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29 Mar 2006 : Column 1072W—continued
CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
Community Legal Aid and Advice Centres
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will take steps to protect law centres' funding as community legal and advice centres are rolled out. [60279]
Ms Harman:
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) are seeking to purchase services from high quality suppliers who are able to meet the needs of local clients. As the LSC delivers its strategy for the Community Legal Service, announced on 23 March 2006, it will offer contracts to suppliers by means of open and fair tender
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processes. Contracts will be awarded to those that are best able to meet client needs and provide value for money. The LSC expects to continue contracting with a range of both private and not for profit suppliers.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
After-school Science Clubs
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills where the 250 after-school science clubs announced in the Budget will be located. [62254]
Bill Rammell: The location of these clubs has not yet been decided. We are currently planning how to take this forward and other commitments outlined in chapter 6 of the 'Science and innovation investment framework 2004–14: next steps'.
Bishop Wulstan Catholic School
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to her Answer of 21 March 2006, Official Report, column 214W, on Bishop Wulstan Catholic School, when she expects to be in a position to take a decision. [61417]
Jacqui Smith: Bishop Wulstan Catholic School in Warwickshire is a poorly performing school–only 12 per cent. of pupils achieved 5 A*-C grades at GCSE last year-that has experienced falling rolls-only 22 pupils are due to enter the school in September. Officials at my department have had a number of conversations with Warwickshire county council and the Archdiocese of Birmingham about the options available to secure better education for the pupils attending the school over the past few months. As the school has not been deemed by Ofsted to require special measures, the decision as to the future of the school is for the local authority to make rather than the Secretary of State, and therefore I can give no indication on the timing.
Business/School Links
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the effect on businesses of engaging in co-operative working with schools. [55162]
Jacqui Smith: The assessment of the delivery of education business link activities falls under the remit of the Learning and Skills Council. Mark Haysom, Chief Executive of the LSC has written to my hon. Friend and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 24 March 2006:
I write in response to your recent Parliamentary Question about assessing the effect of business cooperating with schools.
Preparing young people for the world of work and ensuring the country has the skills it needs are crucial goals for the LSC. That is why business and employer engagement with learners, and a step increase in vocational learning in our schools, are key objectives for us.
We are a key partner with the DfES in taking forward the Government's 14–19 agenda. This agenda has a vision of making all young people better prepared for their future employment, and giving them a wider choice of quality vocational qualifications
- than has been the case to date. The LSC is committed to putting this vision into effect through the 14–19 Implementation Plan published three months ago.
Clearly, we need to do this together with all our partners and stakeholders, including business and employers. We already, of course, fund a wide range of school/business link activity through Education Business Link organisations, and there has been a number of evaluations and assessment of that activity. We also fund the Enterprise Adviser Service, and are close to completing an evaluation of that Service.
The Implementation Plan refers to our forthcoming consultation on education business link activity and the way we can support and promote greater and even more productive engagement between employers and young learners. We expect that consultation to gather the widest possible range of views on how we achieve our aims—for the benefit both of learners and of business. Should you have views on this issue that you would wish to share with us, I would be delighted to hear them.
Care Grants
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people leaving care in the Tamworth constituency in 2004–05 received a leaving care grant of (a) less than £500, (b) over £500, (c) over £1,000 and (d) over £2,000. [58082]
Maria Eagle: This information is not collected centrally.
Cared-for Children
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent supporting (a) family members, as defined by section 105 of the Children Act 1989, raising children who cannot live with their parents and (b) other family and friends as carers raising children who cannot live with their parents in each year since 1992; and if she will break down expenditure in each year by the legal arrangements under which the children were living in each category. [60725]
Maria Eagle: This information is not collected centrally.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children who do not live with their parents live with family members as defined by section 105 of the Children Act 1989; how many lived with family members in those circumstances in each year since 1992; and how many of those resided under (a) a residence order, (b) a special guardianship order, (c) emergency arrangements under Regulation 38 of the Fostering Services Regulations, (d) Fostering Regulations following a full assessment under Regulation 38 and (e) other private arrangements, including private fostering, in each year. [60746]
Maria Eagle: Information on the numbers of children who live with a family member outside the care system (including those cared for on residence orders, special guardianship orders and under private arrangements) is not collected centrally.
Information on the numbers of children who live with a relative" ( as defined by section 105 of the Children Act 1989) is not collected centrally.
However, the numbers of looked after children placed with family and friends foster carers is shown in the following table.
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Information on the numbers of children who live with a relative" (as defined by section 105 of the Children Act 1989) is not collected centrally.
However, the numbers of looked after children placed with family and friends foster carers is in the following table.
(12) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements.
(13) Note that the figure for 2005 will be available at 30 March 2006.
(14) Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return.
(15) Figures for All children" are based on the CLA100; other figures are derived from the SSDA903 1/3 sample.
The data does not specify whether these children were in emergency placements made under Regulation 38 of the Fostering Services Regulations 2002 (where the carer is yet to be assessed as a foster carer) or were placed with those already approved as foster carers by the local authority.
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