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Modern Apprenticeships

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her estimate is of the number of people (a) starting and (b) completing Modern Apprenticeships in 2005–06; and what funding has been allocated to Modern Apprenticeships in 2005–06. [13901]

Phil Hope: The Apprenticeship programme continues to go from strength to strength with record numbers of young people participating and completion rates improving more quickly than expected. We have ensured that sufficient funding is made available to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) who deliver the programme, to meet our targets and aspiration in this area. This will continue in the next funding year 2005–06. However, the details asked are a matter for the LSC and I have asked the Council's Chief Executive Mark Haysom to write to the hon. Member and a copy of the reply will be placed in the Library.

Letter from Mark Haysom to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 5 September 2005:

I write in response to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, which has been referred to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) by Phil Hope.

You asked the number of people (a) starting and (b) completing Modern Apprenticeships in 2005–06; and what funding has been allocated to Modern Apprenticeships in 2005–06.

The planning assumptions on which the Apprenticeship programme for 2005–06 has been based are as follows:

(a) Apprenticeship starts forecasted at 232,394 learners.

(b) Apprenticeship framework completions 65,260 learners.

(c) Funding set aside for the Apprenticeship programme £831 million.

You also what the total spending by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was on promotion of apprenticeships in each of the last 10 years.

The LSC was incorporated on 1st April 2001, as such the first financial year for which the LSC assumed responsibility for managing the delivery of apprenticeships was 2001–02. Table 1 below shows the total expenditure coded as marketing, advertising, development and promotion of apprenticeships in the LSCs accounts for the 2001–02 and subsequent financial years.

Table 1

Financial Year	Total expenditure (£ million)
2001–02	8.715
2002–03	10.750
2003–04	4.684
2004–05	15.050
Total	39.200

During the financial year April 2004 to March 2005, the LSC spent £12.206 million on national marketing and promotion of Apprenticeships; this included the national employer campaign.

Local LSCs spent a further £2.845 million undertaking brokerage activities with local partners to build on and respond to interest generated by the national employer campaign.

 
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To date the national media campaign has achieved 28,925 responses, resulting in 18,743 employer leads.

Our research ¹ also shows that awareness of Apprenticeships rose significantly during the campaign, with nearly 90% of employer respondents aware of Apprenticeships in October 2004 compared with 72% in December 2003 (pre-campaign).

I trust this is helpful.

¹ Source: Apprenticeship Research: Employers

Synovate November 2004

Commissioned for the LSC by COI Communications

Chemistry

Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many undergraduates studied (a) chemistry and (b) biochemistry in (i) 2004–05 and (ii) 1995–96 (A) in total and (B) as a percentage of the total undergraduate population. [10168]

Bill Rammell: The latest information is given in the following table:
Undergraduate students⁽²⁰⁾at English HE institutions1995/96 and 2003/04

	Subject of study
	Chemistry		Biochemistry (including molecular biology and biophysics)
	Student numbers	Percentage of undergraduate population	Student numbers	Percentage of undergraduate population
1995/96	12,960	1.1	5,125	0.5
2003/04	10,390	0.7	5,945	0.4

⁽²⁰⁾Based on a count of students as at 1 December in each academic year.
Notes:
1.Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.
2.In 2002/03, changes were made to the method used to allocate students to subjects of study. The main effect of this was to increase the number of students allocated to individual named subjects and to decrease those who were allocated to the Combined Course" category. This means that figures for 2002/03 and 2003/04 are not directly comparable with those for earlier years.
Source:
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Child Minders

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many complaints against child minders investigated by Ofsted have subsequently turned out to be vexatious in each of the last five years; [12830]

(2) how many investigations against child minders have been undertaken by Ofsted in each of the last five years; and how many resulted in action. [12831]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 18 July 2005]: These are matters for the Office of Standards in Education (Ofsted). David Bell, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector for Schools will write to the hon. Gentleman and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library.

Letter from David Bell to Mr. Tim Loughton, dated 22 July 2005:

Your recent parliamentary questions concerning childminders have been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for reply.

 
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You asked:

(i) how many complaints against childminders investigated by Ofsted have subsequently turned out to be vexatious in each of the last five years.

(ii) how many investigations against childminders have been undertaken by Ofsted in each of the last five years; and how many resulted in action.

In relation to the first question, Ofsted does not record the number of vexatious complaints made against childminders. Ofsted's role is to help to secure better education and care through effective inspection and regulation. Ofsted looks into complaints which suggest that childminders and day care providers are not meeting the government's National Standards.

Ofsted's first concern is with the welfare of the children in the provider's care. When Ofsted has investigated a complaint it records the outcome of the investigation. This could be the action the provider or Ofsted had to take to bring about compliance with the Standards or that Ofsted found the provider to be meeting the National Standards. Ofsted reports either outcome to parents and in its regular inspection reports. It does not record or report whether a complaint was vexatious. It may be, of course, that even if a complaint was vexatious it could still lead Ofsted to identify some areas for improvement in the childminder's practice and so have a positive impact on the children concerned.

However, Ofsted does recognise that providers will have concerns about having a number of complaints recorded against their names, even if Ofsted on inspection found that National Standards were being met. For that reason, where it appears that a number of complaints could have been made by the same source and they all resulted in a finding that the Standards were being met, they are not reported on in inspection reports individually.

Ofsted recognises the concern childminders may feel about this issue and is looking at its practice to see if it can handle complaints in a more transparent and effective way. The government has just consulted on a new duty to be placed on providers to investigate and report on complaints. It may be that Ofsted will be able to change its complaints procedures and recording in the light of this. It will work with provider organisations to make sure it does this as well as it can.

In relation to your second question, please find attached two tables with this information.

A copy of this reply has been sent to the Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP and will be placed in the library of both Houses.

Investigations against child minders undertaken by Ofsted and the number of resulting actions⁽²¹⁾

Financial year(22)	Number of investigations against child minders	Number of resulting actions against child minders
April 2004 to March 2005	2,448	456
April 2003 to March 2004	2,550	398

Transitional period(23)	Number of complaints received by Ofsted about child care provision	Number of resulting enforcement actions against child minders and providers of day care
September 2001 to March 2003	(24)10,500	(24)410

⁽²¹⁾The law gives Ofsted a number of actions that it can follow in the event of a provider failing to meet their statutory obligations, including compliance notices, prosecution for some offences and cancellation of a registration. Ofsted can also impose specific conditions on a registration or suspend a registration whilst steps are taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of harm to children.
⁽²²⁾Ofsted's Early Years Directorate counts, records and publishes data by financial year, 1 April to 31 March, and not by calendar year.
⁽²³⁾The duty to regulate and inspect under 8s child care transferred from the local authorities to Ofsted on 1 September 2001. The first 18 months of Ofsted's regulatory activity, between 1 September 2001 and March 2003, was considered a transitional period. During the transition period Ofsted's focused on ensuring existing child care providers were able to make the transition from local authority requirements to the governments new minimum criteria for all under 8s child care set out in National standards for under 8s day care and childminding".
⁽²⁴⁾No breakdown between day care and child minding for the period (see following note).
Note:
Data recorded during the transitional period does not always differentiate between day care and child minding. We have provided child minder data where this is available.




 
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Breakdown of enforcement action

All figures are for child minding unless otherwise stated	September 2001 to March 2003(25)	April 2003 to March 2004(26)	April 2004 to March 2005(26)
Notice of compliance instructing providers they must comply with the National Standards	(27)40 (Child minders 17)	130	130
Change to conditions of registration	(27)68	17	14
Voluntary suspension of registration	(27)106	77	95
Statutory suspension of registration(28)	n/a	29	27
Cancellation of registration	(27)45	36	81
Emergency order from a Justice of the Peace	(27)27	2	4
Prosecution	Confirming data	3	1
Enforcement action against unregistered child minding	124	104	104
Total number of resulting actions against child minders	—	398	456

⁽²⁵⁾The duty to regulate and inspect under 8s child care transferred from the local authorities to Ofsted on 1 September 2001. The first 18 months of Ofsted's regulatory activity, between 1 September 2001 and March 2003, was considered a transitional period. During the transition period Ofsted's focused on ensuring existing child care providers were able to make the transition from local authority requirements to the governments new minimum criteria for all under 8s child care set out in National standards for under 8s day care and childminding".
⁽²⁶⁾Ofsted's Early Years Directorate counts, records and publishes data by financial year, 1 April to 31 March, and not by calendar year.
⁽²⁷⁾Total for child minding and day care (see note 1).
⁽²⁸⁾Statutory powers to suspend providers came into force 1 April 2003.

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