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After-school Activities

Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she has taken to encourage young people in Swindon to get involved in (a) after-school activities and (b) sports programmes. [50613]

Maria Eagle: We have set out a core offer of extended services and activities that we want all children to be able to access through schools by 2010. This includes a varied menu of study support activities, including sport—at least two hours a week beyond the school day for those who want it. It is for individual local authorities (LAs) and schools to determine what provision best meets the needs of the young people in their area.
 
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Funding for study support is available to all schools and LAs through their base budgets, and also via the School Development Grant which, for Swindon, amounts to £1,366,981 in 2005–06. Funding (approximately £100,000 pa) is also provided for the well established Playing for Success" Centre at Swindon Town FC, which benefits more than 350 pupils each year.

We have also committed considerable additional funding to support schools in setting up and embedding extended services and activities. A total of £2,050,321 has been allocated to Swindon over three years from 2005–06.

Bicton Church of England School

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the (a) budget for and (b) expenditure on the building of the new Bicton Church of England School in Bicton was. [50089]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested for Bicton Church of England School for the 2004–05 financial year is:

(a) Total planned budget share (including any grants devolved to the school) was £255,875.

(b) Total gross expenditure (including any capital expenditure from revenue) was £271,647.

Notes:

1. Data are drawn from Shropshire local authority's 2004–05 Section 52 Budget and Outturn Statements as at 8 February 2006.

2. The 2004–05 budget information is the combination of the school's total budget share plus any School Standards Grant, Devolved Standards Fund and Excellence in Cities Grant allocated to the school (Threshold and Performance Pay Grant is included in 2005–06).

3. School expenditure does not include any income.

4. In 2004–05 the total resources available to Bicton Church of England School was £296,262. This is the sum of the following:

Balance brought forward

Delegated funds

SEN and minority ethnic pupils

Standards fund residue

Other Government grants

Income generated by schools

5. Shropshire local authority also reported a surplus total revenue balance of just under £25,000 was held by Bicton Church of England School at the end of the 2004–05 financial year.

Bullying

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what training teachers receive to deal with bullying in schools; and how much funding her Department has allocated for training teachers to deal with bullying in schools in (a) West Lancashire and (b) England in the last five years. [51116]

Jacqui Smith: Training has been provided in each Government Office region through the Make The Difference conferences and through training events run by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and direct work by the Alliance with individual schools. Training is also being provided through dissemination events linked to forthcoming advice on countering prejudice driven bullying.
 
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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 Anti-Bullying Charter and 'Don't Suffer in Silence' offer further support and advice to teachers in this area.
 
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As anti-bullying training funding is not disaggregated or devolved directly, it is not possible to identify national funds or funds for West Lancashire.

Child Care Provision

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many child care places (a) for under fives and (b) in total there were in each year since 1980, broken down by type. [50798]

Beverley Hughes: This information was not collected for the period prior to 1989–90.

Details of the number of child care places available in England for each year between 1990 and 2005 are given in the table.

(a) Figures from Day Care Facilities Surveys (DCFS), 1990–97

	Total number of child care places (a + b + c)	Childminders (a)	Full Daycare (b)	Out of School/ Holiday Clubs (c)	Sessional care (d)
1989–90	303,100	205,600	97,500	No figures	416,400
1990–91	339,400	233,300	106,100	No figures	428,400
1991–92	390,900	254,300	116,800	19,800	414,500
1992–93	469,533	300,700	133,800	35,033	396,900
1993–94	549,300	357,500	147,600	44,200	411,300
1994–95	614,000	373,600	161,500	78,900	410,600
1995–96	646,467	376,200	178,300	91,967	397,700
1996–97	654,900	365,200	193,800	95,900	383,700

(b) Using data from

i. 1997–2003: Ofsted registered" equivalent statistics generated by DfES from local authority returns; and,

ii. 2003-present: Ofsted registrations

	Total child care places (a + b + c)	Childminders (a)	Full Daycare (b)	Out of School/ Holiday Clubs (c)	Sessional care (d)
1996–97	637,730	309,973	283,975	43,782	—
1997–98	643,736	309,918	283,823	48,995	—
1998–99	688,412	309,423	299,078	79,911	—
1999–00	746,719	304,926	316,021	125,772	—
2000–01	821,537	300,263	337,004	184,270	—
2001–02	892,726	307,485	358,371	226,870	—
2002–03	967,821	300,883	381,550	285,388	280,779
2003–04	1,102,686	319,689	456,298	326,699	274,135
2004–05	1,175,275	316,089	517,975	341,211	249,647

We do not have a breakdown of age groups for childminder, out of school or sessional places. The overwhelming majority of Full Daycare places are for children under the age of 5.

Child Employment

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what assessment she has made of the recommendations of the Better Regulation Task Force on employment law relating to children; and if she will make a statement; [51662]

(2) what plans she has to implement the recommendations of the Better Regulation Task Force on employment law relating to children; [51663]

(3) what discussions she has held with the Department for Trade and Industry on (a) regulations for the time at which children can start work in the morning and (b) the impact of earlier school day starts; [51664]

(4) if she will seek to amend legislation to enable children to start work at 6.30 a.m. in response to the earlier start of the school day in some areas. [51670]

Maria Eagle [holding answer 14 February 2006]: The Government believe that suitable work opportunities, based on individual choice, can be beneficial for young people. Nevertheless, children's entitlement to education is paramount. The existing limits on children's working hours are framed to ensure that neither their readiness to learn when they arrive at school, nor their capacity to do school homework, nor their opportunity for necessary rest and leisure, is
 
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compromised by the demands of employment. There are no plans to change this, and no discussions with DTI on the issue have been held.

Guidance has been given to local authorities that Directors of Children's Services should have functions relating to child employment as part of their remit, as recommended by the Task Force. No final decisions have been taken on whether and how the Task Force's other specific proposals will be implemented. They will only be implemented to the extent that they can
 
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demonstrate a clear contribution to the key outcomes which we want to see for all children, described in our Green Paper Every Child Matters".

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