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14 Feb 2006 : Column 1915W—continued
Energy Review
Sir Robert Smith:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what assumptions regarding energy
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intensity improvements the strategy unit made in its preparation of background papers for the current energy review. [51396]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The strategy unit has not made any assumptions about future energy intensity improvements.
Public Services
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on progress with the reform of delivery of public services. [51262]
Mr. Jim Murphy: This Government have made considerable progress on the reform of our public services.
We are committed to investment and reform in our public services.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Academies
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list donations received by each city academy from (a) commercial and business organisations and (b) private individuals. [48031]
Jacqui Smith: Information on sponsors' donations received to date towards open academies' capital costs—rather than total sponsorship committed—is given in the following table.
Sponsors' donations are normally made over the lifetime of the building costs of the project, so in some cases a number of payments towards capital costs remain to be made. In other cases, sponsors' payments have been made, but are not recorded in the table as auditors have not yet completed their checks on whether these were spent on capital or recurrent costs.
We do not keep a record of sponsors' non-capital donations to academies.
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Adoption
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were adopted in each local authority area in 2005. [48066]
Maria Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 11 November 2005, Official Report, column 801W. The publication Children Looked After by Local Authorities Year Ending 31 March 2005" will be published by the Department in March 2006.
Bullying
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what steps her Department is taking (a) to prevent (i) bullying and (ii) the causes of bullying and (b) to help those who are victims of bullying; [49599]
(2) how many children have changed schools as a result of being victims of bullying since 1997; and how many children have been (a) suspended and (b) expelled from school for bullying in that period; [49601]
(3) how much funding her Department made available for schools to tackle the problem of bullying in each academic year between 1997 and 2005; [49602]
(4) if she will make a statement on Government plans to tackle bullying; [49637]
(5) what support her Department provides to (a) ChildLine, (b) the NSPCC and (c) other charitable organisations to help them support victims of bullying; [49639]
(6) what research her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) published on bullying in schools since 1997; [49640]
(7) what training teachers receive to deal with bullying in schools; and how much funding her Department allocated for training teachers to deal with bullying in schools in (a) Leicester and (b) England in the last five years. [50146]
Jacqui Smith: This Government have given an unprecedented high profile to preventing bullying and supporting those who have been bullied. Our anti-bullying work, including the anti-bullying Charter for Action, takes an integrated approach to preventing bullying, to addressing causes of bullying—for example prejudice—and to helping those who are bullied.
Since 1999 it has been compulsory for every school to have an anti-bullying policy in place which details how the school will tackle bullying.
We have secured a very broad consensus, with all the teaching professional associations and the Anti Bullying Alliance signing up to our Anti-Bullying Charter for Action. The Charter is a voluntary commitment to creating a school community where bullying is not tolerated. In line with commitments outlined in the
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White Paper we re-issued the Charter during Anti-Bullying Week 2005 and therefore expect an increase in the number being returned to us via the ABA over the coming months. In 2006 we plan to share examples of where the Charter has been particularly well implemented with other schools, which can learn from this best practice.
Through our work with the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), an organisation comprising over 65 leading anti-bullying charities and experts, we provide schools and local authorities with expert help to tackle bullying.
We have put more adults than ever in our schools—teachers, classroom assistants, learning mentors, Connexions personal advisers, Behaviour and Education Support Teams and police officers—so that a wide range of people are available to help prevent and tackle bullying.
Further to the White Paper, in 2006 we shall issue guidance on prejudice driven bullying, including racist and homophobic bullying, providing school staff with valuable support in an area they often find challenging. We plan to launch our advice on countering racist bullying online at the end of February.
Anti-bullying week continues to be a successful event with a large number of schools taking part in November 2005's activities through a wide variety of national and local events. There was a considerable amount of positive press coverage and this year over 325,000 wristbands were distributed.
Our anti-bullying resource pack for schools Bullying: Don't Suffer in Silence", updated in 2000 and September 2002 will be revised and re-issued in 2006 to ensure schools have the most up-to-date information available on tackling bullying.
In addition the Department has recently launched the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) curriculum resource—an intervention to develop children's social, emotional and behavioural skills from Foundation Stage to Year 6. It is available to all primary schools and the evidence from the pilot suggests that it helps reduce bullying and promotes positive behaviour generally. It is an important arm of the Department's longer term policy to promote positive behaviour and attendance. The Department is hoping to build on the work carried out in primary schools by providing a similar whole school curriculum based resource for secondary schools (SEBS). At present the programme is in a very early pilot stage.
Data on bullying is not collected centrally and thus there is no reliable basis for an estimate of how many children have changed schools as a result of being bullied.
The first time the reason for exclusion was collected was in the academic year 2003/04. In that year 150 pupils were permanently excluded and 6,750 were given fixed
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period exclusions for bullying. This information comes from the Statistical First Release on Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusion from Schools and Exclusion Appeals in England, 2003/04".
Funds for schools to devote to anti-bullying work form part of their overall budgets; they are not ring fenced so we have no information on how much they have devoted to this.
The figures for the anti-bullying strand of the Improving Behaviour and Attendance strategy, which is used centrally to support schools and local authorities in their anti bullying work, are given as follows:
| Amount (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2002/03 | 184,000 |
| 2003/04 | 1,054,000 |
| 2004/05 | 1,613,000 |
| 2005/06 | 1,145,000 |
Figures for earlier years are not available because the anti-bullying strand of behaviour work was not disaggregated.
In 2005/06 the Department has contributed a further £200,000 of funding to CHIPS (ChildLine in Partnership with Schools). The CHIPS scheme encourages young people to set up programmes, with the help of ChildLine and their teachers, to support their peers and to create safe environments in which to learn.
We note that ChildLine and the NSPCC have recently joined forces and we hope to continue working with both in their joint efforts to protect and support those who have been bullied.
We have provided the ABA, with £600,000 of funding for the 2005/06 period.
The Department has committed £200,000 for 2005/06 to Parent Line Plus, a telephone advice line for parents offering guidance on a range of subjects. Between April 2003 and March 2004 21 per cent. of all calls received related to bullying. In conjunction with the DFES and the ABA, the line can also refer parents who have not received satisfactory help at a local level to a one to one advice line.
The Diana Memorial Award for anti-bullying was launched in 2004 and highlights the achievements of young people trying to tackle bullying in their school or community. The Department has shown its continuing support for this initiative by contributing £50,000 of funding for 2005/06.
Our guidance to schools on tackling bullying, Don't Suffer in Silence", has been externally evaluated by researchers at Goldsmith's College, University of London. The results, though based on a fairly low response rate from schools, show that the schools found that the pack met their expectations and helped in drawing up their anti-bullying policies.
This evaluation included research into the perceived success of the anti bullying strategies and interventions recommended in the guidance. Schools generally reported a high level of satisfaction with the interventions they had used.
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The Department commissioned the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London, to review the research evidence relating to homophobia in schools and to talk to groups with an interest in this area. The Department published their work in its Research Report series in late 2004, number 594, entitled Homophobia, Sexual Orientation and Schools: A Review and Implications for Action".
Training has been provided in each Government Office region through the Make The Difference conferences and through ABA training events and direct ABA work with individual schools. Training is also being provided through dissemination events linked to forthcoming advice on countering prejudice driven bullying.
Through the National Strategies the Department makes high-quality staff training materials on managing behaviour, including bullying, available to all schools. In addition each local authority is also supported by at least one expert Behaviour and Attendance consultant in each local authority.
Through the National Programme for Specialist Leaders of Behaviour and Attendance (NPSL-BA), the Department has developed a programme for training specialist staff who have leadership roles in relation to behaviour and attendance, including anti-bullying.
In addition our resources such as the Charter and Don't Suffer in Silence" offer further support and advice to teachers in this area.
As anti-bullying training funding is not disaggregated or devolved directly, it is not possible to identify national funds or funds for Leicester.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what statistics her Department (a) collects and (b) publishes on bullying in schools in England. [49638]
Jacqui Smith: The Department does not collect national data on instances of bullying in England and schools. However, there are surveys run by, or supported by, the Department which do give an indication of the extent of bullying in schools in England.
The Department contributes funds to the Department for Work and Pensions' 'Families and Children Study'. This is an annual survey of a representative sample of families with dependent children in Britain. The study includes questions to parents and children on bullying (either in or out of schools). Reports from this study are published by DWP and are available from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/facs/facs_publication.asp
The Department also runs the Longitudinal Study of Young People in Education (LSYPE) which is following a sample of young people in schools in England from Year 9 onwards. This survey covers pupils in both maintained and independent sectors and includes questions to parents and children on bullying. Although data from the first wave of this study are not yet available there are plans to make the data publicly available from the UK Data Archive.
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