| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Jan 2007 : Column 1374W—continued
Value Added
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what qualifications are taken into account when calculating the contextual value added score. [116079]
Jim Knight: All Entry Level, level 1 and level 2 qualifications approved for use pre-16 under section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 are taken into account when calculating contextual value added.
CAFCASS Training
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what training is provided to
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers; and if he will make a statement; [113752]
(2) how much was spent on training for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers in each year since 2000. [113753]
Mr. Dhanda: These are matters for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). Anthony Douglas, the Chief Executive, has written to the hon. Member with this information and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Anthony Douglas, dated 9 January 2007:
I am writing to you in response to the two parliamentary questions that you tabled recently:
PQ 113752—What training is provided to Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers?
Family Court Advisers are required to have a Diploma in Social Work (or a General Social Care Council (GSCC) recognised equivalent) and 3 years post qualifying experience in social work with children and families at risk.
CAFCASS provides the following training to Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers:
1. A whole range of in-service and external training provided in accordance with staff training needs which are identified through a training needs analysis for each member of staff.
2. A three-part domestic violence-training programme.
3. A five-day foundation course for new Family Court Advisors
4. An Annual Research Conference.
5. An Annual Diversity Conference.
6. Post Qualification Training for Family Court Advisors and managers as provided in the General Social Care Councils revised Post Qualification Framework.
7. Further and higher education training for which they are sponsored. ( this is job related)
8. Legal Road shows.
9. Training in new legislation e.g. The Adoption and Children Act, 2002 and The Children and Adoption Act, 2006.
PQ 113753—How much was spent on training for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers in each year since 2000?
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) was established in April 2001. Total training costs for the years 2001-06 were as follows:
| Year | Total training cost (£000) |
Children’s Centre
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) which organisations are responsible for maintaining each children's centre in England; [116972]
(2) how many children's centres in England are managed by (a) public sector organisations, (b) voluntary sector providers, (c) independent providers and (d) other providers. [116971]
Beverley Hughes: Local authorities working with their partners in children's trusts are responsible for the overall delivery of the Sure Start children's centres programme in England. They are responsible for planning, securing value for money and ensuring overall quality in children’s centres. We are encouraging them to involve private, voluntary and independent organisations both in managing children’s centres and as service providers. Information on how many children's centres are managed by public sector organisations, voluntary sector, independent and other providers is not collected centrally. A survey of early children’s centres shows around 58 per cent. of child care provision in children’s centres is provided by the private, voluntary and independent sector, and around 82 per cent. of children’s centres have contracts with voluntary sector organisations for delivering services. Responsibility for children's centres in Wales lies with the Welsh Assembly.
Competition Managers
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 12 December 2006, Official Report, column 1006W, on competition managers, how many (a) competitions and (b) teams have been identified by competition managers in the last 12 months, broken down by type of sport. [115989]
Jim Knight: For the period of September to November 2006, competition managers have delivered 810 competitions involving 42,510 young people, broken down by sport/activity as follows:
| Sport/activity | Young people involved |
Drug Education
Philip Davies:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many primary schools teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education programme; what guidance is given to schools on the age of pupils
to whom this programme is taught; and what the requirement is for parental consent before the programme is used. [115349]
Jim Knight: The Department’s guidance, “Drugs: Guidance for Schools” (DfES 2004) makes it clear that teachers should be the main providers of drug education and maintain responsibility for the overall drug education programme in their school. External contributors can be used where they add to the drug education programme a dimension that the teacher alone cannot deliver. It is for schools and local authorities to decide whether to use the services of an external contributor to assist with their drug education programme, and if so which. The Department does not collect information on the external contributors used.
The guidance also requires individual schools to work closely with pupils’ parents and carers in the development of their drug education programme, thereby ensuring that it is relevant and sensitive to the needs and diversity of its pupils.
Education Supervision Orders
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many education supervision orders were put in place for children with special educational need in (a) Chorley and (b) Lancashire in each of the last five years. [117194]
Jim Knight: The Department does not collect data relating to education supervision orders.
Education: North-east England
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the teacher to pupil ratio was in infant school classes in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each year since 1997; and what the national average was in each year since 1997. [115356]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Information on pupil:teacher ratios is available for overall school types but not for individual age groups or year groups.
The available information relating to maintained primary schools is given in the following table.
| Maintained primary schools( 1) : pupil:teacher ratios—position in January each year: 1997 to 2006 | |||
| Pupil:teacher ratios( 2) | |||
| Jarrow parliamentary constituency | South Tyneside local authority area | England | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Based on full-time and full-time equivalent of part-time qualified teachers. Source: Schools Census | |||
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average class size for (a) primary and (b) secondary schools was in (i) Jarrow constituency and (ii) South Tyneside in each year since 1997; and what the national average was in each year since 1997. [115357]
Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the table.
| Maintained primary and secondary schools( 1) : average class size( 2 ) 1997-2006—position in January each year | ||||||
| Jarrow parliamentary constituency | South Tyneside local authority area | England | ||||
| Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Classes taught by one teacher during a single selected period on the census day in January. Source: Schools Census | ||||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |