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Secondary Schools

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many households have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) five or more secondary schools within (i) two, (ii) three and (iii) six miles of their homes. [56915]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 21 March 2006]: The information requested is shown in the following table:
Number of households⁽²⁰⁾ with one, two, three, four and five or more secondary⁽²¹⁾ schools within two, three and six miles⁽²²⁾ radius

	Distance
	2 miles		3 miles		6 miles
Number of secondary schools	Number of households	Percentage of households	Number of households	Percentage of households	Number of households	Percentage of households
0	2,137,436	9.9	1,148,620	5.3	95,858	0.4
1	3,022,112	14.0	2,111,530	9.8	631,212	2.9
2	2,483,613	11.5	1,519,874	7.1	909,681	4.2
3	2,609,078	12.1	1,518,762	7.1	780,547	3.6
4	2,344,903	10.9	1,350,711	6.3	696,538	3.2
5+	8,922,636	41.5	13,870,281	64.5	18,405,942	85.5
Total	21,519,778	100.0	21,519,778	100.0	21,519,778	100.0

⁽²⁰⁾ Data on the number of households are taken from the May 2005 version of the All Fields Postcode Directory (AFPD) produced by the Office for National Statistics. For each postcode the AFPD provides a count of non business/non industrial addresses.
⁽²¹⁾ Includes secondary, middle deemed secondary, city technology colleges and academies.
⁽²²⁾ Distances calculated are straight line using the household postcode not the individual household.



 
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Small Firms

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what definition her Department uses of a small firm. [59287]

Maria Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to the response given by the Minister for Industry and the Regions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Alun Michael) on 21 March 2006, Official Report, columns 198–99W.

Special Educational Needs

Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what guidance her Department issues to schools and local education authorities on the staffing levels needed to teach children with special educational needs; and if she will make a statement; [58346]

(2) what representations she has received on the staffing levels needed to teach children with special educational needs; and if she will make a statement. [58348]

Maria Eagle: It is for individual schools and local authorities to determine staffing levels, having regard to the number of children with special educational needs, the range and complexity of SEN represented with a given school, the resources available and other relevant factors. School decisions will be informed by the Education Act 1996 which contains the current legal provisions applying to SEN, the SEN Code of Practice (2001) which provides statutory guidance, the associated SEN toolkit and other relevant publications, such as The Management of SEN Expenditure"
 
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(DfES, May 2004), which gives detailed guidance on matters such as financial delegation, the division of responsibilities between schools and local authorities, maintained special schools and additionally resourced provision, and expenditure on independent and non-maintained special schools.

Previously, the then Department of Education and Science did issue a circular in December 1990, numbered 11/90 and entitled Staffing for pupils with special educational needs", outlining considerations local authorities and schools might bear in mind when determining staffing levels for pupils with SEN. Following representations to withdraw this on the grounds that it had become outdated and misleading, the Department signalled formally, on 20 September 2005, its intention to withdraw 11/90. Comments and objections were invited from interested parties, namely the teacher associations, local government interests and special school organisations. In the light of these, which revealed no major objections, the Department confirmed its intention to withdraw the circular.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of children in England (a) given a fixed-term exclusion from school and (b) permanently excluded from school in the last period for which figures are available had a (i) statemented and (ii) non-statemented special educational need. [58940]

Jacqui Smith: The requested information is given in the table. Figures given in the table refer to cases of exclusion rather than the number of pupils excluded, as some pupils were excluded more than once during the year.
Maintained primary, secondary and all special schools ^{(23)(5509040024)}: Number of permanent exclusions by special educational needs (SEN), England, 2003/04 (estimates)⁽²⁵⁾

	Permanent exclusions			Fixed period exclusions
	Number of exclusions	Percentage of permanent exclusions(26)	Percentage of school population(27)	Number of exclusions	Percentage of permanent exclusions(26)	Percentage of school population(27)
2003/04(25)
Pupils with statements of SEN	1,040	11	0.44	39,790	12	17.1
Pupils without statements of SEN(28)	8,840	89	0.12	304,710	88	4.1
Of which:
SEN pupils without statements	5,240	53	0.46	133,290	39	11.7
Pupils with no SEN	3,600	36	0.06	171,420	50	2.7
All pupils(29)	9,880	100	0.13	344,510	100	4.5

⁽²³⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.
⁽²⁴⁾ For permanent exclusions includes both maintained and non-maintained special schools. For fixed period exclusions excludes non-maintained special schools.
⁽²⁵⁾ Figures relating to permanent exclusions are estimates based on incomplete pupil-level data.
⁽²⁶⁾ The number of permanent or fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the total number of permanent or fixed period exclusions, as appropriate.
⁽²⁷⁾ The number of excluded pupils by SEN stage expressed as a percentage of all pupils with the same SEN stage in primary, secondary and all special schools (excludes dually registered pupils) in January.
⁽²⁸⁾ The introduction of the new SEN Code of Practice means that the number of children with SEN without statements reported in 2000/01 and later are not directly comparable with earlier years. Includes pupils with no SEN and SEN pupils without statements.
⁽²⁹⁾ There was one permanent exclusion and 12 fixed period exclusions for which stage of SEN was not known—these were included in total for 'all pupils' only.
Note:
Totals may not appear to equal the sum of component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
Annual Schools Census and Termly Exclusions Survey





 
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Sustainable Building

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of the Department's building programme budget was allocated to (a) energy self-generation and (b) water recycling measures in the last financial year. [58751]

Maria Eagle: None.

The Department has concentrated on increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through its asset maintenance programme and improving IT equipment. Measures taken include:

installation of additional sensor lighting;

reduction of heat loss through renewing window seals;

introduction of software to shut down pc's overnight; and

replacement of monitors with flat screen monitors which use less energy.

The Department has concentrated on the reduction of water usage through installation of:

sprinkler taps; and

water hippos within toilet cisterns.

Energy self generation and water recycling measures will be considered in the longer term and as part of any refurbishment projects.

Teaching Posts

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of (a) assistant teacher and (b) head teacher posts are potentially not open to teachers who have no religious beliefs on grounds of lack of religion. [62018]

Jacqui Smith: It is a matter for individual governing bodies to advertise for, recruit and employ those candidates they deem most suitable to be effective leaders for their schools. There are currently 20,873 schools in England of which 6,861 are designated as faith schools where the governing body, when looking to appoint a head teacher or deputy head teacher, may choose to inquire about a candidates' faith as part of the appointment process. In addition, we would expect them all to be aware of their responsibilities under employment law relating to equal opportunities.

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