Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Education and Skills
Question 65-75 (Chairman): The Department's
approach to sustainability covering particularly school buildings,
school meals and extended schools
INTRODUCTION
The Department fully recognises its responsibility
in promoting sustainable development in the classroom and in its
own policies and actions. The topic of Education for Sustainable
Development has already been the subject of a detailed inquiry
by the Environmental Audit Committee, and the Government submitted
its response in June 2005 in Cm 6594.
The Department is in the process of establishing
a full website on sustainability. This site will bring together
sources of advice and practical support for teachers, school heads
and governors. The Sustainable Schools website will provide
an on-line community, disseminate good practice and offer a shop
window for many schemes to promote their service to schools. Until
this is fully developed two temporary pages are in place:
— http://www.dfes.gov.uk/aboutus/sd/action.shtml
summarises what the Department is doing to contribute to sustainable
development in the whole education field; while
— http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sd/curriculum/
gives advice on how sustainable development can be reinforced
in the classroom lessons across the whole curriculum. Four subjects
have sustainable development integrated in the statutory component
of the National Curriculum—science, citizenship/personal
and social health education, design and technology, and geography.
The site also gives suggestions on how sustainable development
can also be covered in other subjects.
There is no one budget for sustainable development.
There is a number of areas where sustainability can be promoted
or practised within the overall funds available to schools and
educational bodies. Thus schools and other bodies should use their
funding in promoting sustainability issues in the wide classroom
curriculum, and encourage school management to adopt sustainable
practices.
The Department gave grants of £938,100
to Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) for environmental activity
with schools in 2004-05. The Department and the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have commissioned
an independent review of funding for Education for Sustainable
Development. The final report should be published in December
but both the Department and Defra agree that following publication
of the report there will be a need for closer joint working, clear
and strategic treatment of Education for Sustainable Development
and engagement with NGOs. The detail of what this actually entails
will flow from the recommendations of the review.
Early next year we expect to be going to public
consultation on our Strategy for Sustainable Schools which
follows on from the Sustainable Development Action Plan
for Education and Skills launched by Charles Clarke, as Secretary
of State, in 2003. The Strategy will encourage all schools to
become much more sustainable in their curriculum, the school's
operation, and in the school's links to the community
SCHOOL BUILDINGS
We are supporting capital investment of £5.5
billion this year, rising to £6.3 billion by 2007-08. This
includes the Building Schools for the Future programme
which it is planned will invest over £2 billion a year for
the next 15 years in school buildings that will meet tough environmental
targets. It is a requirement for all new schools and large refurbishment
projects over £500,000 in the case of primary schools, and
£2 million in the case of secondary schools, to achieve a
BREEAM Schools rating of "Very Good". The Building
Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)
is one of the Common Minimum Standards (CMS) for government procurement
of building works which have been drawn up by the Office of Government
Commerce.
We expect the BREEAM Schools requirement
to be cost neutral, as many of the choices made in early design,
which decide how sustainable a school's buildings are, have little
or no cost.
Schools also have to comply with the new European
Energy Performance of Building Directive to be implemented by
2006. The new revision of Building Regulations, Part L2, Conservation
of Fuel and Power, being introduced in 2006 and new planning
requirements on sustainable communities and renewable energy will
also make schools and other buildings much more sustainable. The
improved energy performance of school buildings will help us to
meet our carbon dioxide reduction targets. Although meeting these
enhanced requirements will result in a small increase in the capital
cost of projects, over the lifetime of the buildings the energy
cost savings will greatly outweigh the increase in initial capital
costs.
SCHOOL MEALSIt
is the Government's expectation that local authorities will lead,
in partnership with other local stakeholders—particularly
parents, schools and health services—the development and
implementation of a local strategy to deliver a high quality,
sustainable school meals service, which at least meets the nutritional
standards for school meals that will become mandatory in September
2006. £130 million will be allocated to local authorities
over three years to ensure that they can plan their transformation
programmes well in advance of the minimum nutrition standards
becoming mandatory in September 2006. We have set as a condition
of funding that this strategy should include plans to begin the
reintroduction of universal hot meals provision, where it does
not already exist, by September 2008.
In addition £90 million will be granted
direct to schools over three years to enable them to fund local
improvements such as increased training and working hours for
school cooks.
EXTENDED SCHOOLS
The Government is supporting the development
of extended schools with funding of £840 million between
2003 and 2008—£160 million has already been allocated,
and the Government announced in June 2005 a further £680
million for 2006-08. Of the £680 million, £250 million
will go direct to schools through the normal school funding arrangements.
The remaining £430 million will be distributed by local authorities
who will be able to prioritise the allocation of resources according
to need and their plans for the development of extended services.
For some extended services, such as childcare,
we expect them to become sustainable longer term by charging.
Parents on low income may be eligible for the childcare element
of the working tax credit to support the cost of school based
childcare.
In addition to resources that schools already
have in their baseline budgets for study support programmes, the
Government is investing a further £335 million by 2007-08
for secondary schools to develop a more personalised programme
of study support. For those schools with the highest number of
pupils who have fallen behind in their learning, the Government
will provide a further £60 million shared between the primary
and secondary sectors in each of 2006-07 and 2007-08.
For other services such as health and social
care and adult learning opportunities, local authorities, using
children's trust arrangements, will provide resources to support
services where appropriate.
The Government wants all schools to offer access
to extended services by 2010 with half of all primary schools
and a third of all secondary schools doing so by 2008. The core
offer will comprise of:
— high quality childcare, 8 am-6 pm
all year round;
— varied menu of study support activities;
— swift and easy referral to a wide
range of specialist support services; and
— providing wider community access
to ICT, sports and arts facilities including adult learning.
Question 99-100 (Chairman): The headquarter locations
of the Sector Skills Councils
Sector Skills Councils are strategic employer-led
bodies. Licensed by the Government they are leading the drive
to improve competitiveness and productivity in industry and business
sectors across the UK. At 1 December 2005, 25 councils had been
awarded five year licences:
|
| Sector Skills Council | Sector
| Location of
head office
|
|
| Asset Skills | Property services, housing, cleaning services and facilities management
| Exeter |
| Automotive Skills | The retail motor industry
| London W1 |
| Cogent | Chemical, nuclear, oil and gas, petroleum and polymer industries
| Aberdeen |
| ConstructionSkills | Construction
| Kings Lynn |
| Creative and Cultural Skills | The Arts, Museums and galleries, heritage, crafts and design, advertising
| London SE1 |
| Energy and Utility Skills | Electricity, gas, waste management and
water industries
| Solihull |
| e-skills UK | Information technology, telecommunications and contact centres
| London SW1 |
| Financial Services Skills Council | Financial services industry
| London EC2 |
| GoSkills | Passenger transport
| Solihull |
| Government Skills | Government Departments, executive agencies, Non-Departmental Public Bodies and the Armed Forces
| London SW1 |
| Improve Ltd | Food and drink manufacturing and processing
| York |
| Lantra | Environmental and land based industries
| Coventry |
| Lifelong Learning UK | Community learning, further and higher education, library and information services, work-based learning.
| London EC4 |
| People 1st | Hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism
| Uxbridge |
| Proskills UK | Processing and manufacturing industries
| Abingdon |
| SEMTA | Science, engineering and manufacturing technologies
| Watford |
| Skillfast-UK | Apparel, footware and textiles industries
| Leeds |
| Skills for Care and Development | Social care, children, families and young people
| Leeds |
| Skills for Health | The health sector across the UK
| Bristol |
| Skills for Justice | Custodial care, community justice, court services, customs and excise, police
| Sheffield |
| Skills for Logistics | Freight logistics industry
| Milton Keynes |
| SkillsActive | Active leisure and learning
| London WC1 |
| Skillset | Audio visual industries
| London WC1 |
| Skillsmart Retail | Retail |
London W1 |
| SummitSkills | Building services engineering
| Milton Keynes |
|
| Question 106-107 (Mr Marsden): Relocations that have taken place so far under the Lyons dispersal programme
|
In July 2004, the Department made a commitment to relocate
out of London and the South East around 800 posts from DfES and
its partner organisations by 2010. We are confident that we will
meet this commitment.
Our strategy for achieving relocations is being taken forward
alongside the Department's national estates strategy to ensure
we achieve efficient and effective results for the business needs
of the Department and its partners.
A total of 94 posts have been moved out of London and the
South East so far, comprising:
— 79 DfES posts, including six Senior Civil Service
(SCS) posts, working on the Centre for Procurement Performance,
the Public Communications Unit and in the finance, facilities
management and human resource divisions, now based in Sheffield,
Runcorn or Darlington; and
— 15 Children and Family Court Advisory and Support
Service (CAFCASS) posts, including three Deputy Regional Director
posts, working on corporate services, now based in regional offices.
Projects to relocate a further 300 posts are under way and
will be complete by April 2006, including:
— at least 230 posts in Ofsted moving to their regional
offices in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, including a number
of SCS and Team Leader posts; and
— around 70 posts in the Quality Improvement Agency
(replacing the Learning and Skills Development Agency) are moving
to Coventry, including the CEO, three Directors and other senior
management posts.
Other relocations, which will meet the target of 800 posts
by 2010, will result from plans being drawn up with the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority, the Training and Development Agency
for Schools and other Non-Departmental Public Body partners.
Question 108 (Mr Wilson): The use of consultants in the Department
We have always been clear that the Department will continue
to use consultants and other specialists where the need arises—like
any other organisation. We are also clear about the importance
of using consultancy where there is a proper business reason for
doing so and where we can be sure we are getting good value for
money.
A review of the engagement and use of consultants was commissioned
by the Department's Audit Committee, which is chaired by a non-executive
member of the Board. The Department's Internal Audit Division
and the National Audit Office (NAO) carried out the review in
late 2004 and early 2005 and a good practice guide was published
subsequently by the NAO. This was circulated to senior managers
in the Department and placed on the Department's internal guidance
website. It has also been placed in the House of Commons Library.
The guide provides advice on: the advantages of the appropriate
use of consultants; classification of consultancy costs; contract
management and post contract evaluation; and the implementation
of consultants' recommendations.
The term "consultant" does not, of course, just
cover the conventional management consultant who traditionally
has had strong links to accounting concerns and accountancy bodies.
There is a role for them in the Department to ensure our systems
of operations are efficient and effective, but the term is used
much more widely to cover a range of people from education, training,
and children's services who support the Department's work. These
will include front line practitioners (eg head teachers and teachers)
whom we are using to increase our expertise on school and other
education related issues, for example on school improvement and
how best to raise levels of pupil achievement.
We are able to tap into first-hand, current expertise in
a focused fashion, while not necessarily removing staff completely
from the school system. Areas where practitioners have played
a key role include:
— as chairs for School Improvement Partnership Boards,
established to give direction and challenge to schools in difficult
circumstances;
— engaging with policy design, for example a consultant
head teacher from West Sussex, engaged part-time to ensure that
her early experiences as a School Improvement Partner inform the
work as it is developed nationally;
— London Challenge advisers, acknowledged education
experts, offering direct challenge and support to "Keys to
Success" schools; and
— advisers to new Academies helping to make transformational
changes, particularly in standards, necessary in the most deprived
areas.
Specialist educational consultants provide us with expert
advice and guidance in developing teaching and learning materials
to support life long learning and skills provision, including:
adult and community learning; multi-media; business studies; Post-16
e-learning; and ITC user skills. There is also some high level
work in progress by Sir Andrew Foster on learning and skills transformation.
Children's Services Improvement Advisers have been recruited
from a range of backgrounds (mostly on secondment or fixed term
appointment) to provide expertise and strengthen links with the
bodies from which they have come. They have a strategic role in
helping to promote and embed policies, supporting and challenging
as appropriate. Their challenge and support role is more intensive
when the Department is intervening on a formal basis, following
inspection. As well as helping to embed policies, the advisers
feed back to the Department information on the progress of reform,
which contributes to future policy development and identification
of good practice.
The Department spent £4.7 million of its administrative
budget in 2003-04 on consultancy as defined by the Office for
Government Commerce, which excludes external policy experts brought
in to support policy delivery, and £3.9 million in 2004-05.
Spending on consultancy from programme budgets was not recorded
centrally before November 2004; however, from November 2004-March
2005 (five months) the Department spent £4.4 million. In
the seven months to the end of October 2005, the Department has
spent £1.5 million from its administrative budget and £5.1
million from programme budgets on consultancy.
From November 2004 the Department refined its accounting
system which allowed it to identify more securely expenditure
on external policy experts. Analysis of the data shows that the
Department spent £9.5 million in this way between November
2004 and March 2005 and £4.2 million between April 2005 and
October 2005.
December 2005
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