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14 Dec 2006 : Column 1380W—continued
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Swire:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent by his
Department on television advertisements in the last year for which figures are available. [104436]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department's total spend on TV advertising in the last year was as follows:
| TV spend DFES, 1 December 2005 to 30 November 2006 | |||
| Job No. | Job Name | Dates | Cost (£) |
All figures are exclusive of VAT.
Education: Darlington
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what approvals his Department has given for capital expenditure on (a) schools and nurseries and (b) colleges in Darlington since 1997. [108169]
Jim Knight: Funding is distributed by the Department in terms of allocations rather than specific approvals, and detailed records of expenditure are held at local authority level, including projects funded from income not provided by the Department. Records of allocations to Darlington for schools, which include nursery classes in primary schools, are detailed in the following table:
| £ million | |
Allocations include £34.9 million for a PFI scheme in 2003-04, and £20.8 million for Targeted Capital Fund Schemes in 2006-07, those for 2007-08 are provisional. Additional allocations for children’s centres in Darlington, including nursery provision, are set out in the following table. No allocation has as yet been made for 2007-08.
| £ million | |
Since 1997, both colleges in Darlington have had capital projects approved by and partly funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Darlington College’s campus relocation project was approved in December 2003. Approved costs amounted to £32.7 million of which £13.08 million was funded by the LSC.
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College had a west wing extension approved in October 2000 at a total cost of £2.6 million. This project was partially completed incurring a cost of £0.54 million, including grant paid of £0.19 million. This has since been incorporated into a west wing revised project, approved in August 2003 and completed in 2004. Approved costs were £4.99 million of which £1.5 million was funded by the LSC.
Employer Training Pilots
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost has been of the employer training pilots; how many level two qualifications have been awarded under the pilots; and what proportion of those qualifications were awarded to those in care. [108659]
Phil Hope [holding answer 12 December 2006]: The total cost of the employer training pilots was £350 million. 159,889 learners achieved a Level 2 qualification through the pilots.
35,587 Level 2 qualifications were awarded to those working in the care sector, contributing 26 per cent. of the total. The majority of these qualifications, 33,988, were for a NVQ Level 2 in Care.
Financial Hardship
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of financial hardship among children and young people upon (a) educational achievement, (b) participation in extra curricular activities and (c) exclusion from school. [105340]
Jim Knight: DfES national attainment statistics indicate that there is a strong relationship between financial hardship and educational achievement. We have less clear evidence on the specific effect of financial hardship on participation in extra curricular activities and on exclusions.
National key stage assessment results show a relationship between being a child from a family with low income and lower attainment.
28.3 per cent. of pupils eligible for free school meals (a proxy measure for income/social class) achieved 5+ A*-C GCSEs compared to 55.8 per cent. of pupils not eligible for free school meals (2006 data)(1).
Around a third of low attaining pupils are from low income families. 32 per cent. of low attaining pupils at Key Stage 2 were eligible free school meal (FSM), and 28 per cent. at Key Stage 4 (low attainment is defined here as being in the bottom quartile of attainment)(2).
(b) Participation in extra curricular activities
DfES commissioned research on the cost of schooling(3) found that family income influenced the average spend on schooling (this included spending on school trips, music lessons).
Of families earning less than £15,000 a year, 55 per cent. said they found it quite difficult or very difficult to meet the costs of schooling. For those with an income less than £10,000 a year, the figure was 62 per cent.
There is also some evidence reported in the DfES commissioned Young People’s Social Attitudes survey(4), that income is significantly associated with participation in leisure activities.
The Department has not commissioned any research which explores the impact of financial hardship on exclusions from school. However, statistics comparing the 2002/03 permanent exclusion rate of pupils eligible for free schools meals (FSM), as a proxy for deprivation show that, in general, schools with high permanent exclusion rates tended to have high percentages of pupils’ eligible for free school meals(5).
(1) DfES Statistical First Release 46/2006: “National Curriculum Assessment, GCSE and Equivalent Attainment and Post-16 Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England 2005/06 (Provisional)”, issued November 2006 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000693/index.shtml
(2) DfES Statistics of Education 02/05: “The Characteristics of Low Attaining Pupils”, issued June 2005 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SBU/bOOQ588/index.shtml
(3) Tim Brunwin, T. Sam Clernens, S., Deakin, G & Ed Mortimer, E. (2004) “The Cost of Schooling”. DfES RR588 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR588.pdf
(4) Park, A., Phillips, M. & Johnson, M. (2004). Young People in Britain: The Attitudes and Experiences of 12 to 19 Year Olds. DfES RR564 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR564.pdf
(5) DfES Statistical First Release (SFR42/2004) Permanent “Exclusions from Maintained Schools in England 2002/03”, issued November 2004 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000535/index.shtml
Foundation Degrees
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills from which organisations he has received representations since the publication of the Further Education and Training Bill on the granting to further education institutions of the power to award foundation degrees. [109661]
Bill Rammell: At the present time, my Department has received representations on the proposals in Clause 19 of the Further Education and Training Bill from Universities UK, the Coalition of Modern Universities, the Association of Colleges, and the National Union of Students. The current consultation period runs until 12 January 2007, and we expect to receive further responses in the intervening time. We have made clear our ongoing commitment to working with partners in both the further and higher education sectors to make the proposals function effectively.
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of further education colleges which have the expertise and infrastructure to offer foundation degree courses. [109732]
Bill Rammell: There are 275 further education colleges currently offering Foundation Degrees, or 283 including those in the Channel Islands and certain other specialist colleges such as the Britannia Royal Naval College. Of these, we expect that only a very small number, mostly from the mixed economy group of colleges which currently provide 14 per cent. of all Foundation Degree provision, will wish to apply for Foundation Degree Awarding Powers.
Free School Meals
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils received free school dinners in Eastbourne constituency in each year since 1996. [105104]
Jim Knight: The available information is shown in the table.
Information at parliamentary constituency level is not available prior to 1997.
| Maintained primary and secondary schools( 1) : School meal arrangements 1997-2006 position in January each year—Eastbourne parliamentary constituency | |||||
| Maintained primary schools | |||||
| Number on roll( 1,2) | Number of pupils taking free school meals( 3) | Percentage taking free school meals | Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals | Percentage known to be eligible for free school meals | |
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