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Education and Inspections Act 2006
Sections

5

School improvement partners (in form only in relation to secondary schools that are not special schools and primary schools which are not special schools and special schools in LEAs listed in the commencement orders)

37

Staff at foundation or voluntary school with religious character

74(1), (2), (3), (5)

Curriculum requirements for key stage 4

75

Modification to Learning and Skills Act 2000 in relation to education and training to satisfy entitlements

77 and Schedule 8

Travel to schools etc: meaning of “eligible child”. Partially in force

81

LEAs in England provision of transport for certain adult learners

154

Duty to report on contribution of certain schools to community cohesion

169 to 171

Prohibition in participation in management of independent schools


Children Act 2004

Section 1.8

In force only in so far as it gives authorities the power to appoint an officer (a director if children’s services) for the purposes specified in that section

Section 19

Not yet in force

Schedule 2

Not yet in force


Children and Adoption Act 2006

Not yet in force except for section 17 (short title, commencement and extent), Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

Departments: Public Expenditure

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of the increase in education spending since May 1997 has been allocated to higher pay; and if he will make a statement. [149204]

Jim Knight: The requested information is not readily available.

Education: Children in Care

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what measures he has put in place to improve the educational achievements of children in institutional care. [149038]

Jim Knight: Our recently published White Paper “Care Matters: Time for Change” sets out specific proposals to improve the education of all children in care. Most children in care live with foster carers—only 13 per cent. live in children’s homes. Our proposals include: a £500 educational allowance for children in care at risk of falling behind at school; putting the ‘designated teacher’ on a statutory footing to improve the expertise in schools; appointing ‘virtual school heads’ to oversee their education; improving attendance and reducing exclusions; reducing mobility of school placements, particularly in the crucial years before GCSEs; and a bursary of a minimum of £2,000 for all children in care who go on to university. These proposals build on the measures already in place: a specific duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of children in care and a requirement to give them the highest priority in school admission arrangements.

Further Education: Young People

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many young people did not stay on in education and training after age 16 in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [149931]


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Jim Knight: The following figures are for individuals at academic age 16(1) who were not in any education or training in the last five years (2002-06).

End of calendar year
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006( 1)

Total not in any education or training

85,900

85,100

82,700

74,000

68,500

Percentage of population not in any education or training

13.6

13.1

12.4

11.3

10.3

Population

631,000

647,800

664,800

656,000

662,300

(1 )Provisional.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children did not remain in education after the age of 16 years in each year since 1990-91; and if he will make a statement. [149974]

Jim Knight: The figures provided are for individuals at academic age 16(1) who were not in education or training (NET) in each year from 1990 to 2006. These figures are available in the statistical first release published by the Department (SFR 22/2007).

These NET figures are calculated by subtracting the number of young people estimated to be in education and training from the population; here, education and training covers those in full- or part-time education, work-based learning (including apprenticeships), and those on employer funded or other education and training not otherwise included in the figures.

End of calendar year Total NET Percentage NET of the population 16-year-old population

1990

88,000

14.7

599,100

1991

67,000

11.7

573,100

1992

61,500

11.2

550,300

1993

49,900

9.4

531,200

1994a*

50,500

9.3

545,800

1994b*

50,400

9.2

545,800

1995

68,400

11.5

595,000

1996

77,500

12.6

613,600

1997

79,200

13.1

605,900

1998

81,300

13.7

594,500

1999

77,300

12.9

598,800

2000

82,300

13.6

606,700

2001

90,600

14.3

633,500

2002

85,900

13.6

631,600

2003

85,100

13.1

647,800

2004

82,700

12.4

664,800

2005

74,000

11.3

656,000

2006 provisional

68,500

10.3

662,300



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The break in the time series in 1994 is due to changes in the source of further and higher education data; additionally overseas higher education students studying in England are included from 1994 onwards.

Literacy: Publishing

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) on what basis publishers are included in the list of publishers and their programmes in the choosing a phonics programme: publishers and their programmes section of his Department’s standards site; [149871]

(2) whether he plans to assess the effectiveness of the letters and sounds programme against alternative synthetic phonics programmes; [149872]

(3) whether the letters and sounds programme was piloted prior to its adoption by the primary national strategy; [149873]

(4) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Letters and Sounds programme developed by the PNS; [149874]

(5) what steps his Department is taking to encourage the adoption of effective synthetic phonics programmes in primary schools; [149875]

(6) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the phonics programmes listed on the choosing a phonics programme: publishers and their programmes section of his Department’s standards site. [149876]

Jim Knight: The Department launched a new phonics area of the standards website in March this year. The website contains published criteria to help schools and early years settings judge how well phonics teaching programmes meet the characteristics of high quality phonic work as defined in Sir Jim Rose’s review of the teaching of early reading. To ensure that this process is as easy and useful as possible for schools and settings we have invited publishers of commercial programmes to evaluate their own programme against the criteria and complete a self-assessment form which is then published on the site. This is a purely voluntary process.

The Department does not rank, endorse or promote any particular commercial phonics programme. We have committed to establishing a monitoring process to assess the accuracy of the information provided in the self-evaluation forms. This process is currently being developed and further information about how it will work will be provided on the website.

Letters and Sounds is one of many high quality phonics teaching programmes that meet the core criteria and we are not promoting it as the preferred phonics programme. An early version of the materials was previewed in some local authorities and with practitioners and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Letters and Sounds was distributed to all primary schools and local authorities during May and June. It will therefore take some time for the full effects to become known but we are confident that Letters and Sounds will make a significant contribution to improving standards of literacy. Initial feedback from practitioners indicates a very positive response to the materials and we will use this information to further
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refine our support for local authorities. The primary national strategy is monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of Letters and Sounds and Sir Jim Rose has been asked to report back at the end of the year on the implementation of his recommendations, including on Letters and Sounds.

Systematic, high-quality phonics is proven to be the most effective way of teaching children to read and is an integral part of the renewed primary literacy framework and the early years foundation stage. The resources and guidance on the phonics website provide schools and early years settings with the tools they need to make informed decisions about which high quality phonics programme will best suit their needs. The primary national strategy’s communication language and literacy development programme, which builds on the successful Early Reading Development Pilot, was developed to implement the recommendations of Sir Jim’s review. The programme began in autumn 2006. Through the programme, every local authority now has a local CLLD lead who will work to strengthen leadership and management of early literacy and support all primary schools and early years settings in the use of an effective phonics programme.

Numeracy: Policy

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what (a) numeracy and (b) literacy strategies have been announced since 1 May 1997; and if he will make a statement. [149932]

Jim Knight: The Government introduced the national literacy strategy in 1998 and the national numeracy strategy in 1999. Both applied to primary schools. The key stage 3 strategy, which covered English, maths, science and ICT, was introduced in phases from 2001. Each of the strategies has been continually updated to reflect best practice through the addition of further support and materials.

In 2006, the primary framework for literacy and mathematics—the core document of the PNS—was revised to raise expectations of progress and implement the recommendations of the Rose review. This was the first time the framework had been updated since the introduction of the national literacy strategy and national numeracy strategy.

Personal Social and Health Education

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent assessment he has made of the standards of sex and relationships education in schools. [149988]

Jim Knight: The Department has not undertaken or commissioned any recent assessment of sex and relationship education in schools. Ofsted is responsible for assessing the quality of schools' provision in the area of personal, social and health education, including SRE, through its inspection framework and subject reports, and last reported on SRE in ‘Sex and Relationships Education in Schools’ in 2002.


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