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7 Jun 2007 : Column 632W—continued

Dyspraxia

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what Government support is available for people suffering from dyspraxia. [139134]

Mr. Dhanda: Support for children with special educational needs (SEN) accounts for a high proportion of all school expenditure. We do not hold information centrally about expenditure on dyspraxia, but information collected from local authorities (LAs) shows planned expenditure on the education of school-age children with SEN of £4.5 billion in 2006-07. This is about 13 per cent. of all education spending.

Schools and LAs provide support to children with SEN, including those with dyspraxia, by taking account of guidance set out in the SEN Code of Practice (2001). The code recommends school based interventions at two levels—“School Action and School Action Plus”. If a child does not make adequate progress or cannot access the curriculum at “School Action Plus”, and it is considered the child may need support over and above what the school can provide, the LA may carry out a statutory assessment of the child’s SEN, with the view to the issue of a statement. A statement sets out the child’s needs, the provision to meet those needs, and the school the child attends.

Once a statement is issued the LA is under a duty to arrange the educational provision specified in the statement.

A statement may also, in the case of a child with dyspraxia, set out the support to be provided by health services, for example occupational therapy.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is responsible for funding further education provision for post-16 learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, including those people with dyspraxia. We do not hold information on the specific expenditure on dyspraxia. However, overall investment in provision for these learners has increased significantly over recent years, and in 2004/05 the LSC helped support more
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than 640,000 learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities accounting for nearly £1.5 billion.

Continuing investment in this provision remains a priority and the LSC has made clear in their Annual Statement of Priorities for 2007-08 that they expect the proportion of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities to be maintained.

For young people in higher education, disabled students’ allowances can help meet the additional costs of undertaking the course which arise from their disability, mental health condition or specific learning disability, including dyspraxia.

Educational Institutions: Israel

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the decision of the University and College Union to consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions; and if he will make a statement. [140967]

Bill Rammell: The UK Government fully support academic freedom and are firmly against any academic boycotts of Israel or Israeli academics. While I appreciate the independence of the UCU, I am very disappointed that the union has decided to pass a motion which encourages its members to consider boycotting Israeli academics and education
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institutions. I profoundly believe this does nothing to promote the Middle East peace process, in fact the reverse.

Foundation Degrees

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what proportion of foundation degrees he estimates will be validated by (a) further education colleges and (b) universities in each region in each year from 2009 to 2020, broken down by age group of students and taking into account the anticipated changes in demography in each region if the proposals currently before the House relating to franchise rights are enacted. [140715]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 6 June 2007]: Estimates of the data requested have not been made by the Department.

A report published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in January 2007 (Foundation Degrees: Key Statistics 2001-02 to 2006-07) shows that in the academic year 2004-05, a total of 83 higher education institutions (HEIs) and 255 further education colleges were involved with foundation degree provision. The following table shows the number of students registered and taught at each type of institution, and whether these students were studying on a full-time or part-time basis:

Home foundation degree entrants in 2004-05 at HEIs and FEIs in England
Institution		Full-time		Part-time		Total
R eg.	T aught	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Percentage full-time
HEI	HEI	4,950	39	4,365	56	9,315	45	53
HEI	HEI and FEI	145	1	40	1	185	1	78
HEI	FEI	4,365	34	1,665	21	6,030	29	72
FEI	FEI	3,295	26	1,750	22	5,040	25	66
Total		12,750	100	7,815	100	20,570	100	62

It should not, however, be inferred from this data that any particular proportion of foundation degree students will in future be undertaking programmes at a college with powers to award its own foundation degrees.

Further Education: Foundation Degrees

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had with (a) universities, (b) businesses and (c) further education colleges prior to taking the decision to bring forward legislation to permit further education colleges to apply for the right to award foundation degrees. [139271]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 4 June 2007]: The proposals in Clause 17 of the Further Education and Training Bill, to allow Further Education institutions in England to apply for the power to award Foundation Degrees, emerged after informal discussions with a number of interested parties in the further and higher education sectors. These followed up Sir Andrew Foster’s recommendation that

“consideration should be given to allowing some colleges, that meet quality criteria, the ability to award their own qualifications, rather than working through awarding bodies".

Officials discussed with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) how these proposals might be taken forward prior to the publication of the Further Education and Training Bill. The views of the Association of Colleges and other representative bodies from the Further Education sector were also sought.

Since publication of the Bill, the Department has undertaken extensive and extremely constructive discussions with a wide range of representatives from the Higher and Further Education sectors, as well as other interested stakeholder bodies. Over thirty written submissions were received in response to a circular letter inviting comment on the proposals; these included responses from a number of Sector Skills Councils and the Council for Industry and Higher Education. Ministers and officials have also maintained frequent contact with sector bodies such as Universities UK and the Association of Colleges, and have also corresponded with representatives from individual institutions in both sectors.

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Further Education: Qualifications

Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the completion rates were for students undertaking (a) higher national diplomas and (b) foundation degrees in each of the last 10 years. [138387]

Bill Rammell: Information on the completion rates of students on foundation degrees and higher national diplomas for the last 10 years is not held centrally.

The available information on the qualification rates of students on foundation degrees was published in January 2007 in ‘Foundation degrees: key statistics 2001-02 to 2006-07’ by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The information, covering students registered at higher education institutions, looked at the qualification rates of students on courses with expected course lengths of two and three years who qualified within these time frames.

The key findings were that, overall, around 77 to 86 per cent. of students had either qualified within the expected course length or were still studying either on a foundation degree course or on another higher education programme. The exact proportion varied depending on the length and mode of study of the course.

The report also contained comparable figures for students on HNDs. These showed a slightly wider variation in the proportion of students who had either qualified within the expected course length or were still studying either on a HND course or on another higher education programme of between 74 to 86 per cent. Again, the exact proportion depended on the length and mode of study.

The complete report is available from the HEFCE website only at:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2007/

Learning and Skills Councils: Reorganisation

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the costs of any redundancies which will arise from the proposed restructuring of learning and skills councils including the costs of payments to individuals and the costs of payments into the pension scheme. [139273]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 4 June 2007]: The LSC has been undertaking a major restructuring exercise under theme 7 of its 'Agenda for Change' reform programme. This exercise is expected to be completed later this summer, and will result in some 1,100 fewer staff posts across the whole of the organisation.

The LSC set aside provision of £55.7 million in its 2005-06 accounts to cover the one-off costs associated with these staff changes. Of this, £30.4 million is for redundancy and severance costs, £2.1 million for pension costs and £2.29 million for outplacement costs. The remainder is for property and HR related activities. Final outturn figures for 2006-07 are not yet available but will be published in the LSC’s annual report and accounts in July.

We expect the LSC to achieve year-on-year savings of £40 million as a result of these changes. This is in
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addition to the £50 million savings it is already making year-on-year compared to predecessor bodies.

Medicine: Qualifications

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the (a) average number of A*s at GCSE and (b) average UKCAT score attained by successful (i) pre A-level and (ii) post A-level applicants to medical schools was in the academic year 2006-07. [140754]

Bill Rammell: Information on the average number of A*s at GCSE and average UKCAT scores is not held centrally. In 2006, there were 18,949 applicants to pre-clinical medicine courses, of whom 8,011 were accepted.

Vocational Training

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vocational course places were available for 16 to 19 year olds in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [135789]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 8 May 2007]: The following table shows numbers in full-time education, WBL and other forms of education and training by highest qualification aim over the last five years. It is not possible to split student numbers clearly between vocational and other routes, particularly as substantial numbers of young people will follow a mixed programme involving both vocational and general subjects.

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End of calendar year	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males and females
Full-time education	1,027,400	1,059,700	1,086,100	1,127,600	1,176,800
Higher Education (Level 4 and above)	128,800	131,800	133,700	134,700	142,300
Further Education	898,700	928,000	952,400	992,900	1,034,500
NVQ3	6,600	6,400	6,400	8,100	8,300
VCE A/AS level or Advanced GNVQ	119,300	112,600	116,200	104,100	63,200
GCE A/AS level	472,100	486,000	481,900	494, 700	533,200
NVQ 3 equivalents	91,900	102,800	117,500	136,700	167,900
NVQ 2	29,100	28,600	29,800	31,300	33,700
Intermediate GNVQ	53,200	49,000	40,300	33,200	23,100
GCSE	20,200	19,000	18,500	21,300	24,200
NVQ 2 equivalents	42,300	47,700	56,900	69,400	79,800
NVQ 1	9,100	9,800	10,100	12,500	14,900
Foundation GNVQ	10,800	11,500	10,200	8,200	5,100
NVQ 1 equivalents	15,700	20,900	26,400	31,800	40,500
Other courses(2)	28,500	33,800	38,200	41,600	40,600
Work Based Learning (WBL)	156,600	151,400	156,700	156,100	149,700
Of which:
WBL in full-time education	3,200	3,300	3,400	3,400	3,500
WBL in part-time education	5,300	5,200	5,000	4,800	4,800
Employer Funded Training (EFT)	94,900	99,800	105,600	101,900	95,600
Of which:
Part-time education	13,500	14,800	14,300	12,900	13,300
Other Education and Training (OET)( 3)	107,000	103,100	102,500	98,300	96,300
Of which:
Part-time education	95,900	89,500	87,400	85,300	82,500
Total Education and WBL( 4)	1,290,200	1,312,100	1,341,000	1,378,400	1,418,800
Total Education and training( 5)	1,382,700	1,410,700	1,447,500	1,480,500	1,515,000
Not in any education or training(6)	465,800	482,200	488,900	488,600	474,000
All	1,848,500	1,892,900	1,936,400	1,969,000	1,989,000
Population ( T housand)	1,848,500	1,892,900	1,936,400	1,969,000	1,989,000
(1 )Provisional. (2. )Includes all courses below level 1 and those of unknown or unspecified level (also includes PRUs; and special schools, for which no qualification breakdown is available). (3 )Includes part-time education not funded by employers or through WBL; also full or part-time education in independent FE and HE institutions. (4) Total of all full-time and part-time education and WBL (less WBL in full-time education), equivalent to local level estimates for education and training. (5 )Total of all full-time education and WBL (less WBL in full-time education) plus EFT and OET. (6 )The remainder of the age group.

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