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3 Sep 2007 : Column 1722W—continued
Literacy: Teaching Methods
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what use his Department plans to make of the voluntary and community sector in delivering personalised learning and one-to-one tuition in English in the Making Good Progress pilot areas; and if he will make a statement. [153621]
Kevin Brennan: Reading mentors are an invaluable resource for many schools in supporting children to read well. The Department is currently providing funding to Volunteer Reading Help (VRH)—a charitable organisation which recruits, trains and places volunteers to give one-to-one help twice a week to children aged 6-11 years who find reading a challenge. Currently VRH has around 2,000 volunteer readers working with around 5,000 children.
In the ‘Making Good Progress’ pilot, each pilot local authority will be responsible for making arrangements for delivering tuition including overseeing the recruitment of suitable tutors, who must be qualified teachers, and organising locations for the tuition to take place. We know that some local authorities are liaising with community groups who have offered venues for tuition.
The wider picture is that over £1 billion has been invested in personalised learning by 2007-08, Our guidance to schools indicated that our priorities for the funding were: to support intervention and catch-up provision for children who have fallen behind in English and maths; to support the education of gifted and talented learners; and to help learners from deprived backgrounds to access after school and year-round activities. It is for schools to decide how to use this money to provide more tailored support for their pupils.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what delivery partners his Department will work with to deliver one-to-one tuition in reading and literacy in (a) Making Good Progress pilot local authorities and (b) other local authorities in England; and if he will make a statement; [153625]
(2) how one-to-one tuition for low-attaining pupils will be delivered under the Making Good Progress pilots; who will deliver this tuition; and if he will make a statement. [153626]
Kevin Brennan: In the “Making Good Progress” pilot one-to-one tuition will be an out of school hours programme of up to 10 hours of individual tuition in English and/or mathematics. Tutors will liaise with the class teacher to ensure that the tuition that they offer meets the needs of the child and is closely tied in to the work that the child is doing in class. Each pilot local authority will be responsible for making its own arrangements for delivering tuition, including overseeing the recruitment of suitable tutors, who must be qualified teachers, and organising locations for tuition to take place.
We are now in the third and final year of the “Every Child a Reader” pilot, funded by a collaboration between the DfES, KPMG Foundation and other charitable trusts. The pilot is helping 5,000 six-year-olds with significant learning difficulties to learn to read. It does this by placing specialist literacy teachers into schools to provide intensive one-to-one or small group support to children most in need. Results from the first year of the pilot showed that children made well over four times the normal rate of progress. As a result, a national roll-out will begin from 2008-09 benefiting over 30,000 children a year by 2011.
Ofsted: Operating Costs
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the running costs of Ofsted were in each year from 1992-93 to 2006-07; what
Ofsted’s planned running costs are in 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [149082]
Jim Knight: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply has been placed in the House Library.
Primary Education: Finance
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how much funding the (a) business sector and (b) voluntary sector has committed to the Every Child a Reader programme, broken down by financial year; [153354]
(2) how much funding the (a) business sector and (b) voluntary sector is expected to commit to the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year until 2010-11; [153355]
(3) how much has been set aside for the Every Child a Reader programme in each of the years covered by his Department's Comprehensive Spending Review settlement announced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 2007 Budget; [153365]
(4) how much has been spent on the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year since its inception. [153366]
Kevin Brennan: Contributions from business-led charitable funders to the three year Every Child a Reader pilot are approximately £1.25 million in 2005-06, £1.85 million in 2006-07 and £2.35 million in 2007-08. The 2007 pre-Budget report announced that the ECAR programme would be rolled out nationally from 2008-09, benefiting 30,000 children a year by 2010-11. We are in discussions about the funding of the national roll-out and no decisions have yet been taken.
Taking into account the Department’s contribution to ECAR, a total of £10 million has been spent on the pilot since its inception in 2005-06. Broken down by financial year, this equates to approximately £1.5 million in 2005-06, £4 million in 2006-07 and £4.5 million in 2007-08.
In addition, over the three years of the ECAR pilot 2005-08, the KPMG Foundation has contributed administrative costs at £500,000 and the Department has funded the Institute of Education £1.2 million to support the national and local training infrastructure.
Primary Education: Literacy
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children (a) have participated in the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year since its inception and (b) are expected to participate in the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year until 2010-11. [153367]
Kevin Brennan: Since the inception of the three year Every Child a Reader (ECAR) pilot, 542 children participated in the pilot in 2005-06, 1,750 children in 2006-07 and we estimate that 2,340 children will participate in 2007-08.
The Every Child a Reader programme will roll-out nationally from 2008-09. no decisions about the
delivery have yet been taken but 30,000 children will benefit from the programme by 2010-11.
Pupil Exclusions: Intimidation
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the number is of incidents of bullying which have led to the exclusion of a pupil from their school in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) type of bullying. [152163]
Kevin Brennan: The available information has been placed in the House Library.
Only three years of data relating to the reason for exclusion are currently available. The first year for which information on the reason for exclusion is available relates to the 2003/04 academic year. Exclusions data for 2005/06 academic year were published in June 2007.
Information on type of bullying is not collected centrally. The information provided shows the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions by reason, which includes ‘Bullying’.
Pupils: Intimidation
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what assessment his Department has made of the value for money of expenditure on its anti-bullying policies; [153356]
(2) pursuant to the answer of 4 July 2007, Official Report, columns 1092-94, on pupils: intimidation, to how many schools the National Strategies gave additional support with anti-bullying work in each financial year since 2002-03; [153455]
(3) pursuant to the answer of 4 July 2007, Official Report, columns 1092-94, on pupils: intimidation, what percentage of schools were using the principles of the Charter to draw up effective anti-bullying policies in each financial year since 2002-03; [153456]
(4) pursuant to the answers of 11 June 2007, Official Report, column 795W and 4 July 2007, Official Report, column 1092W, on pupils: intimidation, if he will clarify the allocation of funds for tackling bullying to (a) organisations and (b) programmes. [153615]
Kevin Brennan: PricewaterhouseCoopers recently completed an evaluation of the Department’s programme of work with the Anti-Bullying Alliance, the main organisation which the Department funds for anti-bullying work. The PWC report was generally positive, but suggested that some elements of the work should be put out to tender. The Department is currently preparing tender documents for future elements of the anti-bullying work programme.
The Department’s programme of work with the National Strategies Regional Advisers—to spread good practice and work with identified schools to support and challenge them in improving their anti-bullying policies and strategies—began this financial year. I refer the hon. Member to previous answer 147174, making clear that data on the number of schools supported are not held by the Department.
The National Strategies began to monitor use of the Anti-Bullying Charter to inform effective policy and practice in secondary schools in March 2006. They
have recorded a steady increase in the use of the principles of the Charter over the twice-yearly reporting cycle. They began to monitor primary schools as well in March 2007. The National Strategies advise that nearly 75 per cent. of secondary schools and over 50 per cent. of primary schools are using the principles of the Charter to draw up their own anti-bullying policies.
I refer the hon. Member to answers provided previously on the issue of funding (141379, and 147173), which detailed overall allocations for anti-bullying work in each financial year since 2002 as well as the funds given to organisations that the Department has worked with. Funding not allocated to external organisations was used to support a variety of activities, including anti-bullying resources such as DVDs and hard-copies of guidance documents, local and national events, the preparation of guidance, research, and publicity campaigns.
Pupils: Qualifications
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to his answer of 5 July 2007, Official Report, column 1127W, on pupils: qualifications, on what basis it was decided that a CACHE level 2 certificate in child care and education is equivalent to five GCSEs at A* to C for the purposes of the secondary school (GCSE and equivalent) performance tables. [149869]
Jim Knight: The performance points for qualifications reported in the Achievement and Attainment Tables are determined by the size of each qualification and the challenge it represents, where size is an indication of the time spent by a centre in supporting a learner and challenge based on the grades it is possible to achieve at a particular level within the National Qualifications Framework. Size is converted into a measure based on the guided learning hours attached to a qualification, with GCSEs having a size measure of one. The Cache Certificate in Child Care and Education at Level 2 currently accredited (Qualification Accreditation Number 100/0645/X) requires 480 guided learning hours which converts to a size measure of five.
A revised version of this qualification has recently been accredited into the National Qualifications Framework (Qualification Accreditation Number 500/1886/3) and will be available to learners from 1 November 2007. The revised version will require 300 guided learning hours and will, therefore, have a size measure of three.
The size indicators are based on set ranges of guided learning hours, or bands. At Levels 1 and 2, a qualification with between 90 and 144 guided learning hours (such as a GCSE) will have a size indicator of one, while a qualification with between 415 and 504 guided learning hours (such as the CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Child Care and Education) will have a size indicator of five. For the purposes of the SCAAT, the CACHE Level 2 Certificate has a size equivalence of five GCSEs.
The challenge indicators are based on grades. Performance points are assigned to each grade within a grade range at each National Qualifications
Framework level. An A* grade for a GCSE will attract 58 points, while a Distinction in a qualification with a three grade scheme such as the CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Child Care and Education, will attract 55 points. The points for a qualification are then multiplied by its size indicator to obtain its overall performance points scores.
The performance points that a qualification attracts are used solely as a measure of an institution’s performance, and are not a reflection of the amount of work a learner may need to undertake to achieve the qualification.
A revised version of this qualification has recently been accredited into the National Qualifications Framework (Qualification Accreditation Number 500/1886/3) and will be available for learners from 1 November 2007. This revised version has a volume of 300 guided learning hours and will therefore have a size indicator of three.
Pupils: Questionnaires
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what use Ofsted will make of its lifestyle questionnaires for years six to eight pupils; [149432]
(2) how many complaints he has received about Ofsted’s inquiry form for primary school pupils about drink, drugs and local facilities; [149438]
(3) what his policy is on preserving anonymity of pupils when answering Ofsted questionnaires about lifestyle. [149439]
Jim Knight: HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member to explain how Ofsted will use information obtained from its questionnaires about lifestyles. A copy of her reply has been placed in the House Library.
I am aware of two letters received by the Department about the recent ‘Tellus2’ survey undertaken by Ofsted, both of which were referred to Ofsted for reply. I understand that Ofsted itself received seven queries from primary schools during the response period, three of which questioned the general suitability of some questions for younger children. Of these three, one specifically mentioned the question on drinking. These queries did not result in a complaint. Since the closure of the survey, Ofsted has received nine communications from parents, of which two expressed concern about the nature of the questions and two specifically mentioned the question on drinking. One of these latter two also mentioned the question on smoking. The primary school questionnaire did not include a question on drugs.
Respondents to such questionnaires quite rightly have their anonymity protected. In the case of the Tellus2 survey, children and young people responded using an individual, randomly generated ‘log in’ identifier, rather than their names or dates of birth. Postcode information was collected, at the request of local authorities, to enable summary information to be produced about groups of children living in different parts of an authority. However, this was on the basis that data would only be reported if no individuals or schools could be identified from it.
Pupils: School Meals
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance he has issued to schools on checking the contents of children’s home-made packed-lunches; and if he will make a statement. [150817]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has not issued guidance to schools on checking the contents of children’s home-made packed-lunches.
The School Food Trust guidance on food-based standards for school lunches contains advice to caterers and schools on how to ensure packed lunches they provide meet the standards. In addition, the Food Standards Agency has produced guidance on
providing healthy packed-lunches on its website.
Some schools have school food policies that ban certain products from being brought into school in packed lunches. If schools do want to adopt such policies, we would strongly recommend that they consult with parents.
School Meals: Expenditure
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average daily expenditure on school meals by each local education authority was in each year since 1996-97. [152300]
Kevin Brennan: The Department does not collect data on the average daily expenditure on school meals by each local education authority.
School Meals: Nutrition
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what changes there have been to the consumption of (a) chips, (b) burgers and (c) high fat foods in schools since 2004. [152299]
Kevin Brennan: New food-based nutritional standards were introduced in September 2006 for school lunches and similar standards will apply to other school food from September 2007. Nutrient-based standards will be introduced for school lunches in September 2008 for primary schools and September 2009 for secondary schools.
These standards require that no more than two deep fried foods can be served in any single week. That includes deep-fried chips and oven-baked products which have been deep-fried as part of the manufacturing process, Limits have also been placed on the serving of meat products which mean that burgers can be served only once every two weeks. The nutrient-based standards will place limits on the levels of fat that can be served as part of a school lunch.
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