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Nursery Places

Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in Braintree constituency attended nursery in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available; and how many children in Braintree have taken up free nursery places since the policy was introduced. [21803]

Beverley Hughes: All four-year-olds have been entitled to a free early education place since 1998 and from April 2004 this entitlement was extended to all three-year-olds. The free entitlement consists of a minimum of five two and a half hour sessions per week for 33 weeks of the year for six terms before statutory school age, which is the term following their fifth birthday.

Some local authorities may additionally offer subsidised child care places but this information is not collected centrally.

Figures for January 2005 show that all four–year-old children receive some form of free entitlement. The figure for three–year-olds is 96 per cent. This covers all maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers and represents 535,100 three-year-olds and 568,300 four-year-olds.

The available information on the number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four-year-olds in Braintree parliamentary constituency area and Essex local authority is shown in the tables. For 2005, information for private and voluntary providers is available for Essex but not currently available for Braintree constituency.

The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release 43/2005 Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2005 (final)" in September, which is available on my Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/
Number of free nursery education places⁽⁴¹⁾ taken up by three and four-year-olds—Braintree parliamentary constituency. Position in January each year.

	Three-year-olds		Four–year-olds
	Maintained nursery and primary schools(42)	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers(43)	Maintained nursery and primary schools(44)	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers(45)
2004	150	940	970	400
2005	150	n/a	890	n/a

n/a = Not available.
⁽⁴¹⁾ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 as appropriate.
⁽⁴²⁾ Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools1 Census.
⁽⁴³⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools' Census.
⁽⁴⁴⁾ Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools' Census.
⁽⁴⁵⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools' Census.



Number of free nursery education places⁽⁴⁶⁾ taken up three and four-year-olds—local authority Essex. Position in January each year

	Three–year-olds			Four-year-olds
	Maintained nursery and primary schools(47)	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers	Total three-year-olds	Maintained nursery and primary schools(48)	Other maintained private, voluntary and independent providers	Total four-year-olds
1997	1,600	n/a	1,600	n/a	n/a	(49)14,000
1998	1,900	n/a	1,900	n/a	n/a	(49)15,000
1999	2,000	n/a	2,000	n/a	n/a	(49)15,200
2000	2,000	(50)0	2,000	n/a	n/a	(49)15,100
2001	2,000	(50)220	2,200	n/a	n/a	(49)15,100
2002	2,000	(50)6,700	8,700	10,400	(49)4,700	15,100
2003	2,000	(50)9,500	11,500	10,400	(51)4,600	15,000
2004	2,000	(52)9,700	11,700	10,500	(53)4,500	15,000
2005	1,900	(52)10,000	11,900	9,900	(53)4,500	14,400

n/a = Not available.
⁽⁴⁶⁾ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 as appropriate.
⁽⁴⁷⁾ Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools Census.
⁽⁴⁸⁾ Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools Census.
⁽⁴⁹⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise.
⁽⁵⁰⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise.
⁽⁵¹⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census supplementary data collection exercise and the Annual Schools Census.
⁽⁵²⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools Census.
⁽⁵³⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools Census.



 
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Changes in pupil figures may arise from changes to the underlying population in the local authority area and other factors. However, my Department does not publish population figures for individual age cohorts at sub-national level because of the unreliability of the underlying population estimates. The Office for National Statistics publish sub-national population estimates in five-year age bands.

Olympic Games

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the construction industry is anticipating a skills shortage due to the building requirements of the London 2012 Olympics. [24961]

Phil Hope: The construction industry estimates that it will need to grow its Olympic work force to a peak of 7,500 employees by 2010. This will equate to no more than 3 per cent. of construction related employment in greater London (in 2010).

Coordination of construction projects in London and across the UK, together with the development by CITB-ConstructionSkills of a dedicated skills academy for the Olympics site will ensure we have an effective response to the skills needs generated by the London 2012 Olympics.

Overseas Students

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will relax the three year residency requirement for overseas students in respect of publicly funded further education courses equipping people to work in the NHS and social services. [25003]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 7 November 2005]: My Department have no plans to review the policy regarding the three year residency requirement. We do recognise the needs of the NHS and social services, however, publicly funded education and training cannot
 
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be made available for non-EU nationals. All adults seeking to qualify for publicly funded education and training must satisfy the three year residency rule or other criteria specified by the Learning and Skills Council which funds post-16 learning in England. This requirement applies equally to UK citizens who have not been resident in the UK/EEU. This long standing residency requirement reflects the Government's view that it is reasonable to expect a person to have established a relevant connection with the UK before being allowed to benefit from funding provided by UK taxpayers.

Employers, public or private, who bring workers from outside the EU into this country have a clear responsibility to ensure they have the skills required for their jobs.

Personalised Learning

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of (a) the staff required and (b) the workforce development programme needed to deliver more personalised learning in schools. [23944]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 1 November 2005]: Many schools have tailored the curriculum and teaching methods to meet the needs of pupils with great success for many years. We now want this to be common practice across all schools, particularly for children at either end of the ability spectrum whose needs can be the most challenging to meet.

It is for schools to determine their strategies and priorities for workforce deployment to deliver personalised learning. Schools are in the best position to identify their pupils' teaching and learning needs; and with the support of the Government's Primary and Secondary National Strategies, to determine how best to invest their resources and to access workforce development programmes to deliver them. Many
 
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schools are employing staff other than teachers to support pupils and teachers as part of a professional school team.

We will support schools by allocating £335 million by 2007–08, specifically earmarked within our Dedicated Schools Grant, to provide the resources secondary schools need to deliver personalised learning in key stage 3. For those schools with the highest numbers of children who have fallen behind we will provide a further targeted £60 million in each of 2006–07 and 2007–08, shared across the primary and secondary sectors, to provide more effective one-to-one and small group tuition.

Through the National Strategies we will provide new resources and best practice guidance so that all schools will have a workforce that is well-equipped to tailor
 
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teaching and learning for those pupils who have fallen behind in English and maths. This will include material on the use of ICT and ways to engage and support parents in contributing to their children's learning. We propose to introduce a national training programme so that every school will have an expert leading professional to drive personalisation across the whole school, make best use of the new resources available and personalise learning to the needs of each pupil.

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