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17 July 2007 : Column 295Wcontinued
Children Act 2004 | |
In force only in so far as it gives authorities the power to appoint an officer (a director if childrens services) for the purposes specified in that section | |
Children and Adoption Act 2006
Not yet in force except for section 17 (short title, commencement and extent), Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
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.
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 carersonly 13 per cent. live in childrens 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.
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]
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).
(1 )Academic age is the age of the individual measured at the beginning of the academic year, 31 August. Academic age 16 would be for those individuals in the year following compulsory education.
End of calendar year | |||||
2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006( 1) | |
(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.
(1 )Academic age is the age of the individual measured at the beginning of the academic year, 31 August. Academic age 16 would be for those individuals in the year following compulsory education.
End of calendar year | Total NET | Percentage NET of the population | 16-year-old population |
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.
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 Departments 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 Departments 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 Roses 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
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 strategys communication language and literacy development programme, which builds on the successful Early Reading Development Pilot, was developed to implement the recommendations of Sir Jims 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.
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 mathematicsthe core document of the PNSwas 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.
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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