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16 Nov 2005 : Column 1283W—continued
Children (Parental Access)
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what research her Department has undertaken of (a) contact between absent parents and their children and (b) the impact on children of supervised contact with absent parents; [27087]
(2) what research her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the work of contact centres in providing supervised contact between absent parents and their children. [27088]
Maria Eagle: The Government, through the research programmes of the Department of Constitutional Affairs, has commissioned a series of research projects on child contact. They are:
1. Safety and Child Contact: an analysis of the role of child contact centres in the context of domestic violence and child welfare concerns by Aris, Harrison and Humphries, DCA 2002.
2. Safety Contact Disputes in Court Volume 1 DCA 2003, Volume 2 DCA 2005 by Smart, Wade, May and Furniss.
3. A profile of applicants and respondents in contact cases in Essex, by Trinder and colleagues, DCA 2005.
Copies are available free of charge from the Research Unit, DCA, Selborne House, Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QW.
Citizenship
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of initial teacher training of teachers of citizenship; and if she will make a statement. [28181]
Jacqui Smith: Citizenship is a relatively new subject. Ofsted has been inspecting citizenship since 2003–04. Their inspections found that four of the seven courses prepare trainees very well to teach citizenship; the others are satisfactory and improving rapidly. The Ofsted reports, ITT for Teachers of citizenship 2003/04 and ITT for Teachers of Citizenship 2004/05, are both available in e-version on the Ofsted website.
Connexions
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the annual budget of Connexions has been in each year that it has been running; and what the budget of the pre-Connexions career service was in each year between 1992 and its replacement. [28584]
Maria Eagle: The budgets for Connexions and the careers service for each year since 1994–95 are as follows:
| Careers service budget | Connexions budget | |
|---|---|---|
| 1994–95 | 176 | — |
| 1995–96 | 194 | — |
| 1996–97 | 201 | — |
| 1997–98 | 206 | — |
| 1998–99 | 214 | — |
| 1999–2000 | 227 | — |
| 2000–01 | 236 | — |
| 2001–02 | 173 | 151 |
| 2002–03 | 52 | 378 |
| 2003–04 | — | 455 |
| 2004–05 | — | 470 |
| 2005–06 | — | 475 |
Connexions was introduced from April 2001 and replaced the careers service in April 2003. We do not hold information for the years prior to 1994–95.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Pupils
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research she has commissioned on academic achievements of deaf and hard of hearing pupils in (a) mainstream schools and (b) special schools and units in Hertfordshire. [26241]
Maria Eagle:
It is for schools and local authorities to monitor the progress and attainment of children with special educational needs (SEN) for whom they have responsibility.
16 Nov 2005 : Column 1285W
We have not commissioned any research at local authority level into the attainment of children with different types of SEN in different educational settings. However, Ofsted is currently carrying out a study looking at how provision has changed over the past five years and how different types of provision affect outcomes for children with SEN. This report is scheduled to be published in summer 2006.
Education (Tamworth)
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) teachers and (b) full-time equivalent teaching posts there were in schools in Tamworth constituency in each year since 1997. [27489]
Jacqui Smith: The following table shows the full-time equivalent number of teachers in maintained schools in Tamworth constituency in each year since 1997.
The number of full-time equivalent teaching posts in Tamworth is not collected centrally.
(11) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(12) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools.
Note:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
Annual School Census
Mr. Jenkins: 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 Tamworth constituency. [27491]
Beverley Hughes: Statistics have been collected by local authority area only since 1999 following the introduction of the National Childcare Strategy for England. We are unable to provide details of places by parliamentary constituency.
The table details the stock of child care places in Staffordshire, each year since 1999.
| As at March each year | Stock of child care places |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 14,649 |
| 2000 | 16,346 |
| 2001 | 17,531 |
| 2002 | 17,304 |
| 2003 | 18,482 |
| 2004 | 21,322 |
| 2005 | 22,463 |
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Failing Schools
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the schools which (a) are failing and (b) have been judged to be failing for more than three years; on what date each was first identified as failing; in which local education authority area each school is located; how many pupils attend each school; and what the pupil capacity is of each school. [29146]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.
Family Resolutions Project
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many parents have taken part in the Family Resolutions pilot project to date; and how many have accepted mediation services as part of the project; [26638]
(2) what estimate she has made of the costs of running the Family Resolutions project in the next five years; [26639]
(3) how much the Government have spent on the Family Resolutions Pilot scheme; how many couples have entered the scheme; how many couples have completed full courses on the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the future of the scheme. [26640]
Maria Eagle: In total, there were 62 couples or 124 individual parents who participated in the pilot project, which ran for one year from September 2004 to September 2005, of whom 31 couples completed all elements of the project. It focussed on parents using facilitated group discussions, learning conflict management skills and developing their own solutions through the use of the parenting plans. The pilot project's components did not include mediation services, though a number of the participating couples might have received such services either prior to entering the project or subsequently.
The Government have invested a total of £300,000 over two financial years (£170,000 in 2004–05 and £130,000 in 2005–06) in the Family Resolutions Pilot Project. There is no ongoing financial commitment in respect of this, now-concluded, pilot project. The project is currently being evaluated. We expect to receive the evaluation report early next year, which will be published. We expect this report to inform the decision about whether to roll out the pilot project on a wider basis.
Graduation
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students who gained university places through clearing went on to graduate between 2001 and 2005. [22966]
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Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of those who accepted university places through clearing dropped out in the last period for which figures are available; and what assessment she has made of the reasons for doing so. [23216]
Bill Rammell: The Department does not systematically collect information on the reasons for non-completion. The Department has, however, commissioned the Institute of Employment Research to investigate a sample of early leavers from between 1996/97 and 1998/99. It found that those entering through Clearing had a higher-than-average non-completion rate, and that the most commonly-cited reason was a mistaken choice of course".
Davies, R and Elias, P. (2003) Dropping out: a study of early levers from higher education," DfES Research Report 386.
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