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1 Feb 2007 : Column 482W—continued
Centres of Vocational Excellence
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what vocational skills are covered by the centres of vocational excellence. [117114]
Phil Hope: The LSC have approved 403 CoVEs since 2001 across England in a range of sectors. Currently 383 CoVEs are operational under the original criteria. The areas of learning they cover include:
Information and Communications Technology
Business Administration and Management
Construction
Engineering and Technology
Visual/Performing Arts
Health and Social Care
Land-based Provision
Hospitality/Sports/Leisure
Sciences and Maths
Retailing and Customer Services
Hairdressing and Beauty.
Child Care
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of families in West Lancashire (a) are eligible for and (b) have taken up (i) free and (ii) subsidised child care. [112295]
Beverley Hughes: Information is not available in the form requested.
Figures available from the Office for National Statistics for December 2005 show that West Lancashire parliamentary constituency had a population of 2,400(1) three and four-year-olds, and the 2006 Early Years and Annual Schools Censuses show the number of part-time early education places funded by the free entitlement for three and four-year-olds in the West Lancashire parliamentary constituency was 1,900(2).
Data on eligibility and take-up of free or subsidised child care overall is not available centrally.
Child care used by parents can be subsidised in a variety of ways, including the child care element of the working tax credit, local authority subsidies, Jobcentre Plus New Deals, Care to Learn, Learner Support Funds and NHS child care allowances.
(1) ONS population estimates are aggregated to age groupings of at least five years. Figures based on a single year of age at the sub-national level are therefore of limited reliability.
(2 )The number of children benefiting from some form of free early education can exceed the number of free part-time early education places taken up by children as a place may be taken up by more than one child.
Child Fostering
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many gay couples are fostering children. [112417]
Mr. Dhanda: Details of individual foster carers are not recorded centrally.
Children: Databases
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he expects to publish a full evaluation of the outcomes from the trailblazing authorities on information sharing on children. [117985]
Beverley Hughes: Eleven local authority Trailblazers’ have piloted information sharing approaches with financial support from my department, nine of which developed local indexes.
In 2004, an independent research report about the Trailblazer experiences, “Developing Information Sharing and Assessment Systems” was published. On 8 December 2005, I laid in the House of Commons’ Library the report “Learning from Information Sharing and Assessment
Trailblazers” detailing the main lessons learnt from the Trailblazer authorities’ work.
The Trailblazers have continued to influence the development of tools to support better information sharing, including national, cross-Government guidance on Information Sharing published in 2006 and supporting training materials. They continue to work closely with the national Information Sharing Index Project, which draws extensively on their experience and expertise.
There are no plans to publish any further evaluation of the Trailblazers.
Correspondence
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his Department's target time is for responding to letters from outside organisations. [117672]
Mr. Dhanda: DfES aims to reply to 95 per cent. of all correspondence within 15 working days and 100 per cent. of requests under the Freedom of Information Act within 20 working days.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which 10 items branded with the departmental logo cost the most to produce; and what that cost was for each. [107186]
Alan Johnson: The Department does not hold information of this kind centrally.
Education: North-east England
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England have received education maintenance allowance in each year since its inception; and how much each grant of allowance was in each year since inception. [115354]
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 my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 29 January 2007:
I am writing in response to your Parliamentary Question 115354 that asked; “How many people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England have received education maintenance allowance in each year since its inception; and how much each allowance was worth in every year since inception.”
Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is available at Local Authority Level, but not at constituency level. EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payments in the academic year. Financial information is only available at National Level, not at Local Authority Level.
The following table shows EMA take-up data for South Tyneside Local Authority area, the North East and England during each academic year since inception.
| Take-up of EMA in each academic year | |||
| South Tyneside | North East | England | |
| (1) To end December. | |||
Since national roll-out in September 2004, each weekly allowance payment has been £10, £20 or £30 depending on the income of the household where the recipient resides. Total expenditure is shown in the following table.
| EMA expenditure in each financial year (national scheme) | |
| £ million | |
| Full costs (including admin costs) | |
| (1) To end December. | |
I hope you find this information useful. If you would like further details please contact Shubana Nawaz at the LSC National Office on 0114 2074534 or shubana.nawaz@lsc.gov.uk.
Educational Attainment
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the educational attainment levels of (a) Gypsy, (b) Traveller, (c) white British and (d) UK Irish pupils were in each of the last 10 years. [111802]
Beverley Hughes: Pupil level information was collected for the first time in 2002 which enables the Department to cross match attainment levels against pupil characteristics. However, it is only from 2003 onwards that data are available on a consistent basis using the latest ethnic group classification; and these are given in the following tables.
| Key Stage 2: England—percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 and above at Key Stage 2( 1) | ||||
| Gypsy/Roma | Traveller of Irish Heritage | White British | Irish | |
| (1) Results for 2003 to 2005 are based on revised data. Results for 2006 are based on provisional data. | ||||
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