of the new Children's Commissioner for England will be in (a) setting up and (b) monitoring the children's databases established by the Children Act 2004. [222034]

Margaret Hodge: The Children's Commissioner will be able to apply his general powers in relation to the databases or indexes to be established under the Children Act, as for other policy initiatives.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what data she intends to include on the databases of children established by the Children's Act 2004. [222045]

Margaret Hodge: The databases or 'indexes' would contain the following information:

basic details to identify a child and whether they are receiving universal services. These are name, address, date of birth, gender, a unique identifying number, name and contact details of a person with parental responsibility or care of the child, name and contact details for school or other educational setting, and names and contact details of GP practice;

name and contact details for other practitioners involved with a child, so professionals can see who to contact if they wish to discuss a child's additional needs; and

an indicator of whether a practitioner has a cause for concern about a child, so professionals can see who to contact as a matter of priority to discuss a child's additional needs.

The indexes will not hold any case information.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many responses she has received to her consultation on the databases provision of the Children's Act 2004; and if she will publish them. [222046]

Margaret Hodge: We received 317 responses. We are now considering these and will publish a summary of the responses and the Government's decisions on the way forward. We will include in the summary a list of respondents, and will make available copies of individual responses, where the respondent has given permission for this to be done, on request.

Children in Care

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many looked-after children committed suicide while in care in each year since 1997; what estimate she has made of the number of previously looked-after children who committed suicide after leaving care in each year; and what estimate she has made of the number of looked-after children who had or developed some form of mental illness while in care in each year. [221201]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 10 March 2005]: Data on children looked after is collected from the SSDA903 return, a statistical return completed by all local authorities with social services responsibilities in England. This return collects information relating to the care a looked after child receives and gives information on children who have died while in care but does not collect data on suicides or the number of looked after children who developed some form of mental illness while in care.
 
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However, information on the cause of deaths of looked after children has been obtained for the first time in 2004 by matching child records from the SSDA903 episode data for 2002–03 and 2003–04 to death registration records held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to obtain cause of death. This work is still in progress. The outcome will be published in the Statistical Volume "Children Looked After by Local Authorities, Year Ending 31 March 2004", scheduled to be published on 31 March 2005.

Education Funding (Tamworth)

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding has been made available for computers for schools in Tamworth since 1997. [221940]

Derek Twigg: The Department does not hold information on funding for ICT in schools at constituency level. However, Tamworth is in Staffordshire LEA and allocations for this authority since 1998 are detailed in "Funding for ICT in Schools in England" which is available in the House Library.

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Tamworth have broadband internet access. [221942]

Derek Twigg: My Department does not hold data on broadband connections at constituency level. As at December 2004, 60 per cent. of schools in Staffordshire LEA had a broadband connection. This includes 99 per cent. of secondary schools and 54 per cent. of primary schools.

The national broadband connectivity rate, as at end December 2004, is 72 per cent., including 99 per cent. of secondary schools and 69 per cent. of primary schools.

Educational Psychologists

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many educational psychologists qualified in each of the last 10 years. [220434]

Margaret Hodge: The information is not held centrally. The Higher Education Statistics Agency produce annual summaries of newly qualified graduates by subject, but educational psychologists are not separately identified.

Inclusive Education Strategy

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what targets were set as part of the Government's strategy to make the education system more inclusive; and whether those targets have been achieved. [221599]

Derek Twigg: All our national targets including the post-16 and higher education targets are inclusive because they will enable more young people to succeed. The Department's school level floor targets are particularly important in promoting inclusion because they define an ambitious minimum standard of performance for every school.
 
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The Department publishes progress against all its outstanding PSA targets in its Annual Departmental Report and Autumn Performance Report. Progress was reported most recently in the 2004 autumn report, published last November, together with commentary where appropriate.

A copy of the Department's 2004 Autumn Performance Report has been placed in the Library.

Out-of-school Clubs (York)

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many out-of-school clubs there are in York; and how many there were in 1997. [222357]

Derek Twigg: The information requested is not available. Along with all local authorities, the City of York receives funding from my Department to provide study support (out of school hours learning) activities as part of the School Development Grant. The majority of this funding is devolved directly to schools. Individual schools and local authorities have the freedom to decide which activities best meet local needs. Study support can range from breakfast, homework and study clubs to special-interest activities including sport, the creative arts, and ICT. Activities can take place before or after school, during the school holidays and at weekends. In addition, the Department will be awarding the City of York £442,575 in 2005–06 to develop their extended schools services, including study support provision.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the projects being undertaken by her Department in respect of which information cannot be given in answer to parliamentary questions as a result of commercial confidentiality. [216628]

Derek Twigg: A decision not to release information relating to any project as a result of commercial confidentiality is made on the basis of the specific request made in each parliamentary question.

An assessment of commercial confidentiality may apply to specific element within a project as well as to an entire project. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested.

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