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21 Jun 2006 : Column 1997W—continued
Connexions
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people have signed up to the Connexions card scheme in (a) Lewisham, Deptford constituency and (b) Lewisham borough. [79153]
Beverley Hughes: There are 71 young people who hold Connexions cards in Lewisham, Deptford constituency and 4,086 in Lewisham borough.
Education Act 1996 (Prosecutions)
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many prosecutions were brought under section 7 of the Education Act 1996 in each year between 2001 and 2003. [79214]
Jim Knight: Home Office data for the period 2001-03 show:
In 2001, there were 6,622 prosecutions in England and Wales under the Education Act 1996. These include:
2,243 prosecutions for truancy under section 444(1);
4,379 prosecutions for various offences under the Education Act. These are likely to include some prosecutions under sections 444(1) and (1A).
In 2002, there were 7,075 prosecutions in England and Wales under the Education Act 1996. These include:
3,445 prosecutions for truancy under section 444(1);
3,625 prosecutions for various offences under the Education Act. These are likely to include some prosecutions under sections 444(1) and (1A);
four prosecutions for child employment offences;
one prosecution for neglecting the cleanliness of a pupil.
In 2003, there were 7,264 prosecutions in England and Wales under the Education Act 1996. These include:
3,732 prosecutions for truancy under section 444(1);
387 prosecutions for truancy under section 444 (1A) (the aggravated offence);
3,142 prosecutions for various offences under the Education Act. These are likely to include some prosecutions under sections 444(1) and (1A);
three prosecutions for child employment offences.
Prosecutions for truancy related to section 7 are brought under section 444 of the Education Act 1996.
Financial Education
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what aspects of personal financial education are included in the compulsory elements of the national curriculum for 11 to 16 year olds. [78796]
Jim Knight [holding answer 19 June 2006]: The Government recognises the importance of personal finance education for all young people. The National Curriculum for Citizenship, which is compulsory at key stages 3 and 4 (11 to 16 year olds), includes teaching pupils about how the economy functions, including the role of business and financial services. Pupils are also taught about how public services are financed. In addition, the DfES has asked the QCA, as part of the wider review of GCSE maths and the emphasis on improving functional skills, to consider including financial capability more explicitly in the maths curriculum. In September 2004 we made work-related learning a statutory element of the curriculum, and from September 2005 are funding schools to develop a new focus on enterprise education, defined as enterprise capability supported by better financial capability and economic and business understanding.
Horticultural Courses
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what Government (a) funding has been made available and (b) initiatives have been undertaken for (i) in-service and (ii) full-time funding for horticultural courses for 16 to 18-year-olds since 1997. [76937]
Jim Knight: Full data for the funding made available for horticulture for 16 to 18-year-olds are available for 2004/05 only. In that year the Learning and Skills Council, which provides Government funding for 16-18 education spent £225,000 on horticulture courses through further education provision and £2,425,000 through work-based learning provision, including apprenticeships—a total of £2,650,000. This figure cannot be broken down into full-time and in-service figures. Other land-based and environmental provision, which may include aspects of horticulture has also been funded by the LSC.
The Government have also invested £1.4 million since 2001 in the Growing Schools initiative, which encourages all schools to provide learning activities which enable pupils to gain knowledge and understanding about the outdoor environment through first-hand experience of growing, farming and the countryside—within and beyond the school. The expenditure on this cannot be broken down to show 16 to 18-year-olds separately.
Learning and Skills Council
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much the Learning and Skills Council spent on consultants in each year since 2003; and how many were hired in each year. [68606]
Bill Rammell: I have overall responsibility for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). However the operations of the LSC are managed and overseen by Mark Haysom, the LSC’s Chief Executive. Details of the number of consultants and the amount spent on them are a matter for the LSC and Mark Haysom has written to the hon. Member with further information and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 20 June 2006:
Further to your question to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on the above subject and my subsequent response, I am pleased to be able to write to you with further details.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has not previously distinguished, in its accounts, between expenditure with bodies providing consultancy services to the LSC and expenditure with bodies providing professional services as part of the planning and delivery of post 16 learning funded by the LSC. I have set in place measures to maintain this analysis.
The short delay in responding to your query was caused by the need to analyse expenditure between consultants and services.
The LSC’s expenditure on management consultancy was £9.4 million, £6.7 million and £3.8 million in the financial years(1) 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 respectively.
The LSC does not maintain records of the number of consultants employed to provide the associated activities. The internal management of bodies providing consultancy services to the LSC, or funded by the LSC for the benefit of stakeholders/learners, is a matter for the consultancy provider. The LSC does not, in normal circumstances, review the allocation of external organisations’ resources, unless there is a demonstrable risk to the quality of service being delivered.
I trust you will find this information useful.
(1) The Learning and Skills Council’s (LSC) financial year covers the period 1 April to 31 March.
Pupil-Teacher Ratios
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the secondary school pupil to teacher ratio was in (a) England and (b) the East Riding of Yorkshire in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [78994]
Jim Knight: The available information is given in the following table.
| Pupil teacher ratios in maintained secondary schools in England and East Riding of Yorkshire local authority, January of each year | ||
| England | East Riding of Yorkshire | |
| n/a = not available (1) Provisional Source: Annual school census | ||
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the secondary school pupil to teacher ratio was in (a) Torbay, (b) Plymouth and (c) England in each year since 1997. [77867]
Jim Knight: The available information is given in the following table:
| Pupil:teacher ratios in maintained secondary schools in Torbay and Plymouth local authorities and England | |||
| January of each year | Torbay | Plymouth | England |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Provisional. Source: Annual school census. | |||
RAISEonline
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what consultation his Department has conducted with school governors regarding the replacement of performance and assessment reports with RAISEonline; and what assessment he has made of the likely effect on governors of the change. [78643]
Jim Knight: The main purposes of the RAISEonline system being developed jointly by my Department and Ofsted are to assist in school self evaluation, to provide the data to underpin school improvement and to inform the school inspection process. Consultations so far, involving around 750 schools, have concentrated on the presentation, data management and training aspects of the system.
RAISEonline will be available to all schools on a trial basis in July, but will not be used to inform inspections until the 2006 data are available in the autumn. During that period we will be consulting national governor organisations on the information which will be available in the system and the ways in which information can be shared with them by head teachers. Ofsted encourages heads to share their performance and assessment (PANDA) report with their governors. RAISEonline will include a full report similar to the PANDA which will be easy to print off and distribute to governors.
School Administration
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many tasks identified by the Making a Difference-Red Tape and Bureaucracy In Schools Second Report have been removed; [78571]
(2) whether he plans to publish a further report pursuant to Making a Difference-Red Tape and Bureaucracy in Schools 2003, which reviews the impact of initiatives introduced since this publication. [78579]
Jim Knight
[holding answer 19 June 2006]: The DfES Simplification Plan that will be published later in the year will detail reductions in bureaucracy and administrative burdens that are referred to in this report, some of which have been superseded. The Simplification Plan will detail policies for reducing burdens on ‘front line’ staff working in the area of education and training
across all sectors: public, voluntary, businesses and charities. In schools, our intention is that the Simplification Plan will cover reduced communications from the centre; the New Relationships with Schools programme; funding rationalisation; simplified inspection; less data requests and simplification arising from the Education Act.
As a Department, we remain determined to make sure our policies have the maximum impact on standards with the minimum burden on schools. That is why we set up the Implementation Review Unit in April 2003 to review the implementation of existing and new policy initiatives, covering all organisations that impact on schools in England. The panel provides feedback on policy implementation, challenges existing systems, and is a sounding board on innovation.
The Department is also developing the New Relationship with Schools. This has led to a new framework for school inspection and introduced School Improvement Partners to work with headteachers to raise standards and attainment. We have also developed a data protocol with many external partners, to ensure that only essential data is collected, that they are collected by sample wherever possible and that they are collected only once and then used many times.
School Budgets
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total schools budget is of each local authority for 2005-06; and what proportion is delegated to schools in each authority. [78617]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not yet available. The Department is due to collect the section 52 Outturn data relating to the 2005-06 financial year from August 2006.
Schoolchildren
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children there are in mainstream schools in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) the Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. [79324]
Jim Knight: The requested information is given in the table.
| Maintained mainstream schools: Number (headcount) and percentage of pupils( 1 ) position in January each year—2005 and 2006 (Provisional) | ||||
| 2005 | 2006 (Provisional) | |||
| Number of pupils in mainstream schools( 2) | Percentage of pupils in mainstream schools( 3) | Number of pupils in mainstream schools( 2) | Percentage of pupils in mainstream schools( 3) | |
| (1 )Excludes dually registered pupils. (2) Includes pupils in maintained nursery schools, primary schools and secondary schools; excludes pupils in independent schools, city technology colleges, academies, special schools and pupil referral units. (3) The number of pupils in maintained mainstream schools expressed as a percentage of pupils across ail schools. (4 )Includes Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington local authorities. Note: Pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Schools' Census | ||||
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