House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 17 May 2006 (pt 0006)

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Pupil Statistics (Coventry, South)

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of children (a) are in receipt of free school meals, (b)
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have special educational needs and (c) are from ethnic minority families in Coventry, South. [70957]

Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the following tables.

Maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools^{( 1)} : school meal arrangements^{( 2)} . Coventry, South parliamentary constituency, January 2006 (provisional)
Maintained nursery and primary	Maintained secondary
Number on roll	Number of pupils taking free school meals	Percentage taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage known to be eligible for free school meals	Number on roll	Number of pupils taking free school meals	Percentage taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage known to be eligible for free school meals
7,851	1,460	18.6	1,772	22.6	7,337	1,036	14.1	1,324	18.0
⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed. ⁽²⁾ Includes dually registered and boarding pupils. Source: Annual Schools' Census

Maintained primary and secondary schools^{( 1)} : number of pupils with special educational needs. Coventry, South parliamentary constituency, January 2006 (provisional).
Maintained primary	Maintained secondary
Total pupils	Pupils with statements	Percentage^{( 2)}	SEN pupils without statements^{( 3)}	Percentage^{( 4)}	Total pupils	Pupils with statements	Percentage^{( 2)}	SEN pupils without statements^{( 3)}	Percentage^{( 4)}
7,608	71	0.9	1,201	15.8	7,337	175	2.4	1,491	20.3
⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed. ⁽²⁾ Number of pupils with statements of SEN expressed as a percentage of total number of pupils. Excludes dually registered pupils. ⁽³⁾ Includes pupils at school action and school action plus. ⁽⁴⁾ Number of SEN pupils without statement expressed as a percentage of total number of pupils. Excludes dually registered pupils. Source: Annual Schools Census

Maintained primary and secondary schools^{( 1)} : number and percentage of minority ethnic pupils^{( 2)} . Coventry, South parliamentary constituency, January 2006 (provisional)
Maintained primary	Maintained secondary
Number of minority ethnic pupils	Percentage of minority ethnic pupils^{( 3)}	Number of minority ethnic pupils	Percentage of minority ethnic pupils^{( 3)}
1,746	29.1	2,157	29.4
⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed. ⁽²⁾ Pupils of compulsory school age and above were classified according to ethnic group. Excludes dually registered pupils. ⁽³⁾ Those pupils who have been classified according to their ethnic group and are other than white British expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils of compulsory school age and above. Source: Annual Schools Census

Education and Inspections Bill

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent representations he has received on the Education and Inspections Bill. [68640]

Jim Knight: We continue to receive representations regarding the Education and Inspections Bill from a wide range of different people and organisations. We are engaged in ongoing work with our key stakeholders as the Bill progresses through Parliament.

Ms Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what targets he plans to set for the educational achievement of children attending the special schools proposed in the Education and Inspections Bill; and if he will make a statement. [70443]

Jim Knight: The Education and Inspections Bill provides that where new or replacement special schools are needed, they should be set up under the provisions in Clauses 7 to 9. Clause 10 also allows non-maintained and independent special schools to publish proposals to enter the maintained sector.

The Education (School Performance Targets) (England) Regulations 2004 require all special schools to set appropriate targets for improving pupil performance in the same way as mainstream primary and secondary schools, taking account of the differential performance of pupils with Special Educational Needs.

Targets must be set for pupil attainment in the final year of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, and in the last year of compulsory schooling. Where pupil performance is expected to be below the national curriculum levels, special schools can set zero targets. However, governing bodies must set additional
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appropriate targets for such pupils using the P scales or other performance measures to improve the contribution schools make to the learning of pupils with Special Educational Needs.

The Government remain committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of background or any special educational need they might have, gets the education they need to enable them to fulfil their potential.

E-learning

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to ensure that the e-learning strategy outlined in the paper, “Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services” (a) is kept up to date and (b) makes use of the latest information technology, with particular reference to high-speed mobile communications; and if he will make a statement. [70519]

Phil Hope [holding answer 12 May 2006]: The e-strategy is being delivered through a number of themes:

Strategic Technologies - getting the right technology deployed cost-effectively.

E-Maturity - assessing the maturity and effectiveness of our system in use of the technology.

Personalised Content - harnessing multimedia resources to meet the needs and learning styles of users.

Knowledge Architecture - joining up information and identity management across the system and making it learner-centred.

The Department established a technology group in October 2005 to implement the e-strategy across the education and children's services sectors. The Department is supported in this role by the British Educational Communication and Technology Agency (Becta), our key NDPB partner in the delivery of the e-strategy.

The e-strategy is informed by independent research. The Becta Review 2006 (published 28 April) is an assessment of the state of technology in education based on the most recent research, evaluation and survey reports, most of which are produced by
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independent academic institutions or commissioned or managed by Becta itself. It presents the latest findings and provides a commentary and assessment of what the findings might mean for policy and practice. The review offers assessment of progress, where it can be identified, and highlights issues and challenges that may affect further change in the system. It has identified that mobile technologies are set to play an increasingly important role, with personal ownership of technologies such as laptops, PDAs and mobile phones on the rise in schools.

Independent Children's Homes

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research the Commission for Social Care Inspection has carried out in the last three years into the effects of clustering of independent children's homes. [69338]

Mr. Dhanda: I understand from the chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) that the commission has not carried out any research into the effects of clustering of independent children's homes in the last three years.

Looked-after Children

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many looked-after children there were in each year since 2000, broken down by (a) sex and (b) ethnic group. [71224]

Mr. Dhanda: The number of looked-after children by gender is provided in Table A of the Department's Statistical Volume 1 entitled “Children looked after by Local Authorities Year Ending 31 March 2005” which can be accessed on:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000646/index.shtml.

The number of looked after children by ethnicity is provided in the following tables.

Children looked after in England at 31 March by ethnic origin, 2001-05^{( 1,2,3)}
Number
	2001^{( 4)}	2002^{( 4)}	2003^{( 4)}	2004^{( 5)}	2005^{( 5)}
All Children⁽¹⁾	58,900	59,700	60,800	61,100	60,900
White	48,900	49,100	49,500	48,800	48,100
Mixed	4,400	4,700	5,000	5,000	5,000
Asian or Asian British	1,100	1,200	1,300	1,500	1,800
Black or Black British	3,700	4,000	4,200	4,900	4,900
Other ethnic groups	820	800	870	990	1,100
⁽¹⁾ Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. ⁽²⁾ Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. ^{(3 )}Information on ethnicity started to be collected in 2001. ^{(4 )}Figures are taken from the CLA100 return. ⁽⁵⁾ Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return.

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Children looked after in England at 31 March by ethnic origin, 2001-05^{( 1,2,3)}
Percentage
	2001^{( 4)}	2002^{( 4)}	2003^{( 4)}	2004^{( 5)}	2005^{( 5)}
All Children⁽¹⁾	100	100	100	100	100
White	83	82	81	80	79
Mixed	7	8	8	8	8
Asian or Asian British	2	2	2	2	3
Black or Black British	6	7	7	8	8
Other ethnic groups	1	1	1	2	2
⁽¹⁾ Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. ⁽²⁾ Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. ^{(3 )}Information on ethnicity started to be collected in 2001. ^{(4 )}Figures are taken from the CLA100 return. ⁽⁵⁾ Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return.

Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were taken into local authority care from mothers under the age of (a) 16 and (b) 18 years in each year since 1997. [70909]

Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not collected centrally.

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