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7 Dec 2005 : Column 1337W—continued
Children's Centres
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she expects to announce which communities within (a) Gloucestershire and (b) Stroud will be nominated for the location of new children's centres. [35212]
Beverley Hughes: All local authorities have a target number of Sure Start Children's Centres and a target number of children under five to reach between 2006–08. Gloucestershire county council has been asked to develop 23 Sure Start Children's Centres to reach 18,291 children under five by March 2008. Decisions on the location of Sure Start Children's Centres and the communities to benefit from their services are a matter for local determination and will not be formally announced by my Department. Gloucestershire county council is expected to set out its plans for the location of their new children's centres by February 2006.
Consultants
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what mechanisms are in place to assess the effectiveness of consultant-led projects in her Department; what sanctions are available to penalise consultants who run unsuccessful projects; how many projects conducted by consultants were assessed as unsuccessful in each year since 2000; and what sanctions were imposed in each case. [29114]
Bill Rammell:
The planning, monitoring, control and delivery of programmes and projects in DfES is the responsibility of departmental management, not consultants and, therefore, all of the Department's programmes and projects are led by senior civil servants (acting as programme/project senior responsible owners). Consultants are engaged to assist in the successful delivery
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of these programmes and projects, and are subject to a raft of commercial, financial, procurement, technical and, programme and project quality assurance and standards. Additionally, the Office of Government Commerce's Gateway(tm) review process provides assurance at critical stages of a programme's or project's lifecycle.
Consultants who do not deliver the required services or advice to time, quality and cost, are subject to remedies appropriate to the shortcomings identified up to and including, as a last resort, contract termination and pursuit of damages.
From information held centrally, the Department is unaware of any programmes or projects that, in the years since 2000, could merit classification as unsuccessful as a direct result of consultants failing to deliver on their contract. No records are held centrally of sanctions applied to consultants engaged on DfES-led programmes and projects, and the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Tendering Policy
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her policy is on including (a) ethical and (b) environmental factors in tenders for services. [33330]
Bill Rammell: Department for Education and Skills (DfES) expects to let all its contracts in accordance with moral principles, and would consider any case where evidence to the contrary was presented.
Environmental factors in contracts let by DfES have been considered on a case by case basis relative to the subject matter of the contract, and the requirements of European Union law.
The Department will be making use of the Sustainable Procurement Toolkit" due to be issued shortly by DEFRA which will enhance further the consideration of environmental factors in public sector contracts.
Education Funding
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 23 November 2005, Official Report, column 2075W, on education funding, what research was conducted to enable the decision to be made that (a) a basic food hygiene certificate, (b) emergency aid for appointed persons, (c) lifesaver for babies and children and (d) preparing for an emergency: The British Red Cross response courses have limited benefits in terms of progression for learners. [35274]
Bill Rammell: The Learning and Skills Council conducted in depth analysis of learners attending very short courses. The analysis indicated that, in the case of the basic food hygiene, emergency aid for appointed persons, lifesaver for babies and children and the British Red Cross response courses, only 147 of the 31,260 learners enrolled in 2004/05 went on to further learning in that year.
The Learning and Skills Council's document Priorities for Success" set out the Government's intention that in future, food hygiene and other health and safety courses taken by those in work should be
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fully funded by the employer wherever possible, in line with employers' statutory duty to meet the terms of relevant legislation. The LSC is consulting further on this proposition with key stakeholders. Where individuals are taking qualifications on their own account the expectation is that learners should cover the full cost, although colleges are of course still free to reduce or waive the course fee at their discretion. This is consistent with the principle set out in the Governments skills strategy that individuals should contribute more towards the cost of their learning in line with the benefits they receive. However, while the LSC will cease funding for very short courses below nine guided learning hours (excluding provision for personal and community development learning and learndirect courses), such learning may still continue if it is part of a larger programme that is more likely to lead to progression to further learning.
Extended School Services
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what provisions are being made to support extended services in schools in Leeds, West constituency. [35138]
Beverley Hughes: On 13 June 2005 my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced funding of £790 million over 2005–08 to support the development of extended services accessed in or through schools. £110 million of this was allocated in 2005–06 and Leeds local authority received £1,014,849. Of the £680 million to be allocated across 2006–08, £250 million will go direct to schools through the school standards grant and the formula for announcing each school's allocation for 2006–07 will be announced shortly. The remaining £430 million will be distributed to local authorities through the standards fund and the general sure start grant. Of this Leeds local authority will receive £2,144,841 in 2006–07 and £2,761,511 in 2007–08. Funding will be released to schools in accordance with each local authority's extended schools strategy.
Higher Education
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps are being taken by the Department to encourage graduates to work in higher education. [32760]
Bill Rammell: The responsibility for recruiting staff lies with higher education institutions (HEIs), as the employers. However, we have supported HEIs in developing their human resource capability through the rewarding and developing staff initiative (R and DS), which includes recruitment and retention as one of the priority areas for this funding. A recent evaluation carried out for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) by KPMG identified that about £72.9 million (of the total £370 million R and DS funding 2001–02 to 2003–04) had been spent on recruitment and retention.
The Department has also implemented, through HEFCE, a Golden Hello" programme of funding to encourage new entrants into teaching shortage subjects. Each Golden Hello" is worth £9,000 to an individual, over three years.
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Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been allocated to (a) full-time foundation degrees, (b) all foundation degrees, (c) full-time undergraduates and (d) part-time undergraduates (i) in total, (ii) for 18 to 21-years-olds and (iii) for over 21-year olds-by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in (A) 2005–06, (B) 2006–07 and (C) 2007–08. [35186]
Bill Rammell: The Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE) funds higher education institutions (HEIs) by way of block grant, and it is for each HEI how they allocate this within their own organisation. However, the allocation to HEIs makes assumptions about the pattern of student recruitment at each institution, and HEFCE are able, therefore, to provide a notional split between different programmes.
Figures for 2005–06 are shown in the following table. Although overall funding totals for the next two academic years were determined in the 2004 spending review, the allocation of this total between institutions is done annually by HEFCE, and allocations for years later than 2005–06 have yet to be made.
It is not possible to provide a notional allocation of funding by age: this is not a factor in determining grant allocations.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of Higher Education Funding Council for England funding has been allocated to (a) medical students and (b) dental students for (i) 2005–06, (ii) 2006–07 and (iii) 2007–08. [35217]
Bill Rammell: The Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE) funds higher education institutions (HEIs) by way of block grant, and it is for each HEI how they allocate this within their own organisation. However, the allocation to HEIs makes assumptions about the pattern of student recruitment at each institution, and HEFCE are able, therefore, to provide a notional split between different programmes.
Figures for 2005–06 are shown in the following table, with overall allocations so that the proportion can be calculated. Although overall funding totals for the next two academic years were determined in the 2004 spending review, the allocation of this total between institutions is done annually by HEFCE, and allocations for years later than 2005–06 have yet to be made.
(18) Standard resource minus assumed fee income
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