Memorandum from the Department for Education
and Skills
In view of the recent press comment about the
expenditure on improving on improving school attendance I thought
it would be helpful to send you a breakdown of the £885 million
which the Department spent that were intended, at least in part,
to reduce absence. This sum appears in paragraph 4 of the NAO
Report.
A large part of this was spent on programmes
which had the combined purpose of improving behaviour and attendance
and on reducing exclusions.
TABLE OF BEHAVIOUR, INCLUSION AND ATTENDANCE
RELATED INITIATIVES
| Initiative | 1997-98 to
2003-04
(£m)
| 2004-05 to
2005-06
(£m)
| Main activities funded |
| Excellence in Cities: Learning Mentors and Learning Support Units
| 444.0 | 295.2 | Helps pupils with behavioural issues, poor attendance and weak learning skills. There are around 10,000 mentors in schools. There are over 1,000 learning support units.
|
| Behaviour grant | 21.8 |
n/a | Grant for LEAs to deal with inclusion issues, children with poor attendance records and to support behaviour management for pupils at risk of exclusion.
|
| Behaviour Improvement Programme | 115.2
| 216.1 | Provides extra funding to LEAs for measures to support selected schools facing greatest behaviour and attendance challenges (about 1,500 schools now extended to about 2,000 in 2005-06).
Measures typically include multi-agency Behaviour and Education Support Teams (BESTs), extra learning mentors and learning support units and police in schools.
|
| KS3 Behaviour and Attendance strand | 24.4
| 48.8 | Provides B&A audit and training materials, training days for school staff and expert B&A Consultants (at least one in every LEA) to help schools with audit, action planning and training.
|
| Electronic registration (part of Capital Modernisation Fund)
| 11.2 | n/a | Provided funding assistance to secondary schools with higher than average rates of unauthorised absence to purchase electronic registration systems. 530 schools have been allocated funding.
|
| School Inclusion: Pupil Support grant | 268.0
| n/a | A grant for LEAs to reduce exclusions and truancy: supported the education of pupils excluded for 15 days or more for example in pupil referral units or other forms of alternative provision. Grant also assisted schools, pupil referral units and the youth service in delivering education about drugs.
|
| Total | 884.6
| 560.1 | |
Sir David Normington KCB
Permanent Secretary
Department for Education and Skills
24 February 2005
|
