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8 Nov 2006 : Column 1709W—continued
Departmental Vacancies
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what proportion of vacancies in his Department in the last 12 months required candidates to have at least a grade C in (a) English and (b) mathematics GCSE; [96751]
(2) whether his Department recognises the International GCSE as an acceptable substitute for a GCSE for the purposes of recruitment. [96724]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department's recruitment profile is predominantly at graduate/post graduate level. The Department does not recruit on the basis of qualifications alone but we would recognise the International GCSE. Where a candidate has declared having qualifications on an application form, this information will have been checked and verified on an individual basis as part of the recruitment and selection process.
At present, information about qualifications is not held on the Department's human resource information system and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
E2E Programme
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the hourly rate of pay is on the post-school training programme E2E; what the hourly rate was in the predecessor scheme; when the reduction in the rate of pay was implemented; how many people are participating in the new scheme; how many people participated in the predecessor scheme; how many people have gone into full-time employment on leaving the E2E scheme since its introduction; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in the length of the E2E scheme. [100310]
Phil Hope: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Early Years Education
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children under school age in Islington, North constituency are in full-time pre-school places; how many are in (a) children centres, (b) private nurseries and (c) child nurseries; and what the figures were in each of the last four years. [99677]
Beverley Hughes: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Education Funding
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding per pupil is available to (a) schools, (b) sixth forms and (c) further education colleges in the Coventry, South Region in the 2006-07 academic year; and what steps his Department is taking to promote volunteering. [94737]
Jim Knight [holding answer 19 October 2006]: The Dedicated School Grant of £3,696 is the guaranteed unit of funding which was allocated per pupil in Coventry for 2006-07 (covering pupils aged 3 to 19 in schools). The figure does not include capital or grants. This is the level of funding which applies to all of Coventry LEA, rather than districts in an LEA. It is not possible to distinguish figures for sixth formers from 11 to 16-year-old secondary pupils.
The Learning and Skills Council are responsible for funding schools sixth forms and FE and sixth form colleges. The allocation of funding in local areas relate to the LSC's operational responsibilities and the LSC's chief executive, Mark Haysom, will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested for Coventry area.
The policy on volunteering is now the responsibility of the Cabinet Office.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 6 November 2006:
I am writing to follow up the reply given to you by Jim Knight, the Minister of State for Schools, in response to your question regarding levels of pupil funding.
Mr Knight provided you with details of the levels of funding per pupil for those in schools and asked me to give you detail on the figures for young people in the further education and work-based learning system.
I understand that you are meeting with Mike Bell, the LSC Area Director for Coventry and Warwickshire, on 10th November. Mike's team is collecting the detailed information you require and, if it is acceptable to you, I will ask Mike to give you the information when you meet.
I will of course ask Mike to keep me informed of any further questions or issues that may arise during your discussion.
I would be grateful if your office could let me know if this approach is acceptable to you so that I can keep Mike and his team informed.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what grant schemes are available in (a) all education authority areas and (b) Havering local education authority area for colleges; and which colleges have taken advantage of those schemes. [97722]
Phil Hope:
Further education (FE) colleges in England are funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) principally on a Grant-in-Aid basis. As independent bodies colleges may also receive funding from a number of other public and non-public sources, including the European Social Fund and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The LSC is funded by the Department for post-16 education and training in England and its budget is outlined in an annual grant letter to the chairman of the LSC. The LSC's budget for 2007-08 is £11.4 billion, an increase of 4 per cent over the previous year. In addition to the core FE allocation, colleges may receive LSC funding for a number of other programmes and initiatives.
These include: Train to Gain; Work Based Learning; Entry to Employment; Personal and Community Development Learning; Learner Support Funds; Offenders' Learning and Skills Service; Skills initiatives; Quality Reform and Capacity and Infrastructure programmes. Details of the funding allocations to colleges for the main programmes are published on the LSC's website: www.lsc.gov.uk. Colleges may also apply to the LSC for grant support for capital development projects.
Programme and initiative level information for individual colleges is not collected centrally by my Department. The LSC determines this level of funding. This is an operational matter for the LSC. Mark Haysom, the Council's chief executive, will write to the hon. Member on this matter. A copy of his reply will be placed in the House Library.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) males and (b) females are receiving education maintenance allowance in each (i) London borough and (ii) authority in Essex, broken down by age; what the figures were in each of the last three years for which figures are available; under what legislation this allowance is payable; what restrictions are placed on its payment; what recent representations he has received about the allowance; whether he has any plans to increase the allowance; and if he will make a statement. [97938]
Phil Hope: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) operate education maintenance allowances (EMAs) for the DfES and would normally provide information about take-up of the scheme. Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received one or more EM A payment is available at local authority (LA) level, but not at a lower level.
The following table gives EMA take-up data for each of the London and Essex local authorities for the 2004/05, 2005/06 and 2006/07 academic years. The data is split by gender and age. Gender is not a mandatory field on the EMA application form and so there are a number of learners whose gender is not-specified.
The administrative scheme arrangements for EMA are made under Section 14 of the Education Act 2002.
Restrictions are in place when applying for EMA as set out in detail in the scheme arrangements. Applicants must fulfil specific income, age and residency requirements before being deemed eligible for EMA. Furthermore, there are some restrictions relating to the payment of EMA. When a young person is enrolled they must agree a Contract Part 1 with their learning provider which sets out the responsibilities of both parties for the learner to receive a weekly payment. The learner is required to attend as per the timetable set out with their learning provider in order to be paid each week. If the provider deems any absences to be authorised then the young person may still receive an EMA payment for that week. It is for the learning provider to make weekly payment decisions for all EMA learners. Further details can be found in the scheme arrangements and in the EMA guidance document which are available on the EMA website at:
www.directgov.uk/ema.
There are currently no plans to increase EMA, however, the household income thresholds were increased for applications that are based on the 2005-06 tax year. This has increased the number of households eligible for EMA.
Since 1 August 2006 the Department has received nine parliamentary questions (PQs), including this particular question and 59 pieces of correspondence as follows:
| Category | Amount of correspondence received |
| PQ category | Number of PQs received |
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