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Parenting Support

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps are being taken to assist local authorities in providing parenting support. [133684]

Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 26 April 2007]: Local authorities are central to our ambitions to deliver additional support to parents and we will continue to support and collaborate with them.

On 15 March 2007, we published, “Every Parent Matters”, which describes the Government's commitment to support the development of a wide range of services for parents to access, as and when they need it. It makes clear that local authorities will be at the heart of planning and delivering these services locally.

In October 2006 we published “Parenting Support”, guidance for local authorities which describes the approach needed to develop a local strategy to provide a continuum of support for all parents. At the same time we launched the Commissioner's Toolkit, a database of parenting programmes including information on what research suggests about the effectiveness of current interventions. This toolkit is designed to equip commissioners to make decisions which better suit the needs of parents in their community. Over 2006-08 local authorities will receive the £7.5 million Parenting Support Strategy Grant. Its purpose is to assist local authorities in developing and implementing a strategic approach to parenting support, and build upon strategic approaches already in place.

We have spent over £2.1 billion establishing and sustaining Sure Start Local Programmes and Children's Centres, since 1999, initially in some of our most disadvantaged areas. Currently there are 1,258 children's centres, providing a range of high quality early learning, health and parental support to a million young children under five and their families. There will be 2,500 centres by 2008, and 3,500 by 2010, one for every community. Additionally, we are establishing extended services for pupils, families and the wider community in all schools across the country. The extended schools core offer includes services providing parenting support, and over 4,500 schools are now delivering the offer. All schools will do so by 2010.

A number of pilots have been developed with local authorities to deliver new ways of supporting parents. The learning from many of these pilots will inform the further roll out of extended schools and Sure Start Children's Centres. For example, Early Learning Partnerships are running in 19 local authorities; targeting hard to reach families and promoting their engagement in early learning for children aged one to
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three years. Transition information sessions will be run in 20 local authorities by autumn 2007, preparing parents of children in reception and year seven to cope with the wide range of possible challenges that their children may face. Parent Support Advisers are providing a preventative school based role to support parents in 977 schools in 20 local authorities, and we will look to spread practice widely through extended schools. 15 local authorities have been selected to receive a share of £5 million per annum for 2006-07 and 2007-08 to deliver Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinders—testing different parenting programmes for the families of eight to 13-year-olds at risk of antisocial behaviour. We are investing £10 million per annum to develop the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners. The academy will have a key role in improving practice, training and support for the parenting workforce.

Pre-school Education: Expenditure

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what total amount was spent on (a) pre-school education and (b) school nursery education in each of the last 20 years, at today’s prices. [133353]

Jim Knight [holding answer 23 April 2007]: The available information is contained within the following table which shows central and local government expenditure on under fives. Separate figures for pre-school education and school nursery education are not available. Capital expenditure is not included in these figures.

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	Expenditure
1989-90	1,347
1990-91	1,473
1991-92	1,620
1992-93	1,749
1993-94	1,843
1994-95	1,944
1995-96	1,965
1996-97	2,005
1997-98	2,114
1998-99	2,157
1999-2000	2,399
2000-01	2,683
2001-02	3,232
2002-03	3,291
2003-04	3,657
2004-05(1)	3,920
2005-06(2)	4,010
(1) Provisional. (2) Estimated. Notes: 1. Figures within Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL). Excludes DfES administration costs and expenditure on other areas than education, for instance on children and families and on skills. Figures for 1998-99 onwards are resource-based. Central government figures for 1995-96 to 1997-98 are cash-based. 2. Differences between the totals above and the figures for Under 5’s education spending in HM Treasury’s PESA Report are the result of (a) data coverage: the exclusion of AME items in the above table, (b) definitional differences: Departmental administration costs and Ofsted spending on education are both classified as education spending under UN Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) international definitions—the above table excludes these, (c) classifications made since Budget 2006 of Connexions spending to social protection and Adult Education spend to training in line with UN COFOG definitions, (d) further minor data coverage and timing differences. 3. The recurrent local authority figures in this table are drawn from the Local Authority Expenditure table (Table 8.3 of the 2006 Departmental Report); the footnotes to that table set out the underlying data sources. The blank rows denote the changes from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions education Revenue Outturn return (the ‘RO1’) to Section 52 Outturn Statements in 1999-2000 and arising from the review of the Section 52 categories in 2002-03 following the introduction of Consistent Financial Reporting to schools. 4. All figures have been converted to 2005-06 price levels using the 27 September 2006 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflators. 5. Central Government funding on grant-maintained schools has been apportioned to under-fives using pupil numbers. 6. Figures from 2003-04 onwards reflect the transfer of responsibility from the Department to LEAs of costs relating to teachers’ pensions. 7. Under five figures include education expenditure on Sure Start (Sure Start figures exclude current grant). 8. Sources of the figures in the table are as follows: 1997-98 to 2005-06 from the Education Select Committee table, 1995-96 to 1996-97 from the November 2005 Education Bulletin, 1993-94 to 1994-95 from the November 2004 Bulletin, 1989-90 to 1992-93 from the Departmental Reports.

Private Education: Charities

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what criteria will be included in the public benefit test to enable private schools to satisfy the requirements for charitable status. [121943]

Jim Knight [holding answer 26 February 2007]: This is a matter for the Charity Commission as the Government Department responsible for the regulation of charities in England and Wales. The chief executive of the Charity Commission will write to the hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library.

School Exclusions

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) children, (b) children with special educational needs but no statement and (c) children with statemented special educational needs were permanently excluded (i) from mainstream schools, (ii) from special schools, (iii) while on a dual placement scheme, (iv) while on a school action plan, (v) while on early years action plan, (vi) while on school action plus, (vii) while on early years action plus and (viii) while attending a pupil referral unit in each year from 1997 to 2006. [117705]
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Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 30 January 2007]: The available information relating to permanent exclusions from maintained primary, secondary and all special schools is given in the table.

There are quality issues with data on permanent exclusions from maintained primary, secondary and special schools. A significant number of schools are known to have under-reported the situation. The Department has carried out checking exercises in each year to confirm the overall number of permanent exclusions. However, this only confirmed the number of
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exclusions in each local authority area and did not include information on the characteristics of the excluded pupil, for example whether or not they have special educational needs. Figures provided in the first table are as reported by schools and are known to be incomplete.

The range of indicators collected on excluded pupils does not include whether they were on dual placement.

Figures provided here refer to the cases of exclusion, rather than the number of pupils excluded as some pupils were excluded more than once during the year.

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Maintained primary, secondary and all special schools( 1,)( )( 2) : number of pe rm anent exclusions by special educational needs (SEN) 1997-98 to 2004-05( 3) —England
	Maintained primary and secondary schools		All special schools
	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of school population( 4)	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of school population( 4)
1997-98
Pupils with statements of SEN	1,700	1.21	550	0.60
Pupils with SEN without statement and pupils with no SEN	10,030	0.14	20	0.35
Total pupils	11,730	0.16	570	0.58
1998-99
Pupils with statements of SEN	1,530	1.04	390	0.43
Pupils with SEN without statement and pupils with no SEN	8,460	0.11	40	0.72
Total pupils	10,000	0.13	440	0.45
1999-2000
Pupils with statements of SEN	1,140	0.75	360	0.39
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN	6,800	0.09	30	0.57
Total pupils	7,940	0.10	380	0.40
2000-01( 3,)( )( 5)
Pupils with statements of SEN	540	0.35	n/a	n/a
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN	7,800	0.11	n/a	n/a
Total pupils	8,330	0.11	390	0.41
2001-02( 3)
Pupils with statements of SEN	760	0.51	280	0.31
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN(6)	7,640	0.10	40	0.93
Of which:
Pupils with no SEN	3,350	0.05	40	0.95
Pupils with SEN without statements(6)	4,290	0.32	*	*
Total pupils	8,400	0.11	320	0.34
2002-03( 3)
Pupils with statements of SEN	680	0.45	250	0.28
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN(6)	7,190	0.09	20	0.49
Of which:
Pupils with no SEN	2,720	0.04	10	0.98
Pupils with SEN without statements(6)	4,470	0.40	*
Total pupils	7,870	0.10	270	0.29
2003-04( 3)
Pupils with statements of SEN	720	0.48	230	0.25
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN(6)	8,130	0.11	30	0.99
Of which:
Pupils with no SEN	3,300	0.05	30	3.18
Pupils at School Action	1,710	0.22	0	0.00
Pupils at School Action Plus	3,130	0.89	*	*
Total pupils(7)	8,850	0.12	260	0.28
2004-05( 3)
Pupils with statements of SEN	570	0.40	210	0.23
Pupils with SEN without statements and pupils with no SEN(6)	7,700	0.10	50	2.01
Of which:
Pupils with no SEN	3.520	0.06	40	10.23
Pupils at School Action	1,580	0.20	0	0.00
Pupils at School Action Plus	2,600	0.71	*	*
Total Pupils(7)	8.270	0.11	250	0.28
* Less than five exclusions, or a rate based on less than five exclusions. n/a = Not available (due to quality concerns with the data). (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes both maintained and non-maintained special schools. (3) From 2000-01 onwards there are quality issues with permanent exclusions data. Schools are known to have under-reported the situation. The Department has carried out checking exercises to confirm the overall number of permanent exclusions in each local authority area but this did not extend to the characteristics of excluded pupils (such as SEN). Figures shown here are as reported by schools and are un-confirmed. Caution is recommended when interpreting this output. (4) The number of excluded pupils by SEN expressed as a percentage of the school population supported by same SEN provision (excluding dually registered pupils). (5) The SEN data reported by special schools for excluded pupils in 2000/01 is not sufficiently reliable or robust to be included here. (6) The introduction of the new code of practice means that the number of children with SEN without statements reported in 2000-01 and later are not directly comparable with earlier years. (7) Totals include those exclusions for which SEN (if any) was not known. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Schools Census

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