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27 Apr 2006 : Column 1255W—continued
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Apprenticeships
16. Meg Hillier: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment she has made of the young modern apprenticeship programme; and if she will make a statement. [66220]
Phil Hope: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) leads on the delivery of the Young Apprenticeship Programme and has put in place a comprehensive national evaluation strategy, supported by the sector skills councils involved. Ofsted is also monitoring the programme. The LSC plans to issue a formal report by early 2007. Interim feedback is positive, and Ofsted has confirmed that the programme has made a positive start and is popular with pupils.
Mr. McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to promote apprenticeships among young people. [66218]
Phil Hope: The Department and its key partners such as the LSC and Connexions are very active in promoting apprenticeships to young people. The evidence is compelling, with a quarter of a million young people currently participating, the highest number ever. We pay particular attention to ensuring equal opportunities for all young people. We are also strongly committed to promoting the quality of the Apprenticeship Programme which is celebrated at the annual Apprenticeship Awards.
Community Learning
17. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what provision is being made for adult learning in the community in 2006–07. [66221]
Phil Hope:
We have allocated £210 million of taxpayers money in 2006–07 to support learning for personal and community development. This includes help for family learning, for example, to improve people's literacy and numeracy and for learning in deprived communities.
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Head Teacher Vacancies
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many head teacher vacancies there are in England; and if she will make a statement. [66203]
Jacqui Smith: The first release of school workforce statistical information published this morning indicates that in January 2006, there were 180 head teacher vacancies in local authority maintained schools in England—a vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent. This confirms the current trend for low and stable vacancy rates since 1997.
Figures out today also show that the vacancy rate for deputy and assistant head teachers are also low. Down to 0.7 per cent. in 2006 from 1.2 per cent. in 1997.
Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the Secretary of State expects to answer the letter of 21 February from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, about Mr. J. Horluck, transferred from the Department for Constitutional Affairs. [63929]
Maria Eagle: I responded to my right hon. Friend on 18 April.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she will provide substantive replies to the letters of (a) 9 December, (b) 12 January and (c) 21 February on an NSPCC campaign from the hon. Member for Isle of Wight. [64405]
Maria Eagle [holding answer 18 April 2006]: I responded to the hon. Member on 19 April.
Early-years Education
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many families in Nottinghamshire claimed free nursery education funding in (a) 2004–05 and (b) 2005–06. [65285]
Beverley Hughes: The information is not collected in the form requested.
Since April 2004 all three and four year olds have been entitled to a free, good quality, part-time early education place. The free entitlement consists of a minimum of 12. 5 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year and will be extended to 15 hours a week by 2010. By that time, parents who wish to do so will also be able to access the free entitlement flexibly across a minimum of three days.
Some local authorities may additionally offer subsidised childcare places but this information is not collected centrally.
Figures for January 2005 show that all four year old children receive some form of free entitlement. The figure for three year olds is 96 per cent. This covers all maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers and represents 535,100 three year olds and 568,300 four year olds. Provisional figures for January 2006 will be published in Statistical First Release 17/2006 "Provision for children under five years of age in
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England—January 2005 (provisional)" at 9:30 am on 27 April 2006, which will be made available on my Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.
The available information on the number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four year olds in Nottinghamshire local authority area is shown in the table. Sub-national figures for 2006 will be published in a Statistical First Release in August 2006.
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The latest figures on early education places for three and four year olds in England were published in Statistical First Release 43/2005 "Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2005 (final)" in September, which is available on my Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.
(11) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 as appropriate.
(12) Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools' Census.
(13) Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools' Census.
(14) Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools' Census.
(15) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools' Census.
Special Needs Tribunals
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what recent estimate she has made of the average cost of special needs tribunal hearings to (a) parents and (b) local education authorities; [65291]
(2) if she will take steps to reduce the cost of special needs tribunals to parents. [65292]
Maria Eagle: No charge is made to parents who bring cases before the special educational needs and disability tribunal and certain necessary expenses are met by the tribunal.
Neither the Department nor the tribunal have made an estimate of the average cost of tribunal hearings to the respective parties.
Foreign Students
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many students from Iran have enrolled at universities in the UK in each year since 1997; and which subjects they have studied; [64895]
(2) pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2006, Official Report, column 1232W, on foreign students, what subjects were being studied by the 1,750 Iranian students attending universities in 2004–05; and how many were studying each subject. [64892]
Bill Rammell [holding answer 24 April 2006]: The latest information is given in the following tables. In respect of subjects relevant to weapons of mass destruction counter proliferation concern, the student voluntary vetting scheme has been in operation since 1994. Its guiding principle is to prevent academic contact and access to postgraduate studies that might be of significant value to countries of WMD proliferation concern.
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(16) Covers postgraduate and undergraduate students. The figures are based on a snapshot count of students who were in attendance on 1 December in each year. The figure of 1,750 in the earlier answer (43079) was based on a whole year count of students, which counts students who were in attendance at any point in the academic year. It is not possible to give a time series back to 1997/98 using the whole year count for all years, so the snapshot count has been used for consistency. An additional column has been added to the table to show students split by subject in 2004/05 using the whole year count.
(17) In 2002/03, a new subject classification, and a new method of allocating students to subjects, were introduced, which means that the figures for the years up to 2001/02 are not directly comparable with those for later years. The new allocation method takes account of all subjects studied by the student rather than just their main subject, and the main effect of this is to decrease the number of students who are allocated to the "combined" category, and increase the number of students who are allocated to specific named subjects.
Source:
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5 so components may not sum to totals.
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