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12 Dec 2006 : Column 1011W—continued
some elements of special funding. This includes, for example, Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs); National Teaching Fellowship Scheme; Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund.
FECs may also attract funding for HE activity from other Government Departments and non-departmental public bodies.
Health School Status
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools and (b) colleges in England have achieved health school status. [105102]
Mr. Dhanda: By 6 December 2006 9,392 primary schools and 1,416 secondary schools had become healthy schools. The Choosing Health White Paper (2004) set a target of half of all schools becoming healthy schools by the end of 2006. This target has already been reached.
Further education colleges are not included in the National Healthy Schools programme.
Higher Education Funding Council
Mr. Boris Johnson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures he has taken to correlate the proposed regional structure of the
Learning and Skills Council with the regional structure of the Higher Education Funding Council for England; what consultation has taken place on this matter; at what cost; and if he will make a statement. [105513]
Bill Rammell: In May of this year the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) launched its Higher Education strategy—“Partnership, Provision, Participation and Progression”. A key part of this strategy is to continue to develop partnership working with HEFCE, and to continue to support the higher education sector in achieving the public service agreement target to raise the HE participation rate of 18 to 30-year-olds towards 50 per cent. by 2010.
The Chairs and Chief Executives of the LSC and HEFCE meet regularly, as do their regional officials, to explore how partnership working can be enhanced across a range of areas and how the regional structures of the two agencies can work more effectively together.
The LSC announced its regional management structure in January 2004 which allowed it to engage more effectively with regional partners, while reducing bureaucracy. Both the LSC and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) are organised in ways which take account of the nine English regions they serve.
The LSC's new arrangements are working well. The proposal in the Further Education and Training Bill for LSC Regional Councils will put them on a statutory footing, so that the regional tier has a formal place in the decision making processes of the Council.
HEFCE is represented on the LSC National Council as an observer and will have been consulted on the plans for Regional Councils as part of that group. The consultation was carried out as part of normal business.
Looked-after Children
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of children are looked after children in each local authority with one or more academies; and how many and what percentage of children at each academy in each such authority are looked after children. [103814]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 27 November 2006]: Information on the number of children looked after by each local authority with one or more academies and the rate per 10,000 children is shown in the following table.
The Department does not currently have complete information on the schools attended by looked-after children and so cannot provide the number and percentage in academies. This information may become available when the statistical collection on children looked after by local authorities is linked to the School Census in 2007.
| Children looked after by local authorities where there is a least one academy, at 31 March 2006, England | |||
| Number and rates( 1) | |||
| Local authorities with at least one academy( 2) | Number of children aged under 18 years( 3) | Number of looked-after children( 4) | Rates per 10,000 children aged under 18 years |
| (1) To ensure that no individual can be identified from statistical tables, conventions have been used for the rounding and suppression of very small numbers. At national level, numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. At local authority level, numbers have been rounded to the nearest five, and numbers from 1 to 5 inclusive have been suppressed, being replaced in the published table by a hyphen "-". (2) Based on those academies open at January 2006. (3) Source: ONS, Population Estimates Unit, Estimated resident population mid 2005 by single year of age. (4) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. | |||
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many parliamentary written questions his Department received in each parliamentary session since 2001; and how many of these questions (a) were not answered because of disproportionate cost, (b) were not answered, (c) received answers referring back to a previous answer (i) asked by the hon. Member and (ii) asked by another hon. Member and (d) were grouped together for answer; [107480]
(2) what target his Department has for the maximum acceptable amount of time to answer parliamentary written questions; and what percentage of parliamentary answers met that target in each parliamentary session since 2001. [107481]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department's parliamentary question tracking system is unable to break the data down as requested. The answer could be supplied only at a disproportionate cost.
This Department aims to ensure that Members receive a substantive response to their named day question on the named day, and endeavours to answer ordinary written questions within a working week of being tabled.
Pupils with Learning Difficulties
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils in mainstream education have a learning difficulty. [105103]
Mr. Dhanda: The available information is shown in the table.
| Maintained primary, secondary and special schools( 1) : number and percentage of pupils by type of need( 2) as at January 2006, England | ||||||||
| SEN pupils by their primary type of need( 2,3) | ||||||||
| Primary schools( 4) | Secondary schools( 4) | |||||||
| School Action Plus | Statement of SEN | School Action Plus | Statement of SEN | |||||
| No. | % | No. | %(5) | No. | %(5) | No. | %(5) | |
| (1) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (2 )Pupils at School Action Plus and those pupils with a statement of SEN provided information on their primary need and, if appropriate their secondary need. Information on primary need only is given here. (3 )Excludes dually registered pupils (4 )Includes middle schools as deemed. (5 )Number of pupils by their main need expressed as a percentage of all pupils at School Action Plus or with a statement of SEN. Note: Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. | ||||||||
Figures relating to pupils with specific learning difficulties at “School Action Plus” and those with a statement of SEN are included in the table. There will be other pupils with SpLD at “School Action” where adjustments to the curriculum are made within school. We do not collect data on pupils at “School Action” with SpLD.
Pupils: Discipline
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent action he has taken regarding the implementation of advice in circular number 10/98 on the physical restraint of pupils in certain circumstances; and if he will make as statement. [108783]
Jim Knight: DfES Circular 10/98 provides schools with practical advice on the use of force to control or restrain pupils. All schools have access to this guidance on the DfES website (at www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance). In January we will be reminding every maintained school in England of the importance of taking account of the Department's guidance on this sensitive issue.
From 1 April 2007 the existing legislation governing use of force by school staff (section 550A of the Education Act 1996) will be replaced by section 93 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. We will be taking this opportunity to issue enhanced guidance which, among other things, will strengthen advice on issues relating to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
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