---

17 Mar 2005 : Column 449W—continued

Professor Sir Roy Meadow

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what work remunerated from public funds has been undertaken by Professor Sir Roy Meadow in the last two years. [222070]

Margaret Hodge: Professor Meadow has undertaken no work during the past two years on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills. My Department does not have information on whether he has undertaken any other work remunerated from public funds.

School Leavers (Ribble Valley)

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of pupils in Ribble Valley left school with no qualifications in 2004. [221985]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The proportion of 15 year-old pupils ¹ that failed to achieve a GCSE or equivalent qualification in the parliamentary constituency of Ribble Valley in 2003–04 was 3.1 per cent.

¹ GCSE and equivalent results are reported as standard as the results of pupils aged 15 at the start of the academic year (i.e. 31 August 2003) and therefore reaching the end of compulsory education at the end of the school year.

Schools (Internet Security)

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures she has taken to ensure that schools implement security measures in respect of their use of the internet. [222189]

Derek Twigg: The Department for Education and Skills and with Becta (The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) are committed to ensuring that schools have advice and information on internet safety, to help teachers make informed decisions about the technological and practical steps that they can take to keep their students safe.

The Superhighway Safety website includes advice on all aspects of internet safety covering a number of key areas of concern such as e-mails for students, filtering systems, school websites and chat rooms. The guidance pack is online at http://safety.ngfl.gov.uk. Schools are
 
17 Mar 2005 : Column 450W
 
advised to have an acceptable use policy signed by students and their parents, guardians or carers detailing the ways the internet can or cannot be used.

Self-harm

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) training and (b) resources are available to educational professionals dealing with young people with experience of self-harm; and what definition of self-harm the Department uses. [221576]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The school workforce can draw upon a range of training support in dealing with self-harm. The resources available centrally include the Department's 2001 guide Promoting Children's Mental Health in Early Years and School Settings" which gives advice on how self-harm can be managed; and Promoting emotional health and well-being through the National Healthy School Standard", jointly produced by the Departments of Health and Education and Skills, offers guidance and training modules on whole school approaches to supporting emotional well-being more generally. Every local education authority in England works in partnership with primary care trusts to manage and deliver a local healthy schools programme, supported by a local co-ordinator and education and health team.

Further guidelines for education professionals will be available later this year when a national inquiry into self-harm reports. The Department uses the Inquiry's description of self-harm as encompassing

"a wide range of things that people do to themselves, in a deliberate and usually hidden way, which are damaging."

SOAs (Dartford)

Dr. Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures she (a) has taken and (b) is proposing to take to assist the lower level super output areas (SOAs) in Dartford that fall within the most deprived 20 per cent. of lower level SOAs in England and Wales in terms of educational qualifications and access to education, skills and training. [221102]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Government policy is not currently targeted at a super output area level, but there is an abundance of activity in the Dartford area to address
 
17 Mar 2005 : Column 451W
 
the issues arising from the relatively high levels of deprivation, some directly funded through DfES funding, some through a multi-agency approach.

To give some indication of the levels of activity in the Dartford area there is:

a creative writing initiative to engage the pupils;

a major literacy project in Swanscombe (using a variety of budgets);

additional support is made available for providing support for behavioural management in 10 primary schools and the two secondary schools;

three of the primary schools are being remodelled (physical infrastructure) to provide a high quality environment that will enhance the extended school activities by incorporating health, community and social services provision;

vocational centres to enhance the work related learning curriculum developed in schools through funding to address the growth agenda in the area;

funding gained to provide additional support in schools to improve the home:school links and engage better with the local communities;

a children's centre based in Swanscombe.

all schools in the area are addressing the Healthy Schools Standard.

 
17 Mar 2005 : Column 452W
 

In addition, Kent county council have developed school 'cluster' arrangements to help develop collaborative approaches.

Special Educational Needs

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers are trained to provide physical education for pupils with special educational needs. [221437]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information is not collected centrally.

Students

Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students attended (a) Russell Group universities and (b) other universities in each of the last three years, broken down by (i) socio-economic class and (ii) ethnic group. [218983]

Dr. Howells: The latest available information on socio-economic group was published in September by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and is given in the first table. The latest information on ethnicity is shown in the second table.
Young full-time first degree entrants to UK HE institutions

		Of which, percentage(29) from
	Young entrants(number)	Social classes IIIM-V(30)	Socio-economic classes 4–7(30)
Russell group
2000–01	54,135	16	—
2001–02	56,885	16	—
2002–03	60,695	—	19
Other HE institutions
2000–01	167,285	28	—
2001–02	172,860	29	—
2002–03	178,485	—	32

⁽²⁹⁾ Based on those students who provided details of their social background.
⁽³⁰⁾ A new socio-economic classification was introduced in 200203, which replaced social class. The two classifications are not directly comparable. Social classes IIIM-V cover students from skilled manual, semi-skilled and unskilled backgrounds; socio-economic classes 4–7 covers those from small employers and own account workers, lower supervisory and technical occupations, semi-routine occupations, and routine occupations.
Source:
"Performance Indicators in Higher Education" published by HEFCE/HESA





All undergraduates in UK HE institutions

		Of which, percentage(31) who were
	Total students	White	Black	Asian	Mixed	Other
Russell Group
2001–02	259,130	88.2	1.6	8.2	0.7	1.3
2002–03	265,540	87.2	1.8	8.7	1.3	1.1
2003–04	271,530	86.5	1.9	8.9	1.8	0.8
Other HE institutions
2001–02	1,143,82 0	85.2	4.5	8.4	0.6	1.3
2002–03	1,196,89 0	84.8	4.7	8.4	1.1	1.0
2003–04	1,252,21 0	84.6	4.9	8.2	1.4	0.9

⁽³¹⁾ Based on those students who provided details of their ethnicity.
Source:
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.





 
17 Mar 2005 : Column 453W
 

---