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Special Educational Needs

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many cases have been referred to the academies special educational needs dispute resolution service; and from which academies. [45392]

Jacqui Smith: The Academies Special Educational Needs Dispute Resolution Service is an independent service, which Academy Principals can choose to access. As such, no cases are referred to the service, and as an independent resource, information on which academies have called on it is not held centrally.

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what budget she has allocated for the academies special educational needs dispute resolution service; for what period of time; and if she will make a statement. [45393]

 
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Jacqui Smith: The Academies SEN Dispute Resolution Service has a budget of £81,500 for the period 1 December 2004 to 30 November 2006. The Academies SEN Dispute Resolution Service was introduced to facilitate timely decisions made at local level about the naming of an Academy in a child's statement of SEN.

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on the provision of special needs education in each local authority area (a) in real terms and (b) at today's prices in each of the last 20 years. [46073]

Jacqui Smith: The available information has been placed in the House Libraries. We do not have comparable data prior to 2000–01.

Sure Start

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total Sure Start budget was in each year since its inception; and what the projected budget is in each of the next three years. [46074]

Beverley Hughes: Details of actual and planned expenditure on Sure Start, child care and nursery education from 1999–2000 to 2007–08 are published in Table 12.2 of the Department for Education and Skills' Departmental Report (Cm 6522). To reflect the increasing integration of services for young children and families, from 2003–04 funding for child care and nursery education was merged into Sure Start:
 
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£ million

Financial year	Sure start	Child care	Nursery education	Total
1999–00	7	56	150	213
2000–01	56	65	247	368
2001–02	134	109	224	467
2002–03	216	158	306	680
2003–04	721			721
2004–05(21)	927			927
2005–06	1,140			1,140
2006–07	1,696			1,696
2007–08	1,809			1,809

⁽²¹⁾ Outturn in DfES Resource Accounts 2004–05 (HC 686)

Teachers

Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teaching posts were vacant in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Milton Keynes in each year since 1997; and what the average vacancy rate for local education authorities in England was in each year. [45428]

Jacqui Smith: The following table provides the number of full-time teacher vacancies in maintained nursery, primary, and secondary schools in Milton Keynes local authority and vacancy rates for Milton Keynes and England in each January since 1997.

Milton Keynes local authority was created from within the former Buckinghamshire local authority on 1 April 1997. Therefore, no figures are available for January 1997.
Full-time teacher vacancy numbers⁽²²⁾ and rates⁽²³⁾ in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in Milton Keynes and England, January 1997 to 2005.

	Milton Keynes				England
	Nursery/Primary		Secondary		Nursery/Primary	Secondary
	Vacancy numbers	Vacancy rates (Percentage)	Vacancy numbers	Vacancy rates (Percentage)	Vacancy	Vacancy rates (Percentage)
1997	..	..	..	..	0.6	0.4
1998	5	0.6	0	0.0	0.8	0.6
1999	8	0.9	2	0.3	0.8	0.5
2000	6	0.7	1	0.1	0.8	0.7
2001	11	1.3	8	1.2	1.2	1.4
2002	9	1.0	2	0.3	1.0	1.3
2003	9	1.0	2	0.3	0.6	1.1
2004	7	0.7	9	1.2	0.5	0.9
2005	8	0.8	13	1.7	0.4	0.8

⁽²²⁾ Advertised vacancies for full-time permanent appointments (or appointments of at least one term's duration). Includes vacancies being filled on a temporary basis of less than one term.
⁽²³⁾ 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, (618G).

David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers of (a) Australian, (b) New Zealand, (c) South African, (d) Malawian, (e) Ghanaian, (f) Namibian, (g) Kenyan and (h) Nigerian nationality are working in schools in the UK. [45543]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what financial support her Department has offered to trainee teachers since 1997. [45890]

Jacqui Smith: Since September 2000, we have provided £6,000 bursaries to PGCE trainee teachers in a range of priority subjects. From September 2005, the bursary for mathematics and science trainees rose to £7,000, and from September 2006 it will increase to £9,000 for all priority subject trainees.

We have provided Golden Helios to those who go on to teach priority subjects since 1998 when £5,000 Golden Helios were introduced for postgraduate trainees in mathematics and science. New style £4,000 Golden Helios, paid after induction is completed, were
 
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introduced in 2000/01 for those who trained and teach priority subjects, maths, science, modem languages and technology. For those training in maths and science from September 2005, Golden Helios increased to £5,000. In June 2005, I announced Golden Helios from 2006/07 of £5,000 for maths and science trainees and £2,500 for other priority subjects, including extending Golden Hello payments to trainees in RE and Music.

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to reduce the level of violent incidents against teachers. [45893]

Jacqui Smith: The great majority of schools are safe and orderly places, but we are determined to reduce the risk of violence to an absolute minimum. To achieve that we are:

legislating to give heads, teachers and other school staff a clear statutory power to discipline pupils, to reaffirm their statutory right to use reasonable force in certain circumstances and to give them a new power to search pupils for weapons;

developing specific violence reduction advice and training, in co-operation with associations representing heads and other school staff.

In addition we have:

given every secondary school access to high-quality behaviour management training materials and expert advice from behaviour management consultants;

funded extra support for schools facing the greatest challenges through our Excellence in Cities and Behaviour Improvement Programmes;

provided £120 million for school security improvements since 1997;

given schools a legal toolkit on how to ban aggressive parents from the site and have them removed and prosecuted if they flout the ban; and

helped to establish over 400 Safer Schools Partnerships that base police officers in schools.

Also, we are:

giving every primary school access to high-quality training and curriculum materials for developing pupils' social, emotional and behavioural skills and developing similar materials for secondary schools.

The Department has confirmed that it is committed to backing head teachers' authority when pupils' behaviour warrants exclusion. We have made clear that heads can permanently exclude pupils who are very disruptive or violent even where this is a first or 'one off'
 
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offence. Guidance for exclusion appeal panels makes clear that an exclusion should not normally be overturned in a range of circumstances, including where there has been violence or the threat of violence. For less extreme offences head teachers may exclude pupils for a fixed period or may impose detention.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers in maintained schools in England have left the profession in each year since 1998. [46444]

Jacqui Smith: Information on the number of teachers leaving service is published on the department's website at the following URL:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000633/index.shtml

Table C1c refers. They are also available in the House of Commons Library.

Although the numbers of teachers leaving service has risen since 1998 the number of new entrants has shown a greater increase. As a result the number of teachers in service has risen continually since 1998 and the full-time equivalent number of teachers in service is now 32,700 higher than in 1997. Between 2004 and 2005 the increase was 4,200. Teacher numbers are now at their highest level since 1981.

The numbers of early retirements reduced in 1998–99 following changes in the Teachers' Pensions Regulations and this is reflected in the table.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) full-time teachers and (b) teaching assistants were employed in the Shropshire local education authority area in each year since 1997. [44975]

Jacqui Smith: The following table provides the number of full-time regular teachers and the full-time equivalent number of teaching assistants employed in Shropshire local authority in each January since 1997. Teaching assistant data can only be provided on a FTE basis. The FTE of regular teachers has been provided for consistency.

Telford and Wrekin local authority was created from within the former Shropshire local authority on 1 April 1998. Figures have been provided for this authority for comparison purposes.
Full-time regular teachers and full-time equivalent number of teaching assistants in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin local authorities.

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Teachers(24)
Full-time
Shropshire	3,080	3,090	1,760	1,860	1,890	1,920	1,880	1,850	1,810
Telford and Wrekin	n/a	n/a	1,250	1,230	1,290	1,300	1,340	1,320	1,280
FTE
Shropshire	3,330	3,350	1,940	2,050	2,110	2,140	2,110	2,110	2,080
Telford and Wrekin	n/a	n/a	1,360	1,340	1,410	1,420	1,470	1,450	1,420
Teaching assistants(25)(26)
FTE
Shropshire	520	560	360	390	490	590	760	800	780
Telford and Wrekin	n/a	n/a	260	280	370	390	480	530	580

n/a=Not applicable.
⁽²⁴⁾ DfES annual survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies, 618g.
⁽²⁵⁾ Annual school census.
⁽²⁶⁾ Includes non maintained special schools.




 
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