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24 Nov 2005 : Column 2187W—continued
Sure Start Plus
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teenage pregnancies occurred in each of the Sure Start Plus scheme pilot areas in (a) 1997 and (b) 2005. [30438]
Beverley Hughes:
Details of under-18 conception numbers and rates for 1997 and 2003 (the latest year for which data are available), for each local authority involved in the Sure Start Plus pilots, are provided in the following table.
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Note:
Rates are per 1,000 female population aged 15–17.
Source:
Office for National Statistics and Teenage Pregnancy Unit
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teenagers under the age of 18 years have been involved with the Sure Start Plus scheme since 2001; and how many of these live in (a) Wakefield district and (b) Normanton constituency. [30441]
Beverley Hughes: The data requested are not available at a national level. However, based on a survey carried out during a six month period in 2001, a team at the Institute of Education estimated that around 53 per cent. of young women conceiving during that period were supported by the pilot programmes (based on monitoring returns from 27 out of 35 programmes). Take-up of the programme is likely to have increased since 2001, which was the first year of the pilot.
Management information from Wakefield Sure Start Plus programme shows that just under half of young women whose conceptions resulted in a birth were supported by the programme in 2003. No information is available for the numbers of young women resident in Normanton constituency who were supported through the programme.
Teachers
Lynne Featherstone:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research underlies the required ratio of (a) 1:8 teachers to children in local
24 Nov 2005 : Column 2189W
community play groups and (b) 1:13 teachers to children in local school nursery classes; and if she will make a statement. [31462]
Beverley Hughes: The ratio of one adult to eight children for three to five-year-olds in playgroups was included in guidance issued by the Department of Health in 1991, and subsequently set in the national standards for under eights day care and childminding in 2001 following consultation. The ratio of one qualified teacher to 13 children was first published in a Department for Education and Science circular in 1973 but superseded in 1991 by the 1991 Department of Health guidance which allowed for one1 qualified teacher and one qualified nursery assistant to 26 children for nursery classes.
The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) research has found that a key factor contributing to better intellectual and social behavioural outcomes is having a good proportion of trained qualified teacher status teachers working directly with children alongside other staff. The research shows quality was higher overall in integrated early education and child care settings, nursery schools and nursery classes.
Teenage Pregnancy
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding the Government have spent on schemes to lower the rate of teenage pregnancy in (a) Wakefield district and (b) Normanton constituency in each year since 1997; and what expenditure is planned for future financial years. [30436]
Beverley Hughes: Details of the grant paid to Wakefield are provided in the table below. Teenage pregnancy funding was available from 1999/2000 onwards. No payments were made prior to this. Funding for the Sure Start Plus pilot is separately identified. We cannot separately identify the proportion of the grant spent in Normanton constituency.
| Local implementation | Sure Start Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999/2000(14) | 50 | — |
| 2000/01(14) | 30 | — |
| 2001/02(14) | 180 | 125 |
| 2002/03(15) | 180 | 125 |
| 2003/04(15) | 239 | 125 |
| 2004/05(15) | 273 | 125 |
| 2005/06(15) | 273 | 125 |
| Total | 1,225 | 625 |
1 Paid to Wakefield Health Authority
2 Paid to Wakefield local authority
Decisions on allocations to individual local authorities for 2006/07 to 2007/08 have not yet been made. However, the overall total grant allocation for the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy will be the same in 2006/07 to 2007/08 as it was in 2004/05 and 2005/06 (with the exception of Sure Start Plus funding, which will cease on 1 April 2006).
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much will be invested by the Government in response to the Third Report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy in (a) England and (b) the Wakefield district. [30437]
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Beverley Hughes: The level of funding for the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy is agreed in the context of the Government's Spending Review, which allocates funding for a three-year period. However, recommendations by IAG are taken into account when spending review bids are being developed.
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many under-18 pregnancies occurred in (a) Wakefield district and (b) Normanton constituency (i) in each of the two years before the launch of the Sure Start Plus scheme and (ii) each subsequent year. [30440]
Beverley Hughes: Funding for the Sure Start Plus pilot began in financial year 2001/02. The first table provides under-18 conception numbers and rates for Wakefield for each year from 1997 to 2003 (the latest year for which data are available). The rate reduction in Wakefield during this period is 17.8 per cent.. This is higher than the national rate reduction of 9.8 per cent. and the regional rate reduction of 11.9 per cent.
| Number | Rate | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 333 | 58.5 |
| 1998 | 319 | 56.5 |
| 1999 | 326 | 56.9 |
| 2000 | 288 | 48.7 |
| 2001 | 290 | 47.1 |
| 2002 | 283 | 45.0 |
| 2003 | 306 | 48.1 |
The second table shows ward data aggregated over three years, for the period 2000 to 2002. Ward data is not available for each of the individual years referred to in the question.
Note:
Rates are per 1,000 females aged 15–17
Sources:
Office for National Statistics and Teenage Pregnancy Unit
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