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9 May 2007 : Column 319W—continued
Pupils: Intimidation
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance he plans to provide to schools on the avoidance of the bullying of children with disabilities; and if he will make a statement. [135787]
Jim Knight [holding answer 8 May 2007]: As part of the Department’s suite of guidance on prejudice-driven bullying, we recently announced that we would be producing dedicated guidance on tackling bullying related to special educational needs and disabilities. We have begun to meet with interested lobby groups and experts and hope to start work on this guidance later in the year. We intend to work closely with the Special Educational Consortium and other charities and groups with an interest in this area, drawing on current research.
In addition, the Department’s general guidance on bullying, “Don’t Suffer In Silence”, advises schools to refer to the bullying of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in their anti-bullying policies and suggests some strategies for addressing this type of bullying.
Pupils: Languages
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what funding his Department makes available to support schools with increasing numbers of bilingual learners; [134304]
(2) what funding has been made available for (a) local authorities and (b) individual schools in Cambridgeshire to deal with increasing numbers of bilingual learners. [134305]
Jim Knight: The Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) is a ring-fenced grant which provides additional support for underachieving ethnic minority pupils and for pupils for whom English is an Additional Language. The total grant for 2007-08 is £179 million. Cambridgeshire will receive £104,811.
Approximately £435 million of the £24.6 billion Schools Formula Spending Share (SPSS) for 2005-06 was distributed on the basis of numbers of children for whom English is an Additional Language, and from low performing ethnic minority groups.
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which replaced SPSS for 2006-07, gives local authorities allocations for multi year periods: the allocations for 2007-08 will depend on pupil numbers in schools in January 2007 and the guaranteed unit of funding for each authority set in December 2005 is influenced by the number of its children for whom English is an Additional language.
The Dedicated Schools Grant is supplied to local authorities in support of the Schools Budget. It is for the local authorities—in conjunction with their Schools Forum—to fund the schools they maintain from their Schools Budget. The Dedicated Schools Grant Guaranteed Unit of Funding for Cambridgeshire in 2007-08 is £3,622.90.
We will set indicative allocations for a three year period for 2008-09 to 2010-11, following the current consultation as part of the new school funding arrangements for 2008-09, which will be finalised when we have the pupil numbers for each year. The possibility of an Exceptional Circumstances Grant to deal with additional pressures which may fall on local authorities after we set out three year allocations is under consideration as part of our consultations.
The Government are working in partnership with local areas to spread best practice in meeting specific pressures that have arisen as a result of recent migration. In addition, we have set aside £400,000 over a two year period to fund a New Arrivals Excellence Programme to build capacity in local authorities to support schools with limited experience of teaching new arrivals with little knowledge of English.
School Disability Equality Schemes
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many secondary schools have published their disability equality schemes in accordance with the deadline of 4 December 2006. [116826]
Mr. Dhanda: This information is not collected centrally. However, to support schools in meeting this new responsibility, in June 2006 the Department for Education and Skills published a training resource for schools and local authorities: ‘Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in schools and early years settings’. The materials in this resource will help schools meet their duties under the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005.
School Meals
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the total public spending in England on school meals in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms for each year from 1979-80 to 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [124968]
Jim Knight: The Department does not collect data that allows us to report expenditure on school meals alone.
However, the Government are providing additional funding of almost £500 million between 2005 and 2011 to support the improvement of school food. This includes, between April 2005 and March 2008, £90 million for authority maintained schools (including nursery schools and pupil referral units) and £130 million for local authorities.
School Meals: Poultry
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will estimate the percentage of poultry supplied to British schools which had been produced by UK farms in each of the last three years. [126631]
Mr. Dhanda: This information is not held centrally. However, the DfES is actively supporting the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) that includes objectives for increasing tendering opportunities for small and local producers and for promoting food produced to higher standards of production, which should help provide a more level playing field for domestic producers. The Department has also included the PSFPI in the remit of the School Food Trust.
School Meals: Standards
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 14 March 2007, Officia l Report, columns 346-47W, on school meals, whether changes were made to the School Meal Review Panel’s recommendation on the standard covering deep-fried food contained in the Education (Nutritional Standards for School Lunches) Regulations 2006. [135899]
Mr. Dhanda: The School Meals Review Panel recommended that ‘meals should not contain more than two deep-fried products in a single week’. To ensure clarity and to maximise the impact of this standard, Ministers decided that the interpretation of ‘deep-fried’ in this context should include those products that were deep-fried in the manufacturing process.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much he plans to allocate (a) to produce the revised guide to standards for school lunches and (b) to implement its provisions. [135976]
Mr. Dhanda: The School Food Trust has spent just under £54,700 of its grant in aid on the production of the revised guidance on the standards for school lunches. The costs of school lunches that meet the standards are met through a combination of expenditure by local authorities, schools, parents and carers. However, this Government are investing almost £500 million between 2005 and 2011 in transitional funding to support local authorities and schools in an ambitious six-year programme to transform school food.
Schools: Twinning
Mr. Anthony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools and colleges in (a) England and (b) Great Yarmouth are twinned with another school; and if he will take steps to increase this figure. [135174]
Jim Knight: The information is not collected centrally.
Schools: Accommodation
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many temporary school buildings were in use in each London borough in each year since 1997. [136260]
Jim Knight: Data supplied to the Department by local authorities in 2001, 2003 and 2005 show the following numbers of temporary buildings at maintained schools in each London borough:
| 2001 | 2003 | 2005 | |
These data are of thought to be of variable quality and completeness. Data are not held by my Department for other years since 1997.
Central Government capital support for investment in schools has increased from under £700 million in 1996-97 to £6.4 billion in 2007-08 and will rise further to £8.0 billion by 2010-11. Progress is being made
year-by-year in improving the quality of the school building stock. The bulk of schools capital is now allocated by formula to authorities and schools so that they can address their local priorities, including the replacement of decayed temporary accommodation, on which we have set a high priority. Given the high levels of funding, authorities have the opportunity to replace temporary buildings where they are considered to be unsuitable.
Modern, high-quality mobile or demountable buildings provide a good environment for teaching and learning where there is short-term need. They might, for instance, be needed to cope with a short-term increase in pupil numbers, or where extensive remodelling or rebuilding of permanent accommodation means providing temporary accommodation on the school site, rather than transporting children elsewhere.
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