---

8 Nov 2005 : Column 444W—continued

Academies

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what freedoms are available to academies that will not be automatically available to Trust schools. [24281]

Jacqui Smith: Academies are fully independent of the local authority, and have considerable freedoms around staffing, curriculum and governance. They have the freedom to establish their own pay and conditions system for staff with the exception of those who transfer from the predecessor school under TUPE. They must offer a broad and balanced curriculum, and have the freedom to establish this in their own innovative way, with the assistance of the Department. Academy sponsors can appoint the entire governing body, except for three places which are reserved for an LEA representative, and elected parent and staff representatives.

Trust schools are part of the local authority family of schools. Like other maintained schools they must follow the Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document and the National Curriculum, unless they demonstrate that proposed changes will raise standards and obtain permission to innovate from the Secretary of State. In terms of governance, Trusts will be able to appoint a majority of governors and places will be reserved for representatives of parents, staff, LEA and the community.

Admissions Code

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she will publish the responses to the Consultation on the Draft Admissions Code; and if she will make a statement. [25946]

Jacqui Smith: We expect to be able to publish results on the Department's Consultation website by early December—well within the three months of the end of consultation time scale recommended by the Cabinet Office.
 
8 Nov 2005 : Column 445W
 

Avian Influenza

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues about the advice to be issued to schools in the event of a civil contingency caused by the outbreak of an avian influenza pandemic. [25393]

Phil Hope: This Department has taken part in discussions with ministerial colleagues, which are to continue. In due course, the Government will issue interim advice to local emergency planners, which will include advice on schools.

Call Centres

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many call centres were run by her Department and its agencies in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06 to date; and how many and what proportion of calls (i) were handled by an adviser, (ii) were received but abandoned and (iii) received an engaged tone. [23303]

Bill Rammell: The Department operated one call centre (the DfES Publications Line) in 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06 to date. Call answering statistics for each of these years for this call centre are:

	2003–04	2004–05	2005–061
Calls handled by an adviser	547,477	543,264	245,042
Calls receiving engaged tone	4,492	2,224	2,131
Percentage of total	0.8	0.4	0.87
Calls abandoned	9,250	8,984	3,912
Percentage of total	1.6	1.6	1.6

⁽³⁶⁾ To date.

The Department currently has no Agencies and did not have any in the years covered by the question.

Child Care

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many child care places were available in each of the past 10 years in Cleethorpes constituency. [26478]

Beverley Hughes: The Department is unable to provide details of available child care places in the past 10 years, additionally we are unable to provide details of places within each constituency. Statistics have only been collected by local authority area since 1999 following the introduction of the National Childcare Strategy for England.

The following table details the stock of child care places in North East Lincolnshire, each year since 1999.
Stock of child care places

March	Number
1999	154
2000	73
2001	611
2002	930
2003	1,578
2004	2,199
2005	2,597

 
8 Nov 2005 : Column 446W
 

Disabled Students' Allowance

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff are employed to deal with applications for the disabled students' allowance. [26558]

Bill Rammell: Applications for disabled students' allowances (DSAs) are handled by awards officers in local authorities, which decide individually on appropriate staffing levels. The Open university acts similarly with regard to students on OU courses receiving DSAs. Statistics of local authority and OU staff administering student support applications are not kept centrally.

Education Funding

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many hon. Members (a) she, (b) the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education and (c) the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills have met formally since February to discuss (i) adult education and (ii) funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in schools and colleges. [23620]

Phil Hope: The Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills also invited all hon. Members to attend open meetings in June on funding for further education. 39 hon. Members accepted although no formal record was made of attendance at the meetings.

The Secretary of State for Education and Skills has met three hon. Members formally since February to discuss funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in schools and colleges.

The Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education has, since February, formally met: one hon. Member to discuss adult education; one hon. Member to discuss funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in schools and colleges; and four hon. Members to discuss both.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills has, since February, formally met: two hon. Members to discuss funding for 16 to 19-year-olds; and one hon. Member to discuss both adult education and funding for 16 to 19-year-olds.

Extended Schools

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what criteria will be used by local authorities in deciding which schools receive priority for extended school funding; [24228]

(2) how many extended schools she expects will operate in each of the most deprived local authorities, as defined by the Index of Local Deprivation, by 2008; [24229]

(3) what steps she will take to ensure that access to 'charged for services' in extended schools is maximised among families who are (a) unwaged and (b) in receipt of tax credit. [24230]

Beverley Hughes: It will be for each local authority, in discussion with all schools in their area, to take a strategic approach to developing access to extended services through schools. As part of that strategy, local
 
8 Nov 2005 : Column 447W
 
authorities and schools will need to take into account a number of factors such as what services are already available in the local community, levels of deprivation and how the proposed extended services will be delivered. Funding will be released to schools in accordance with that strategy. The aim is to avoid schools 'bidding' for funding but ensure that funding is released against the priorities identified. A key priority will be to fill gaps in services, such as child care. We anticipate that there will be gaps in services in many deprived communities and hence these areas will be prioritised.

The Government's aim is that half of all primary schools and a third of all secondary schools will be offering access to a core set of extended services by 2008. We anticipate that many of then will be located in areas of high deprivation (in allocating the funding we have factored in deprivation levels into the distribution formula). We are providing £840 million to support the development of extended services.

For some of these services, such as child care, we expect them to become sustainable longer term by charging. Parents on low income may be eligible to apply for the child care element of the working tax credit to support the cost of school based child care. Local authorities are well placed to provide schools and parents with advice on accessing the tax credits available and can work with schools to encourage greater take up of tax credits in deprived communities. We will expect children from unwaged families to access a good range of study support activities free of charge through schools. In addition to the resources that schools already have within their existing budgets for study support programmes, the Government is investing a further £335 million by 2007–08 for secondary schools to develop a more personalised programme of study support. For those schools with the highest number of pupils who have fallen behind in their learning, the Government will provide a further £60 million shared between the primary and secondary sectors in each of 2006–07 and 2007–08. Every school should therefore be well placed to ensure that every child in their school has access, free of charge, to the study support that they need. For other services such as health and social care and adult learning opportunities, local authorities, using children's trust arrangements, will be able to provide resources to support services in deprived areas where that is appropriate.

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the potential requirement for additional training of staff for extended schools. [25001]

Beverley Hughes: My department has made available £680 million over the next two years for schools and local authorities to deliver extended services. This is in addition to the £160 million that we have already spent. This funding can be used flexibly by local authorities and schools to overcome any barriers to the development of extended services. We anticipate that some of this funding will be used to ensure that staff working in extended services get the training and support they need in their roles, including on important issues such as health and safety requirements. We have made it clear from the outset that there is no expectation that teachers will deliver these services. Schools will
 
8 Nov 2005 : Column 448W
 
need to work with existing providers from both the private and voluntary sectors and other children's services and make good use of their expertise and skills. It may also be the case that, following consultation, some existing school support staff may be interested in taking up some of these roles. We have also appointed the National Remodelling Team, within the Training and Development Agency, to work with schools to ensure that they have the right skills in place for developing extended services.

---