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23 July 2007 : Column 891W—continued
Specialist Schools
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many specialist schools there were in each of the last 10 years. [151212]
Jim Knight: The number of specialist schools in each year from 1997 to 2007 was as follows:
| Number of specialist schools | |
Around 86 per cent. of all secondary schools are now specialist and we are well on track to meet the target that 95 per cent. of eligible secondary schools should be specialist by 2008.
Specialist Schools: Sports
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many specialist sport schools there are; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there are at least 400 sports specialist schools and academies. [150299]
Kevin Brennan: There are already 433 designated sports colleges, composed of:
371 schools with sport as a first specialism;
22 schools with sport as a combined specialism;
26 schools with sport as a second specialism; and
14 academies with sport as a focus.
The Department part funds the Youth Sport Trust to provide guidance and support to schools seeking to apply for sports college status. We are now working towards our ambition to establish 450 sports colleges and academies with a sports focus.
Teachers: Training
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many people failed to complete teacher training courses in each year from 2000 to 2007. [151180]
Jim Knight: Information about failure to complete initial teacher training (ITT) courses is only available for trainees in their final year of training. The following tables show the number of final year initial teacher training (ITT) trainees for each academic year between 1999/2000 and 2005/06 who did not gain qualified teacher status (QTS) in their final year of training and, of these, the number who left their course before completion and the number where the outcome of QTS is unknown for:
1. Mainstream initial teacher training (ITT) trainees
2. Employment-based routes (EBR) trainees
| Employment-based routes (EBR) trainees | ||||||
| Number of EBR final year trainees who have not gained QTS | ||||||
| Total number of EBR trainees in their final year | Number of EBR final year trainees gaining QTS | Known not to have completed course | Undefined outcome | Other outcome | Total | |
| Notes: 1. Includes trainees from employment-based routes (EBR) only. 2. Numbers are individually rounded to the nearest 10, therefore may not sum. 3. ‘Other outcome’ includes final year trainees who are yet to complete their course, those with withheld QTS (including those where their skills test was not met, their standards were not met and where both their standards and skills test were not met) and those where the skill test has not been taken (include those whose standards were met and those whose standards were not met). Source: TDA performance profiles. | ||||||
Truancy: Finance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the total spending by his Department was on anti-truancy programmes in each year since 1996-97; and what assessment of value for money has been made of such spending. [150887]
Kevin Brennan: I refer the hon. Member to the replies given on 16 April 2007, Official Report, column 313W, to the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather), on 22 January 2007, Official Report, column 1486W, to the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr. Hayes), on 16 January 2007, Official Report, columns 1061-62W, to the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mark Hunter) and on 23 October 2006, Official Repor t, column 1566W, to the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne).
In 2007/08 we have committed the following amounts:
£0.6 million on attendance consultancy to support to local authorities;
£100,000 on absence data collections (in addition to school census collections);
£126,000 for publicity and promotion materials on attendance and absence; and
£15,000 on events for local authorities to share effective practice on attendance management.
As a result of our focus on providing challenge and support to 436 secondary schools with high levels of persistent absence, we have seen a 22 per cent. reduction in the number of persistently absent pupils in those schools over the autumn and spring terms of 2006-07 compared to the same period in 2005-06.
Trust Schools
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many trust schools there are; and how many are planned to be built in the next five years. [151226]
Jim Knight: At present, no schools have implemented proposals to become foundation schools with foundations (Trust Schools) under the Education and Inspections Act 2006. However, the first of the Pathfinder schools plan to become Trust Schools from September 2007. There are currently 33 Pathfinder projects involving around 70 schools. All of these schools are expected to become Trust Schools by September 2008. With the addition of around 140 Early Adopters this means that there are currently more than 200 schools working towards Trust status. This is a school driven policy therefore there are no set targets. However the Department for Children, Schools and Families will work towards having 300 schools, which by the end of the year will have become Trust Schools or are working towards this.
Forming a Trust does not involve new buildings. There is no additional capital and they will be funded through the local authority like any other maintained school.
Young People: Drugs
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children and young people under the age of 18 years were admitted to hospital due to the ingestion of (a) illegal drugs and (b) volatile substances in each of the last five years. [150737]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply
The specific information requested is not collected. However, the following table shows the number of finished admission episodes of young people under the age of 18, for the most commonly abused illegal drugs and volatile substances, for the last five years.
| Count of finished admission episodes for selected primary diagnoses for ages 0-17 years for 2001 to 2006, national health service hospitals, England | ||
| Illegal drugs | Volatile substances | |
| Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The Information Centre for health and social care. | ||
Young People: Education
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of (a) all children and (b) looked-after children over the age of 16 years were in full-time education in each of the last five years. [150742]
Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Percentage of looked after children in Year 11 in full-time education, compared with all children | ||
| Looked after children( 1) | All children( 2) | |
| (1) Source: Outcome Indicators for Looked After Children survey. (2) Source: “The Connexions/Careers Service Annual Activity Survey”. | ||
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