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25 July 2006 : Column 1435W—continued
Collective Worship in Schools
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children have opted out of collective worship in schools in (a) Surrey and (b) England in each year since 1997. [88722]
Jim Knight: We do not collect this information centrally.
Common Assessment Framework Submission
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how other practitioners will be prevented from accessing the restricted parts of the form where a parent or young person has given consent only for part at a common assessment framework submission to be shared; and how notice of a restriction will be signalled. [88047]
Beverley Hughes:
A practitioner undertaking a common assessment should record on the common assessment framework (CAP) form the details of consent, or partial consent, that has been given to share information. It is the responsibility of the individual practitioner completing the common assessment to
ensure that the information in it is not disclosed to those who should not see it. My Department has published standards for local IT systems to support CAP, which provide for practitioners to be prevented from accessing CAP information where consent has not been given.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what happens to the written submissions by agencies involved in children’s services made under the common assessment framework. [88049]
Beverley Hughes: Where agencies contribute by written submission, the practitioner undertaking the common assessment may reflect the content of the submission in the common assessment, subject to the consent of the child, young person, parent or carer, as appropriate. The practitioner undertaking the common assessment may retain such submissions in his or her case files, subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the paperwork produced when a practitioner carries out a Common Assessment Framework assessment on a child will be submitted direct to the Integrated Children’s System. [88050]
Beverley Hughes: The Integrated Children’s System (ICS) and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) have been developed for different client groups, which overlap only to a limited extent. The ICS contains a record for children known to social services. Many children who have had an assessment using the CAF will not be known to social services, and common assessment information on these children will not be submitted to the ICS. Where, following a common assessment, a child requires the support of social services, the information from the common assessment may be submitted to the ICS where it is appropriate to do so.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what procedures are followed when two or more practitioners want to share the contents of a Common Assessment Framework. [88051]
Beverley Hughes: Where a practitioner, in undertaking a common assessment, has obtained consent for the content to be shared with other practitioners, the appropriate consent will be recorded. How information will be shared may vary according to local circumstances and whether the Common Assessment Framework exists in paper form only or has been recorded on an IT system. However the information is shared, services and practitioners must ensure that information is kept securely and processed according to the provisions of the Data Protection Act. For local authorities who choose to set up local IT systems to support the Common Assessment Framework, my Department has published standards for such systems which provide for a practitioner to specify by name another practitioner who may then have access.
The Department has also issued cross-Government guidance to help practitioners across children’s services understand when and how they can share information legally and professionally.
Departmental Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people over the age of 55 years have been recruited into his Department in each of the last three years. [77279]
Mr. Dhanda [pursuant to the reply, 5 July 2006, Official Report, c. 1225W]: The number of people over the age of 55 years who have been recruited into my Department in each of the last three years is:
| Number | |
These replace the previous numbers given.
Life Expectancy
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to tackle low life expectancy in areas of deprivation. [87007]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 20 July 2006]: This Department makes a significant contribution to reducing low life expectancy through our programmes for children, young people and their families.
Every Child Matters: Change for Children requires all local authorities in England to establish children’s trust arrangements with partners, including Primary Care Trusts and other health services.
This approach ensures that children get the best possible start in life and that they will have the best possible opportunities to fulfil their potential in adulthood. Adults who live fulfilled, secure and stable lives contribute more to society, live healthier lives and are less likely to suffer from the illnesses associated with poverty and social exclusion and which reduce life expectancy.
Although our aim is for all children to benefit from the universal services, we recognise that some children, including those in areas of deprivation, would risk having a lower life expectancy than they might unless there are services to meet their particular needs.
This department is responsible for, or together with other departments makes a significant contribution to, initiatives which can reduce those risks:
Support for parents and their parenting skills. Parents’ life style is a key determinant of children’s health, and children’s centres provide support, including on health and lifestyle issues, to those parents who need it. The first 884 children’s centres have been established serving many of our most disadvantaged communities;
Eradicating child poverty: Children born into poverty have a lower life expectancy. Childcare, education and training and
other high quality children’s services are both helping parents into work and providing the opportunities to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty;
Reducing pregnancies among under-18s: infant mortality rates are highest among babies born to young, single mothers;
Implementing nutritional standards for all food in schools to promote healthy eating;
Increasing the take up of physical education, sport and other physical activities at school, including increasing walking and cycling to and from school, to encourage healthy exercise;
Promoting improvements in mental health and emotional well-being for children and young people, so that they are resilient and less likely to take risks or suffer that some poor outcomes;
Tackling childhood obesity in the short-term, and measures to prevent overweight or obese children becoming obese adults: obesity is responsible for 9,000 premature deaths each year;
Ensuring children and young people learn about the risks to their health from unsafe sexual activity, tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse, and how they can get help if they have problems.
This Department has made health inequalities a mandatory target for local authorities in Local Area Agreements (LAAs).
Drugs Education
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what improvements have been made to drugs education in schools since the re-classification of cannabis. [88021]
Mr. Dhanda: Following the re-classification of cannabis in January 2004 the Department issued comprehensive guidance to schools on drugs (Drugs: Guidance for Schools) which included a clear statement about the importance of educating young people about the legal status and harmful effects of cannabis. We have continued to expand the Personal, Social and Heath Education (PSHE) continuing professional development programme, which includes standards for the teaching of drug education. Over 5,000 teachers and community nurses have benefited from this programme. The numbers of schools involved in the Healthy Schools Programme, which requires schools to have a PSHE programme including drug education, continues to rise. We are on track to reach our target of half of all schools being healthy schools by the end of 2006. In conjunction with the Home Office and Department of Health we have concluded the implementation of the Blueprint drug education research programme and are now analysing the research findings. Blueprint was set up to evaluate an evidence-based multi-component programme of drug education at Key Stage 3. From September secondary schools will have access to a new resource. ‘Understanding Drugs’ provides information on a range of drugs, including cannabis, for pupils aged 11-14 and suggestions for teaching and learning activities within the classroom.
Early-leaver Students
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many and what percentage of students left (a) university and (b) Russell group universities before completion of their course in each of the last five years for which records are available; [88590]
(2) what average percentage of students left non-Russell group universities before completion of their course in each of the last five years for which records are available. [88591]
Bill Rammell: The information is provided by Table 5 of the Performance Indicators in Higher Education in the UK, published by HESA from 2002/03 and by HEFCE before that. This shows the percentage of full-time, first degree entrants projected to gain their degree, transfer to another course and to neither obtain their degree nor transfer. The latest available figures are shown in the tables.
| Full-time first degree entrants expected to neither obtain an award nor transfer | |||||
| Number | |||||
| Courses starting in: | 1999/2000 | 2000/01 | 2001/02 | 2002/03 | 2003/04 |
| Note: Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 so components may not sum to totals. Source: Performance indicators in higher education, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |||||
| Full-time first degree entrants expected to neither obtain an award nor transfer | |||||
| Percentage | |||||
| Courses starting in: | 2000/01 | 2001/02 | 2002/03 | 2003/04 | 2004/05 |
| Note: Percentages are rounded to the first decimal place. Source: Performance indicators in higher education, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |||||
According to figures published by the OECD, the overall completion rate in UK universities and colleges of higher education is among the highest in the OECD countries.
EU Emissions Trading Scheme
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost of (a) administrating and (b) buying allocations for all universities included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme was in its first year of operation. [82737]
Bill Rammell: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Every Child Matters
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what organistional structures his Department supports in developing the proposals in Every Child Matters; and if he will make a statement. [87359]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 24 July 2006]: The local delivery of Every Child Matters is driven by local authority Directors of Children’s Services and Lead Members for Children’s Services working closely with a range of partners through children’s trust arrangements. These arrangements are underpinned by Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 which places the local authority and ‘relevant partners’ under a duty to cooperate to improve children’s well-being in relation to the five Every Child Matters outcomes. Children and Young People’s Plans set out the priorities for improvement, across all local services affecting children and young people, showing how and when they will be achieved. Support and challenge by central Government are mainly provided through the nine regional Government Offices.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how he expects that local authorities will collect data linked to the five outcomes in Every Child Matters when assessing targets and public service agreements; and on what databases that information will be stored. [88048]
Beverley Hughes: Local authorities record data on their performance across the five outcomes through a number of collections that are returned to the DfES. A number of local authorities are now storing information about the five outcomes on children's service databases, and we expect this to become the norm as all local authorities adopt children's services structures. DfES accesses local authorities' children's services data via the internet.
Some of the data collected relate to performance indicators for either an outcome (such as educational attainment) or for a service (for looked after children, for example). In turn, a subset of these performance indicators relate to PSA targets. The performance indicators are used to help form the annual judgment of children's services in the annual performance assessment. The APA dataset is sent to authorities by Ofsted and CSCI, who conduct the APA.
Examinations
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 16 year olds achieved five GCSE passes in each London borough in each year since 1997. [87640]
Jim Knight: The following table shows the number of 15-year-old(1) pupils achieving five or more GCSEs or equivalents at grades A* to G in maintained schools in each year since 1997.
(1) Pupils aged 15 at the start of the academic year i.e. 31 August
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