House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 08 Jan 2007 (pt 0047)

8 Jan 2007 : Column 230W—continued

Educational Attainment

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of children achieved (a) level 7 in Key Stage 3 SATS and (b) two or more A grades at A-level in each local authority (LEA) in each of the last three years, broken down by ethnic origin and classification of the LEA as (i) selective, (ii) partially selective and (iii) comprehensive; and what the average percentage of children in each category was in England in each year, broken down by ethnic origin. [100583]

Jim Knight: The available data for the most recent three years have been placed in the House of Commons Library. The information for Key Stage 3 SATS for 2006 will be available in spring 2007.

Educational Maintenance Allowance: Lincolnshire

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of pupils in further education in Lincolnshire received the educational maintenance allowance in each year since 2004. [109634]

Phil Hope: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council, who operate Education Maintenance Allowances for the DfES and hold the information about take-up of the scheme. Mark Haysom, the Council’s chief executive, has written to the hon. Member with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.

Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 22 December 2006:

I am writing in response to your recent Parliamentary Question that asked what percentage of pupils in further education in Lincolnshire received the educational maintenance allowance in each year since 2004.

Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is available at Local Authority level. EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payment in the academic year.

The National EMA scheme was phased in over time to successive 16-year old age groups. 2004/05 was the first year of National EMA and therefore we can only give data for 16 year
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olds in that year. Of those that were in full time education in the Lincolnshire Local Authority area, some 49.6% received one or more EMA payment.

This percentage is based on the participation estimates of 16 year olds in full time education that are outlined within the Statistical First Release 13/2006. In 2004/05 the amount of 16 year olds in education was 6300. However it should be noted that not all those in full time education would have been eligible for EMA on income grounds. At present we are unable to give similar percentages for 2005/06 as the sub-national participation estimates for 2005 are not currently available. They are due to be published in June 2007.

Free School Meals

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which (a) secondary and (b)
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primary schools had the (i) highest and (ii) lowest percentage of pupils receiving free school meals in each local education authority area; what the percentage figure was in each case; and what the type of school was in each case. [108040]

Jim Knight: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in (a) Leeds, West and (b) Leeds (i) are entitled to and (ii) claim free school meals. [110347]

Jim Knight: The requested information is given in the table.

Maintained Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools: School meal arrangements ^{( 1)} As at January 2006 Leeds West parliamentary constituency and Leeds local authority area
	Leeds West parliamentary constituency		Leeds local authority area
	Nursery and Primary schools	Secondary schools	Nursery and Primary schools	Secondary schools
Number of pupils on roll ⁽²⁾	6,949	4,040	61,571	47,847
Number of pupils taking free school meals on the day of the Census	1,448	724	9,028	5,338
Percentage of pupils taking free school meals on the day of the Census ⁽³⁾	20.8	17.9	14.7	11.2
Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	1,730	1,005	11,257	8,292
Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals ⁽⁴⁾	24.9	24.9	18.3	17.3
⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed. ⁽²⁾ Includes pupils with sole and dual main registration. Includes boarding pupils. ⁽³⁾ The number of pupils who took a free school meal on the day of the Census expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils on roll. ⁽⁴⁾ The number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils on roll. Source: School Census

GCSEs

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils in each local authority in England left school without any GCSE qualification, excluding equivalents, in each year since 1997. [110458]

Jim Knight: A table showing the number of 15-year-old pupils who did not achieve at least one A*-G grade at GCSE, excluding equivalents⁽¹⁾, has been placed in the Library.

⁽¹⁾ These other qualifications are not the same as GCSEs. Not all approved qualifications are exactly the same, but they can be measured and accredited on a common scale, which gives point scores according to their different challenges and different breadth. The value of a qualification will depend entirely on the young person's needs and aspirations and the context for their learning.

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the GCSEs which use multiple choice questions as part of the examination. [110296]

Jim Knight: For all the GCSEs available to pupils, we do not keep records of which of these use multiple choice questions as part of the examination. This information is only available from the various awarding bodies.

Learning and Skills Council

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent discussions he has had with the Learning and Skills Council in Coventry; and if he will make a statement. [112762]

Bill Rammell: I am the Minister with responsibility for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). I last visited the LSC national office in Coventry in July 2006, where I met staff and directors of the LSC, and officials from the Public and Commercial Services Union. Discussion focused on a range of issues, including the current restructuring exercise and future priorities for the LSC. I also have regular meetings with Mark Haysom, the chief executive, and Chris Banks, the chairman, of the Learning and Skills Council. My last formal meeting with them took place on 6 December 2006.

Looked-after Children

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many children were (a) in foster care and (b) placed for adoption in each of the last 10 years; [105624]

(2) how many adoption placements broke down in each of the last 10 years; [105625]

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(3) how many children were (a) placed for foster care and (b) placed for adoption with extended family members in each of the last five years; [105626]

(4) how many looked-after children there are in West Sussex; [105658]

(5) what percentage of looked-after children in (a) West Sussex, (b) Brighton and Hove unitary and (c) East Sussex went on to university in the last year for which figures are available. [105659]

Mr. Dhanda: Information on the number of children looked after by local authorities who have been in foster care and who have been placed for adoption in each of the last 10 years is shown in table 1.

Information on the number of adoption placements that have broken down in each of the last 10 years is shown in table 2.

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Information on the number of children looked after by local authorities who have been placed for foster care with extended family members in each of the last five years is shown in table 3. Information on the number of children placed for adoption with extended family members is not collected centrally. 750 children were looked after by West Sussex local authority in 2006. Information on the percentage of children looked after by West Sussex, Brighton and Hove unitary and by East Sussex who went on to university last year is not collected centrally. However the Department collects information on the number of young persons “in-touch” with the local authority aged 19 who are in higher education who were previously looked after by each of these three local authorities aged 16 or over on 1 April 2002. This information is shown in table 4.

Table 1: Children looked after by local authorities placed in foster care and placed for adoption at 31 March 1997 to 2006^{( 1, 2, 3, 4)} , England
Number
As at 31 March:	All children looked after by local authorities	Children looked after placed in foster care	Children looked after placed for adoption	Children looked after in other type of placements^{( 5)}
1997	51,400	33,700	2,400	15,300
1998⁽⁶⁾	53,300	35,000	2,400	15,900
1999⁽⁶⁾	55,500	36,200	2,900	16,400
2000⁽⁶⁾	58,100	37,900	3,100	17,100
2001⁽⁶⁾	58,900	38,400	3,400	17,100
2002⁽⁶⁾	59,700	39,200	3,600	16,900
2003⁽⁶⁾	60,800	41,100	3,400	16,300
2004	61,200	41,200	3,600	16,400
2005	60,900	41,300	3,400	16,200
2006	60,300	42,000	2,900	15,500
⁽¹⁾ Source, DfES, SSDA903 return which in 1997 and since 2004 covered ‘all’ children looked after by local authorities. SSDA903 covered only a third of children looked after by local authorities between 1998 and 2003. ⁽²⁾ Figures for children looked after in this table exclude agreed series of short-term placements. ⁽³⁾ To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 or to the nearest 10 otherwise. ⁽⁴⁾ Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. ⁽⁵⁾ Figures include children looked after by local authority who are placed with own parents, who are placed in independent living, in residential employment, in secure units, in homes and hostels, in residential accommodation not subject to children’s homes regulations, in other residential settings, in schools and finally children who are missing from placements and who are in other placements not listed. ⁽⁶⁾ SSDA903 only covered a third of children looked after by local authorities.

Table 2: Adoption placements that broke down in each of the years ending 31 March 1997 to 2006^{( 1, 2, 3, 4)} , England
Number
Year ending 31 March:	Adoption placements that broke down^{( 5)}
1997	360
1998	280
1999	320
2000	250
2001	280
2002	270
2003	240
2004	290
2005	250
2006	210
⁽¹⁾ Source, DfES, SSDA903 return which in 1997 and since 2004 covered all children looked after by local authorities. SSDA903 covered only a third of children looked after by local authorities between 1998 and 2003. ⁽²⁾ Figures for children looked after in this table exclude agreed series of short-term placements. ⁽³⁾ To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded or to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 or to the nearest 10 otherwise. ⁽⁴⁾ Note that figures represent the number of adoptions ‘placements’ that have broken down. They are not comparable with figures in table 1 and table 3 showing the number of children placed for adoption. ⁽⁵⁾ Adoption placements that have broken down exclude placements for adoption that were followed by an adoption or still open at 31 March 2006 or because the child’s care was taken over by another local authority in the United Kingdom or because the child was transferred to the residential care funded by adult social services.

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