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5 Feb 2007 : Column 629W—continued
Education Funding: Romford
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been made available from his Department to (a) (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools and (b) sixth forms and colleges within Romford constituency in 2006-07; and what central Government guidelines govern the distribution of these funds. [117463]
Jim Knight: The Romford constituency falls within the local authority of Havering and the information supplied is the level of funding which applies to all of Havering. In 2006-07 for Havering local authority, the Department allocated a Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) of £133.8 million and revenue grants of £22.8 million, totalling £156.6 million to fund education in the area. As the DSG is a mechanism for distributing funding, it is not possible to split the DSG allocation between primary and secondary schools.
The 2006-07 DSG figure is not on the same basis as the £160.2 million that Havering received in 2005-06 under Education Formula Spending plus revenue grants.
It is for Havering—in consultation with its school forum—to distribute its DSG and Standards Fund grants to the schools it maintains. However, it is expected that local authorities will take account of the priorities that Ministers identified within the DSG envelope (personalised learning at Key Stage 3, personalised learning in primary schools, more practical learning options for pupils aged 14 to 16, implementing planning, preparation and assessment in primary schools and increased entitlement to free early years provision). The distribution of School Standards Grant and School
Standards Grant (Personalisation) is determined centrally and set out in the conditions of grant.
Guidelines for the distribution of the DSG are contained in the Department’s Technical Note and the “Setting School Budgets 2006-07 and 2007-08: guidance note for LAs and School Forums”.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) took responsibility for funding of school sixth forms in April 2002. In 2006/07, the total funding allocation for schools sixth forms in Havering local authority was £6.4 million.
The LSC is responsible for funding post-16 education and training more widely, so in addition to the funding for school sixth forms the LSC funds colleges and other providers to deliver further education and training to young people and adults in the Havering local authority area. The Department does not hold information on individual providers’ funding allocations, but funding allocations for 2005/06 can be found at the following link:
http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/2005/funding/streams/fe-2005-06-allocations-at-26-july.xls
A copy of this document has been placed in the House Library.
In October 2005 we set out our post-16 funding strategy for 2006-07 and 2007-08 in “Priorities for Success” which was published by the LSC. The strategy clearly set out our funding priorities, which included supporting higher participation among young people and helping disadvantaged adults to gain basic and Level 2 employability skills. The strategy was updated in the LSC’s Annual Statement of Priorities, published in October 2006.
Educational Psychologist Referrals
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the Government’s policy is on the maximum acceptable waiting time for pupils between being referred to and being seen by an educational psychologist. [117257]
Jim Knight: The Department’s Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001) provides practical guidance to local authorities, maintained schools, early education settings and others on carrying out their statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for children with special educational needs (SEN).
Regulations set out the time limits within which the various parts of the process of making statutory assessments and drawing up statements of SEN must be conducted. The Code of Practice makes clear that it is in the interests of all concerned that statutory assessments should be carried out in a timely manner. It is therefore important that each part of that process is conducted with all reasonable speed. This would include input from educational psychologists (EPs).
We would expect this general principle to apply to other areas of EPs’ work but the detailed management and deployment of EPs are matters for local authorities as employers.
Free School Meals
Sir Peter Soulsby:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of students on the Gifted and Talented programme in (a) Leicester
and (b) Leicestershire receive free school meals. [111072]
Jim Knight: The available information is given in the following table.
| Number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals who are on the gifted and talented programme( 1,2) , January 2006 | ||||||
| All pupils | Pupils on the gifted and talented programme | |||||
| Local authority area | Total pupils( 2) | Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals | Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals( 3) | Total pupils( 2) | Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals | Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals( 4) |
| (1) Includes pupils attending maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies including middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes dually registered pupils and boarding pupils. (3) Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals expressed as a percentage of number (headcount) of all pupils. (4) Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals expressed as a percentage of number (headcount) of pupils on the gifted and talented programme. Source: Schools Census | ||||||
GCSEs
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what percentage of pupils in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) the Tees Valley and (d) the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency achieved more than five A-C grades at GCSE in each year since 1997; [117417]
(2) what percentage of pupils in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) the Tees Valley and (d) the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency achieved more than five GCSE passes in each year since 1997. [117418]
Jim Knight: The information requested is in the following tables:
| Proportion of 15 year olds achieving 5+ GCSEs at grades A*-C, 1996/97 to 2005/06( 1, 2, 3) | ||||||||
| Constituency | Tees Valley local authorities | Region | National | |||||
| Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland | Hartlepool | Middlesbrough | Redcar and Cleveland | Stockton on Tees | Darlington | North East | England | |
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