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16 Oct 2006 : Column 940W—continued
Jim Knight:
Schools and local authorities employ a range of measures to support such pupils. These include pastoral support programmes, learning
mentors and behaviour support workers in schools, managed moves to another school where appropriate, learning support units in schools and parenting orders or contracts where there is evidence of poor parenting.
Many schools are working together in partnerships, with funding devolved from local authorities, to improve behaviour and tackle persistent truancy. We expect all secondary schools to be working together in this way by September 2007 and evidence from existing partnerships shows that they have made significant reductions in the need to exclude pupils.
The Every Child Matters and Youth Matters reform programmes are refocusing children and young people's services to deliver early intervention and prevention of social exclusion, antisocial behaviour and other entrenched problems. We are putting in place more positive things to do and better places to go for young people in the community, improving the support available to parents and reforming targeted youth support for vulnerable teenagers.
Schools (Science)
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the designation of a school as a specialist science school on the number of pupils undertaking A-levels in science subjects. [89228]
Jim Knight: There has been no assessment of the effect of science college status on the number of pupils taking science A-levels. Science colleges are expected to set targets for the percentage of students attaining relevant qualifications post-16, including A-levels. Progress against these targets will be important considerations when schools seek resignation of specialist status.
The recent “Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014: Next Steps” document sets out a range of activities the Government are putting in place to encourage more pupils to study science at A-level and beyond.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school-aged children have had a dual placement in both a special school and a mainstream school in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [90278]
Jim Knight: The available information on the number of pupils of compulsory school age with dual registration status is given in the table.
Pupils who are dually registered at two schools will generally spend more time at one school (dual “main” registration) than at the other (dual “subsidiary” registration). A detailed breakdown of dual registrations is not available from all school types.
| Maintained primary, secondary and all special schools, pupil referral units and independent schools number of dually registered pupils. Position in January each year: 2002 to 2006—England | |||||||||
| Headcount of pupils aged five to 15( 1) | |||||||||
| Maintained primary and secondary schools( 2) | Maintained special schools (excluding general hospital) | General hospital schools | Non-maintained special schools | Pupil referral units | Independent schools | ||||
| Dual (Main) | Dual (Subsidiary) | Dual (Main) | Dual (Subsidiary) | Dual( 4) | Dual (Main) | Dual (Subsidiary) | Dual( 4) | Dual( 4) | |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Age at the start of the school year. (2) Includes middle schools as deemed. (3) Due to differences and changes in the underlying data collection, the number of pupils with dual subsidiary registration are not available for non-maintained special schools for 2002, and general hospital schools for all years. (4) Includes both main and subsidiary dual registrations. (5) One or two pupils. Note: Pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Schools’ Census | |||||||||
Student Loans
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people owe money to the Student Loans Company, broken down by those who owe (a) £1,000-£3,000, (b) £3,001-£6,000, (c) £6,001-£10,000, (d) £10,001-£15,000 and (e) over £15,001. [92068]
Bill Rammell: The table shows UK borrowers with publicly-owned student loans in March 2006 by bands of amount owed.
| £000 | ||
| Income-contingent loans | Mortgage-style loans | |
| Source: Student Loans Company | ||
The table shows all borrowers, including those not yet due to repay and those below the relevant income threshold for repayment who entered higher education up to academic year 2005/06. Borrowers are shown by the size of their loan balance in March 2006.
Summer Schools (Disabled People)
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what consultation there was with the Department for Education and Skills on the closure of Bristol University’s summer schools for disabled people. [92054]
Bill Rammell: There have been no consultations between the Department and the University of Bristol on this issue. Since universities are autonomous and independent bodies, decisions about the type of provision to offer students are a matter for institutions themselves.
Sure Start
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many Sure Start programmes there are; and how many children are covered by such programmes in (a) each constituency and (b) county. [93893]
Beverley Hughes: There were 524 Sure Start local programmes in England covering over 420,000 children under four. Over 400 of these are now designated as Sure Start children’s centres and we expect all Sure Start local programmes to become children’s centres in due course and contribute to our target to create 3,500 children’s centres by 2010. The 1,000(th) children’s centre was awarded recently, seeking out interim milestone ahead of schedule.
We do not hold information on the constituencies or counties covered by each local programme. The following table lists the number of Sure Start local programmes in each local authority and the number of children under four covered.
| Local authority | Number of local programmes | Children covered |
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