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23 Mar 2006 : Column 542W—continued
Care Leavers
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people left the care of each local authority in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [59173]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is available from the Department's website at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000569/index.shtml.
Child Care
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what child care services the additional capital investment in (a) 2006–07 and (b) 2007–08 will fund in (i) the West Midlands region and (ii) Coventry, South; [60140]
(2) how many under-fives entitled to free nursery places on the Sure Start scheme are on waiting lists in the West Midlands; [60141]
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(3) how many empty places there are in Sure Start nurseries in the West Midlands. [60142]
Beverley Hughes: The General Sure Start Grant will make available to the West Midlands region £47,135,019 million in 2006–07 and £43,950,404 million in 2007–08 in capital funding. Coventry local authority's capital allocation for this period is £2,364,977 and £2,223,384 respectively. Local authorities have been given the freedom to determine how best to invest these funds to deliver the Ten-Year Childcare Strategy, including the development of children's centres, extended schools and other child care.
Information on the number of children on waiting lists for Sure Start services or empty places in Sure Start nurseries in the West Midlands is not collected centrally.
Children's Centres
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many disabled children, as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, have used children's centres since their introduction. [60259]
Beverley Hughes: Information on how many disabled children have received a service from children's centres is not available centrally at present.
Consultants
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the reports from consultants which have been submitted to her Department over the past 12 months; what the name of the supplier was in each case; and what fees were charged in each case. [59826]
Bill Rammell: This information could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Telephone Numbers
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 13 March 2006, Official Report, column 1863W, on departmental telephone numbers, what the revenue is from (a) 0845 and (b) 0870 numbers maintained by her Department. [60865]
Maria Eagle: The Department for Education and Skills does not participate in revenue share schemes associated with 0845 and 0870 telephone numbers and therefore derives no revenue from the use of these numbers.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the effect of education maintenance allowance on staying on rates in Tamworth constituency; and if she will make a statement. [58072]
Maria Eagle:
EMA was subject to one of the most comprehensive evaluations of any educational initiative. It was piloted in 10 areas (plus five others in
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London/Leeds) and the evaluation followed two cohorts of 16-year-olds for four years from 1999/2000 and 2000/01. Their outcomes were compared to those of matched individuals in 11 control areas. It was extended to a further 41 areas in 2000/01 so that it was operating in around one third of the country.
The results indicated that EMA increased participation of eligible young people in the pilot areas by 5.9 percentage points. This is equivalent to an increase in participation of all 16-year-olds across the whole country of 3.8 percentage points. EMA was extended to 16-year-olds in the remaining two thirds of the country in September 2004. There was a 1.9 percentage point increase in participation of 16-year-olds in full-time education between 2003/04 and 2004/05. This is in line with the increase in participation which was expected from the roll out of EMA and is the largest increase in participation for over 10 years. While it is not possible to say that all of the increase was due to EMA, this was one of the most important initiatives aimed at increasing participation.
EMA was extended to 17-year-olds in September 2005 and will be fully extended to 18-year-olds from September 2006.
Further education participation estimates are not available at constituency level, but are produced at local authority level. Staffordshire local authority, covering Tamworth constituency, was not a pilot area so 2004/05 was the first year for which EMA was available. Local participation figures for 2004/05 are not due to be published until the end of March 2006. When these become available, the DfES and LSC will be doing further analyses to try to get a better estimate of the increase in participation which might be due to EMA. However, it will not be possible to attribute any changes to EMA alone, since there will have been other factors which will have influenced participation. It will not be possible to make any reasonable assessment of the impact for individual local authorities.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the effect of education maintenance allowance on staying on rates (a) in England and (b) in Hendon; and if she will make a statement. [56983]
Maria Eagle: EMA was subject to one of the most comprehensive evaluations of any educational initiative. It was piloted in 10 areas (plus five others in London/Leeds) and the evaluation followed two cohorts of 16-year-olds for four years from 1999/2000 and 2000/01. Their outcomes were compared to those of matched individuals in 11 control areas. It was extended to a further 41 areas in 2000/01 so that it was operating in around one third of the country.
The results indicated that EMA increased participation of eligible young people in the pilot areas by 5.9 percentage points. This is equivalent to an increase in participation of all 16-year-olds across the whole country of 3.8 percentage points. There was a particularly strong impact for key target groups:
The results also showed positive impacts on retention from Y13 to Y14, and also on an individual's attachment to education, as measured by number of terms which they stay in education to age 19.
EMA was extended to 16-year-olds in the remaining two thirds of the country in September 2004. There was a 1.9 percentage point increase in participation of 16-year-olds in full-time education between 2003/04 and 2004/05. This is in line with the increase in participation which was expected from the roll out of EMA and is the largest increase in participation for over 10 years. While it is not possible to say that all of the increase was due to EMA, this was one of the most important initiatives aimed at increasing participation. The Department and LSC will be doing further analyses of local participation when these become available to try to get a better estimate of the change which might be due to EMA. EMA was extended to 17-year-olds in September 2005 and will be fully extended to 18-year-olds from September 2006.
This year the LSC has adopted the strategy of measuring EMA take-up to show early impact of the scheme locally. Volumes are on target, and take-up among poorer students is higher than originally projected, which is the group upon whom EMA is likely to have the greatest beneficial effect. Take-up among 16-year-olds largely met or exceeded estimated figures in 2004/05. Where take-up is lower than anticipated, the local LSC targets additional support to raise awareness of EMA and increase the figures.
On the take up of EMAs in Hendon, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave on 13 March 2006, Official Report, column1866W.
Energy Efficiency
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Government are taking to promote energy efficiency within (a) schools, (b) colleges and (c) universities; and if she will make a statement. [60453]
Jacqui Smith: The Government are promoting energy efficiency through a range of measures.
Building on the Sustainable Development Action Plan for Education and Skills launched in 2003, the DfES and its partners are undertaking a wide range of measures to promote energy efficiency in all educational buildings.
(a) Schools—There is extensive guidance available to improve energy efficiency within existing schools 1 , together with minimum standards that cover energy efficiency and renewable energy for new buildings and refurbishments within the schools capital programme.
(b) Colleges—Energy efficiency is promoted through good practice guidance and property benchmarking which enables colleges to compare their energy efficiency performance. Further work is currently underway into the cost-effectiveness of energy efficient design and sustainable development.
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(c) Universities—Energy management guidance has been published for higher education establishments 2 , and there are a number of ongoing initiatives to encourage energy efficiency. Universities are now required to demonstrate that environmental sustainability has been addressed in the deployment of capital funding.
The Government are also currently reviewing the approach that all educational establishments adopt for energy procurement to identify actions that result in further cost savings.
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