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Sex Offenders Register

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people employed in schools on a (a) temporary, (b) permanent and (c) contracted basis in the Leeds metropolitan area in each year since 1997 (i) are and (ii) have been on the sex offenders register. [43524]

Ruth Kelly: My statement and the accompanying report explain the work underway to establish how many people on the list of registered sex offenders are currently employed in schools in England and Wales. We are carrying out follow up work with local Multi Agency Protection Panels, which include the police.

Special Education Needs

Ms Angela C. Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on the provision of special education needs (a) in total and (b) as a percentage of total education spending in each region of England. [43090]

Maria Eagle: The information requested is contained within the following table and is for the financial year 2005–06:

	Total planned expenditure on the education of children with SEN(38) (£)	Total planned expenditure on SEN transport (£)	Total planned educational revenue expenditure (£)	Total planned expenditure on the education of children with SEN (excluding SEN transport)(38) as a percentage of total education spending	Total planned expenditure on the education of children with SEN (including SEN transport) as a percentage of total education spending
Region	(a)	(b)	(c)	[a/c]	[(a+b)/c]
England	4,120,353,000	499,593,000	31,157,614,000	13.2	14.8
of which:
North East	210,457,000	20,739,000	1,588,695,000	13.2	14.6
North West and Merseyside	569,293,000	70,800,000	4,392,054,000	13.0	14.6
Yorkshire and Humberside	382,531,000	42,858,000	3,173,505,000	12.1	13.4
East Midlands	314,149,000	37,814,000	2,619,375,000	12.0	13.4
West Midlands	475,781,000	50,417,000	3,460,564,000	13.7	15.2
Eastern	393,061,000	55,799,000	3,316,037,000	11.9	13.5
South East	676,225,000	96,236,000	4,680,733,000	14.4	16.5
London	749,993,000	90,415,000	5,105,297,000	14.7	16.5
South West	348,864,000	34,515,000	2,821,354,000	12.4	13.6

⁽³⁸⁾Includes planned expenditure on the provision for pupils with statements and the provision for non-statemented pupils with SEN, support for inclusion, inter authority recoupment, fees for pupils at
Notes:
1.Figures are in cash terms as reported by LEAs at 13 January 2006 and rounded to the nearest thousand pounds and may not sum due to rounding. independent special schools and abroad, educational psychology service, LA functions in relation to child protection, therapies and other health related services, parent partnership, guidance and information, the monitoring of SEN provision and inclusion administration, assessment and co-ordination. Also included is the funding delegated to local authority maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools identified as notional SEN" and the individual schools budget for special schools. The figures recorded against notional SEN" are only indicative of the amount that might by spent by schools on SEN. Not included is any budgeted SEN transport expenditure.
2.The data are taken from local authorities' 2005–06 Section 52 Budget Statements submitted to the DfES.

Staying-on Rates (Tamworth)

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average staying-on rate in post-16 education was in Tamworth constituency in each of the past 10 years. [43467]

Bill Rammell: The percentage of 16-year-olds in full-time education in England at the end of 2004 was estimated to be 74.2 per cent.—the highest ever rate. Percentage figures on participation in education by young people are not available for parliamentary constituencies, but are available for local authorities— including Staffordshire LEA. These were published in the Statistical First Release Participation in education and training by 16 and 17-year-olds in each local area in England"—SFR11/2005 on 31 March 2005.

The publication is accessible on the DfES website via the link, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000568/index.shtml.

The specific figures are available through the following link: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000568/SFR11–2005tables_lea.xls.
 
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Sure Start

John Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children are participating in the Sure Start programme in Easington constituency; and how many have done so since the programme commenced. [42702]

Beverley Hughes: One Sure Start children's centre has been designated so far in Easington constituency—Sure Start Peterlee, designated in September 2003. There are two Sure Start local programmes (Seaham, and Hornden and Easington Colliery) and a mini-programme operational, all of which are working towards children's centre status. Together this Sure Start provision is serving approximately 2,500 children under five and their families. Figures for the number of children actually supported by Sure Start since the programme began are not collated centrally. However there are a total of 10 children's centres planned for this constituency by March 2008. By March 2010 all children under five in the area will have access to a range of high quality integrated services.

Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has (a) made and (b) plans to make of the effectiveness of (i) Sure Start and (ii) Mini Sure Start; and if she will make a statement. [43841]

Beverley Hughes: There is a comprehensive national level evaluation of Sure Start local programmes in place which began in January 2001, which will run until 2008. It examines the implementation, cost-effectiveness and impact of Sure Start on children, families and communities, in the short, medium and long term. There have been 14 reports published to date.
 
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An evaluation of the Mini Sure Start programme was published in January 2005. Research reports related to Sure Start and early years policy can be found at www.surestart.gov.uk/research.

Subsidised School Milk

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the evidential basis was on which the decision was taken to remove subsidised milk from schools. [42256]

Jim Knight: I have been asked to reply.

The evaluation of the national top-up to the EU school milk subsidy scheme in England was published on 4 January. The report contained a number of recommendations which included ending the top-up and spending the £1.5 million released as a result on other programmes to promote milk consumption by young people. The Government have, however, decided that the subsidy scheme has a valuable role to play and should remain unchanged.

Teachers

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teaching posts were vacant in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Westmorland and Lonsdale in each year since 1997; and what the average vacancy rate for a local education authority in England was in each year. [43384]

Jacqui Smith: Information on teacher vacancies is collected at local authority level and is not available for individual parliamentary constituencies.

The following table provides the number of full-time teacher vacancies in maintained nursery, primary, and secondary schools in Cumbria local authority and vacancy rates for Cumbria and England in each January since 1997.
Full-time teacher vacancy numbers⁽³⁹⁾ and rates⁽⁴⁰⁾ in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in Cumbria and England, January 1997 to 2005

	Cumbria				England
	Nursery/primary		Secondary		Percentage
	Vacancy numbers	Vacancy rates (percentage)	Vacancy numbers	Vacancy rates (percentage)	Nursery/primary vacancy rates	Secondary vacancy rates
1997	0	0.0	4	0.2	0.6	0.4
1998	1	0.1	1	0.1	0.8	0.6
1999	0	0.0	2	0.1	0.8	0.5
2000	0	0.0	0	0.0	0.8	0.7
2001	4	0.2	2	0.1	1.2	1.4
2002	8	0.4	8	0.4	1.0	1.3
2003	3	0.2	6	0.3	0.6	1.1
2004	5	0.3	2	0.1	0.5	0.9
2005	1	0.1	9	0.4	0.4	0.8

⁽³⁹⁾Advertised vacancies for full-time permanent appointments (or appointments of at least one terms duration). Includes vacancies being filled on a temporary basis of less than one term.
⁽⁴⁰⁾Vacancies as a percentage of teachers in post i.e. full-time regular teachers in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools, plus full-time regular divided service, peripatetic, advisory and miscellaneous teachers.
Source:
DfES annual survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies (Form 618G)





 
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