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Small Group Tuition

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which local education authorities will receive funds from that part of the Dedicated Schools Grant earmarked for small group tuition; and how much each of them will receive. [53554]

Jacqui Smith: All local authorities will receive some funding within their Dedicated School Grant (DSG) allocations for personalised learning, from which they will be able to make available funding to schools for small group tuition. A summary of allocations of DSG
 
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to each local authority has been placed in the House Library, including indicative allocations of funding for personalised learning. This information is also available on the Teachernet website at:

www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/schoolfunding/2006–07_funding_arrangements/DSG200608/

Special Educational Needs

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding was available for special educational needs in primary schools in the last year for which figures are available; and if she will take steps to increase such funding. [52661]

Maria Eagle: During the 2005–06 financial year, local authorities in England budgeted net expenditure of £4.1 billion for the provision of education for children with
 
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special educational needs (SEN). Certain elements of this budgeted expenditure are retained centrally by the local authority and SEN funding cannot be attributed to a particular phase of education. An overall figure for the budgeted net expenditure for special educational needs in primary schools is not therefore available. However, expenditure can be broken down as shown in the following table.

It is for local authorities to make appropriate provision for all pupils in their area, including primary pupils with SEN, distributing funding to their schools through locally agreed funding formulae. All local authorities have benefited from the significant increases in funding that this Government have committed to education since 1997 and are set to receive an average increase of 14 per cent. per pupil in dedicated schools grant over the next two years.
The Education (Budget Statements) (England) Regulations 2005, budgeted expenditure on the provision of education for children with special educational needs1, 2, 3, 4 during 2005–06, provisional cash terms figures⁽¹⁵⁷⁾as reported by local authorities as at the 17 February 2006 £

	Nursery	Primary	Secondary	Special
SEN element of the schools budget(153)	18,721,836	282,141,763	205,523,034	616,039,625
Funding delegated to LA maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools identified as Notional SEN"(154)	9,500,929	931,756,617	712,773,582	—
Individual Schools Budget (ISB) for special schools(155)	—	—	—	1,243,203.720
Budgeted SEN expenditure by phase	28,222,764	1,213,898,379	918,296,615	1,859,243,345
Budgeted central spend by LAs on SEN(156)	—	—	—	—
Total Budgeted expenditure on SEN	—	—	—	—

£

	Gross	Income	Net
SEN element of the schools budget(153)	1,122,426,257	162,296,536	960,129,721
Funding delegated to LA maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools identified as Notional SEN"(154)	1,654,031,127	—	1,654,031,127
Individual Schools Budget (ISB) for special schools(155)	1,243,203,720	—	1,243,203,720
Budgeted SEN expenditure by phase	4,019,661,104	162,296,536	3,857,364,568
Budgeted central spend by LAs on SEN(156)	277,905,733	14,916,874	262,988,859
Total Budgeted expenditure on SEN	4,297,566,837	177,213,410	4,120,353,427

⁽¹⁵³⁾ The SEN element of the schools budget 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 and fees for pupils at independent special schools and abroad.
⁽¹⁵⁴⁾ Funding delegated to LA maintained nursery, primary and special schools are only indicative of the amount that might be spent by schools on SEN.
⁽¹⁵⁵⁾ The ISB for special schools will include some general education costs for pupils with SEN in addition to those costs specifically for SEN.
⁽¹⁵⁶⁾ The budgeted central spend by local authorities on SEN includes planned expenditure on educational psychology service, local authority functions in relation to child protection, therapies and other health-related services, parent partnership, guidance and information, the monitoring of SEN provision and SEN administration, assessment and co-ordination. Budgeted central expenditure cannot be attributed to a particular phase of education.
Notes:
1. 2005–06 data is provisional and is subject to change by the local authority.
2. In addition to the figures in the table, local authorities also budget net expenditure of £500 million for SEN transport.
Source:
The data are drawn from local authorities 2005–06 Section 52 Budget Statements (Tables 1 and 2) submitted to the DfES.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to promote more effective (a) measurement of and (b) accountability for progress made by pupils with special educational needs across a wide range of abilities. [53556]

Maria Eagle: The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice provides practical advice to local authorities, maintained schools and other settings on their statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for children's SEN. The code helps these bodies make effective decisions but it does not, and could not, tell them what to do in each individual case. The code sets out a graduated approach to providing support. This involves regular reviews of the impact, on a child's progress, of support that is additional to or different from that which is provided as part of the school's usual differentiated curriculum offer and strategies.

The SEN Code states that all children with SEN should be offered full access to a broad, balanced and relevant education, including the National Curriculum (NC). Pupil progress is assessed at the end of each key
 
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stage against the NC levels and this applies to pupils both with and without SEN. Pupils working below level 1 of the NC can be assessed using the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority guidance: Planning, teaching, and assessing the curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties", which provides eight level descriptions leading up to NC level 1.

The development of the New Relationship with Schools brings a focus on how well schools meet the needs of all their pupils. All schools will carry out an annual self-evaluation and publish a single plan setting out their priorities for improvement in which they will need to show how all their pupils are achieving. This process will highlight any gaps in achievement between different groups of children, which will then be discussed with a locally appointed School Improvement Partner.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children with special educational needs have been refused admission to (a) foundation schools, (b) academies and (c) proposed trust schools in the last 12 months. [53870]

Maria Eagle: Information on the number of children with special educational needs but without statements who did not gain admittance to their parents' preferred schools is not collected centrally. The governing bodies of maintained schools, including foundation schools, named on a child's statement of special educational needs must admit that child. Proposed trust schools will need to act in the same way, as with any other foundation school without a foundation. For parents seeking a place at an academy, academies are obliged by virtue of their funding agreements with the Secretary of State to consent to being named on statements unless admitting the child would be incompatible with the efficient education of other children and no reasonable steps may be made to secure compatibility.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many admission cases to (a) foundation schools, (b) academies and
 
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(c) proposed trust schools have been referred to an independent educational tribunal for appeal concerning children with special educational needs in the last 12 months. [53871]

Jacqui Smith: Information is not collected centrally on the number of appeals to admission appeal panels involving children with special educational needs without statements. In 2004/05 the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal registered six appeals seeking placements at academies and 31 seeking placements at foundation schools. There are no trust schools yet but they will need to act in the same way as any other foundation school.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions (a) she and (b) her officials have had with groups representing children with special educational needs on admissions policies in (i) foundation schools, (ii) academies and (iii) proposed trust schools. [53872]

Jacqui Smith: Ministers and officials meet groups representing children with special educational needs from time to time. Discussions cover a range of issues and can include school admissions.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent discussions (a) she and (b) her officials have had with potential sponsors of proposed trust schools in relation to admissions policies on children with special educational needs. [53873]

Jacqui Smith: Ministers and officials have met with a number of schools and other interested groups who are interested in trusts, including potential partners. No specific meetings have been held on the subject of SEN admissions, although a range of topics have emerged during discussion of which admissions is one.

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children are receiving special needs provisions in Lancashire. [54496]

Maria Eagle: The requested information is given in the table.
All schools: Number of pupils with special educational needs—as at January 2005—Lancashire local authority area

		Pupils with statements of SEN		Pupils with SEN without statements
	Number of pupils on roll(157)	Number	Percentage(158)	Number	Percentage(158)
Nursery	2,148	34	1.6	77	3.6
Primary	94,960	2,362	2.5	13,776	14.5
Secondary	75,936	2,273	3.0	8,638	11.4
Special	2,205	2,201	99.8	4	0.2
Pupil Referral Units	341	34	10.0	225	66.0
Independent	6,993	487	7.0	369	5.3
All schools	182,583	7,391	4.0	23,089	12.6

⁽¹⁵⁷⁾ Number (headcount) of pupils. Excludes dually registered pupils.
⁽¹⁵⁸⁾ Number of pupils by SEN provision expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils on roll.
Source:
Annual Schools Census

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many teachers have had special needs training since qualification since 1997; [51151]

(2) how many hours training is given to special needs teachers in (a) (i) identifying and (ii) teaching special needs and (b) producing information for statementing; and what the contents is of that training; [51152]

(3) how many specialist trained dyslexia teachers there are in each local education authority; and if she will make a statement. [51154]

Maria Eagle: The information requested is not collected centrally.
 
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In order to be awarded Qualified Teacher Status, trainee teachers must demonstrate that they understand their responsibilities under the statutory Special Educational Needs code of practice, know how to seek advice from specialists on less common types of SEN, can differentiate their teaching to meet the needs of individual pupils, including those with SEN, and can identify and support pupils who experience behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

The Standards for the Induction Support Programme for those awarded QTS also require that Newly Qualified Teachers can demonstrate that they can plan effectively to meet the needs of pupils in their classes with SEN, with or without a statement, and in consultation with the SEN Co-ordinator, can contribute to the preparation and implementation of individual education plans or the equivalent.

Once qualified, all teachers are expected to identify their development needs through performance management arrangements, and to address identified needs by undertaking appropriate professional development. This can include strengthening SEN knowledge in areas such as dyslexia. All schools receive a School Development Grant which they are able to use to support improvements in any aspect of teaching and learning, including training. Local authorities may retain a proportion of this grant, under certain conditions, to provide specific training and development of SEN.

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