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4 July 2007 : Column 1090Wcontinued
We provide comprehensive advice for schools setting out a range of proven strategies for tackling bullying. We are currently revising our over-arching anti-bullying advice to schools, which we propose to issue on-line in September under the title Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti-Bullying Work in Schools. This will include specific guidance on prejudice-driven bullying, with links to the guidance on racist bullying we first issued last year, and homophobic bullying guidance
specifically prepared for us by Stonewall and Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH). There will also be specific guidance on how to prevent and tackle cyberbullying. To complete this suite of guidance, we will also prepare specific advice on how to tackle the bullying of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Education and Skills Select Committee recently examined bullying in schools, and their report welcomed key aspects of the Government's programme of work, including our main guidance and our guidance on prejudice-driven bullying. The Government's response was issued very recently.
We work with and fund a number of partners, including the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) who arrange the annual anti-bullying week, and provide a range of advice and support to local authorities; ParentLine Plus, who run a helpline for parents whose children are being bullied; and ChildLine in Partnership with Schools (CHIPS) who run peer mentoring schemes for the Department; and we also fund awards for anti-bullying work as part of the Princess Diana Memorial Awards scheme. We issue the anti-bullying charter to schools and have placed a duty on head teachers to determine measures to prevent all forms of bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. More recently, we convened a taskforce to look at all aspects of cyber-bullying, made up of internet service providers, mobile phone companies, education professionals and those working in the youth justice system.
We are now shifting the focus of our anti-bullying work from campaigning to embedding effective practice in schools. To do this we are working with the national strategies to identify schools with weak and ineffective anti-bullying policies and provide targeted support to those schools; and with BeatBullying, a respected anti-bullying charity, to run a project on tackling inter-faith bullying, including Islamaphobia.
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding has been allocated to the North East of England to tackle bullying in schools in the last 12 months for which figures are available; what progress has been made in reducing bullying; and if he will make a statement. [147154]
Jim Knight: Ring-fenced funding for anti-bullying campaigns is not made available on either a local authority or school by school basis. Rather it is a matter for schools and local authorities to decide how much of their budget they devote to this important work.
The Government believe that all bullying is wrong and should never be tolerated in schools, and all our guidance makes this clear. This year the Department will provide around £1.7 million for anti-bullying programmes, which covers the costs of grants to external organisations, as well as anti-bullying resources, the publication of guidance and support for local authorities and schools, and directly funded external events.
We provide comprehensive advice for schools setting out a range of proven strategies for tackling bullying.
We are currently revising our over-arching anti-bullying advice to schools, which we propose to issue on-line in September under the title Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti-Bullying Work in Schools. This will include specific guidance on prejudice-driven bullying, with links to the guidance on racist bullying we first issued last year, and homophobic bullying guidance prepared for us by Stonewall and Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH). There will also be specific guidance on how to prevent and tackle cyberbullying. To complete this suite of guidance, we will also prepare specific advice on how to tackle the bullying of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Education and Skills Select Committee recently examined bullying in schools, and their report welcomed key aspects of the Government's programme of work, including our main guidance and our guidance on prejudice-driven bullying. The Government's response was issued very recently.
We work with and fund a number of partners, including the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) who arrange the annual anti-bullying week, and provide a range of advice and support to local authorities; ParentLine Plus, who run a helpline for parents whose children are being bullied; and ChildLine in Partnership with Schools (CHIPS) who run peer mentoring schemes for the Department; and we also fund awards for anti-bullying work as part of the Princess Diana Memorial Awards scheme. We have issued the Anti-Bullying Charter to schools and have placed a duty on head teachers to determine measures to prevent all forms of bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. More recently, we convened a Taskforce to look at all aspects of cyberbullying, made up of internet service providers, mobile phone companies, education professionals and those working in the youth justice system.
We are now shifting the focus of our anti-bullying work from campaigning to embedding effective practice in schools. To do this we are working with the National Strategies to identify schools with weak and ineffective anti-bullying policies and provide targeted support to those schools; and with BeatBullying, to run a project on tackling inter-faith bullying, including Islamaphobia.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2007, Official Report, column 797W, on pupils: intimidation, (1) on what date his Departments work to tackle cyber-bullying began; [147165]
(2) how many staff worked on the anti-bullying strand of this programme in each financial year given, broken down by payband; [147171]
(3) whether reduced funding for anti-bullying work in 2005-06 was a result of decisions taken in the 2004 Spending Review process; [147172]
(4) how much funding his Department has given to each organisation listed since it started working with them; [147173]
(5) how many schools anti-bullying policies have been classified as weak and ineffective; and how many such schools have received targeted support. [147174]
Jim Knight: Further to research published by Goldsmiths University on behalf of the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), the Department first published interim guidelines on cyberbullying in July 2006. Around the same time, we formed the Departments Cyberbullying Taskforce, consisting of industry leaders, particularly Internet Service Providers and mobile phone operators, as well as education practitioners, the professional associations and law enforcement agencies (such as the Youth Justice Board) to develop a range of initiatives to combat cyberbullying in schools, and to ensure parents are provided with the information they need to keep their children safe online.
The team within the Department with responsibility for anti-bullying had, in 2003/04, the earliest year for which authoritative figures are available, one Grade 7, two Higher Executive Officers (HEOs), three Executive Officers (EOs) and one Administrative Officer (AO). Some of these officers also had other duties besides anti-bullying work. By 2005/06 the team consisted of one Grade 7, one Senior Executive Officer (SEO), one HEO and 60 per cent. of one EO, all working on anti-bullying work. By the following year this had changed to one Grade 7, two HEOs and 60 per cent. of one EO.
This decrease in funding was not a result of decisions made in the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review. The increased funding in 2004-2005 can be accounted for by the launch of the Departments Make the Difference nationwide conference series on bullying, a high-profile series of events attended by over 5,000 heads and school staff.
Our records show funding as represented on the following table:
2002/03 | 2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | |
All figures are exclusive of VAT.
The programme of work to identify schools with weak and ineffective anti-bullying policies is carried out for the Department by the National Strategies Behaviour and Attendance team and they hold the relevant data. In order to maximise the participation of Local Authorities (LAs) and schools on this programme, the National Strategies have given an undertaking that they will not pass this information on to the Department. Bullying can often be covert and difficult to identify so we think it is important to ensure the problem is not driven underground by naming and shaming schools which are deemed to have weak and ineffective anti-bullying policies.
The National Strategies use a number of monitoring prompts to assess whether a school needs additional support with its anti-bullying work. One such prompt relates to the use of the Departments Anti-Bullying Charter for Schools. According to recent figures from the National Strategies nearly 75 per cent. of secondary and over 50 per cent. of primary schools use the principles of the Charter to draw up effective anti-bullying policies.
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent per pupil in Warrington in each year since 1997. [146259]
Jim Knight [holding answer 28 June 2007]: The revenue funding figures per pupil in Warrington in each year since 1997 are provided in the following table:
1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-4 | 2004-5 | 2005-06 | |
(1) Figures are not available. Notes: 1. The combined LA and school based expenditure includes all expenditure on the education of children in LA maintained establishments and pupils educated by the LA other than in maintained establishments. This includes both school based expenditure and all elements of central LA expenditure except youth and community and capital expenditure from revenue (CERA). A sector breakdown for combined LA and school based expenditure is not available from 2002-03 and consequently this table shows the total LA recurrent expenditure (except youth and community) per pupil by LA since 1995-96. 2. 1999-00 saw a change in data source when the data collection moved from the R01 form collected by the ODPM to the section 52 outturn forms collected by the DFES. 2002-03 saw a further break in the time series following the introduction of consistent financial reporting (CFR) and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The change in sources is shown by the dotted line. 3. Pupil figures include all pre-primary pupils, including those under fives funded by the LA and being educated in private settings, pupils educated in maintained mainstream schools and other LA maintained pupils. The pupil data for pupils attending maintained mainstream schools and other LA maintained pupils. The pupil data for pupils attending maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools are taken from the DFES annual schools census. Private voluntary and independent (PVI) under five pupil numbers are taken from the early years census but are only included for 1999-00 onwards. For 1998-99 onwards other LA maintained pupils are included in the pupil count. This includes all pupils attending schools not maintained by the authority for whom the authority is paying full tuition fees, or educated otherwise than in schools and pupil referral units under arrangements made by the authority drawn from Form 8b submitted to the DFES. Also included as other LA maintained pupils are all pupils attending pupil referral units who are not registered at a maintained school drawn from the DFES annual school census. All pupil numbers are adjusted to be on a financial year basis. 4. Local government reorganisation (LGR) took place during the mid to late 1990s. Warrington was part of that reorganisation and figures are not available for 1997-98. 5. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and are subject to change by the LA. |
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what capital expenditure has been allocated to (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in each local authority area in England in each of the last five years for which information is available. [146685]
Jim Knight: The Department does not maintain central records which analyse, for each capital funding stream, the proportion that relates to (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in each local authority area. This is because local authority formulaic funding is not ring-fenced. When received by each local authority, it decides locally what proportion of formulaic funding shall be allocated to secondary schools and to primary schools.
The following table shows total schools capital allocations in each local authority area in England in each of the last five years.
Local authority | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
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