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26 Nov 2007 : Column 270W—continued
Pupils: Absenteeism
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the rate of (a) authorised and (b) unauthorised absence is from English schools by children in their last year of compulsory education. [162188]
Kevin Brennan: The following table showing the rate of absence by national curriculum year group has been published in Statistical First Release 11/2007—‘Pupil Absence in Secondary Schools in England, 2005-06’.
Updated information relating to the 2006/07 school year is intended for publication in February 2008.
| Maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies( 1) : Pupil absence by national curriculum year group( 2) 2005-06, England | ||||
| Percentage of half days missed( 4) | ||||
| National curriculum year group | Number of day pupils of compulsory school age( 3) | Authorised absence | Unauthorised absence | Overall absence |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) See Notes to Editors 10 for further information on how absence figures by national curriculum year group have been derived. (3) Pupil numbers are as at January 2006. Includes pupils aged 5 to 15 with sole and dual (main) registration. Excludes boarders. (4) The number of sessions missed due to authorised/unauthorised/overall absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions. (5) Includes pupil enrolments for whom information on national curriculum year group was missing. Note: Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census | ||||
Schools: Admissions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for what reasons local authorities are under an obligation to remove surplus school places; and if he will make a statement. [168196]
Jim Knight: Section 13 of the Education Act 1996 places local authorities under a duty to secure that
“efficient primary education, secondary education and further education are available to meet the needs of the population of their area”.
Funding used to maintain empty school places can represent an inefficient use of resources that could be better spent raising standards for parents and pupils.
However, there is no ‘surplus places rule’ that would prevent the addition of provision where surplus places exist. As statutory guidance makes clear
“Where proposals add to surplus capacity but there is a strong case for approval on parental preference and standards grounds, the presumption should be for approval. The LA in these cases will need to consider parallel action to remove the surplus capacity thereby created.”
Skilled Workers: Havering
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to ensure that residents from the London borough of Havering will have the necessary skills to ensure they can take advantage of jobs resulting from the Olympics in 2012. [168417]
Mr. Lammy: I have been asked to reply.
This year the Learning and Skills Council is introducing a £5 million package of measures across London to ensure that Londoners are motivated into work or training and able to compete for London 2012 opportunities and good jobs beyond 2012. This package will improve skills and training opportunities for Londoners in four key sectors related to the London 2012 Olympic games and Paralympic games: sport, customer service, audio-visual and construction. Demand for skilled workers in these four sectors is forecast to increase in the run-up to 2012 and beyond.
Specific measures include advanced apprenticeships in sporting excellence and apprenticeships in sports and leisure; bursaries towards UK coaching certificates; training for people on incapacity and health benefit to enable them to become construction trade A1 assessors; preparing local residents for construction apprenticeships at Kings Cross station; delivering new apprenticeships in customer service/ hospitality; co-funding the research and development of a new customer service ‘gold standard' to raise the bar of customer services in London for the games; and increasing the number and quality of work-based learning programmes on offer in the audio-visual industry. Additionally, the LSC has invested in the LDA-led personal best programme, graduates of which will have the opportunity to be interviewed for the London 2012 volunteering programme; and has entered into a training partnership with the Olympic delivery authority, construction skills and the London Development Agency with the objective of ensuring National Skills Academy for Construction status for the whole Olympic site.
Truancy
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government has taken to reduce truancy since 1997. [167895]
Kevin Brennan: The Department focuses on reducing all unnecessary absences from schools, not just those which are unauthorised. Overall absence rates have been substantially lower than the 1996-97 rate of 7.23 per cent. in all but two of the last nine years for which full data are available. Partial data for 2006-07, which we placed in the Library of the House in October 2007, indicate that the downward tend is continuing.
There is no direct measure of truancy. Unauthorised absence is often used as a proxy for truancy, but it is an imperfect measure because it also includes lateness and some term time holidays. It is also well known that unauthorised absence tends to rise when schools take a tougher line on absence generally, as it has done in recent years, without necessarily reflecting any underlying increase in truancy. That is why my Department has moved away from focusing narrowly on rates of unauthorised absence.
We now know that a small minority of pupils account for large proportions of absence: in secondary schools, just 7 per cent. of pupils account for 62 per cent. of unauthorised absences and 32 per cent. of all absences. That is why we are now focusing our efforts on reducing persistent absence, which includes truancy, in schools where this problem is most acute. This is proving highly effective. Last year, our targeted challenge and support in 436 secondary schools helped to reduce the number of persistent absentees in those schools by over 20 per cent. We are continuing that focus on reducing persistent absence across all local authorities and their schools.
Young People: Employment
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) 16 to 18 and (b) 18 to 24-year-olds were classed as not in employment, education or training by local authorities for (i) up to six months, (ii) six to 12 months, (iii) 12 to 18 months, (iv) 18 to 24 months and (v) over 24 months in each year since 1992. [165244]
Jim Knight [holding answer 19 November 2007]: The information requested is not available. The Department’s estimates of the number and proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) cannot be disaggregated to regional or local authority level, and do not show durations of time spent NEET. However, it is possible to produce snapshot estimates of the numbers and proportions of 16 to 18-year-olds(1) NEET by local authority using Connexions data, and of 18 to 24-year-olds(2) NEET by local authority using the Annual Population Survey (APS), formerly the Local Labour Force Survey (LLFS). These estimates are shown in the table.
As with all survey estimates the NEET estimates from the APS and LLFS are subject to sampling error. Estimates from the APS and LLFS will not be directly comparable to estimates from Connexions.
Estimates from Connexions (covering the period November to January) are only available for 2005 and 2006, LLFS estimates (covering the period May to April) are available between 2001/02 and 2004/05, and APS estimates (covering the period January to December) are available for 2005 and 2006.
(1) Connexions estimates relate to people of calendar age 16 to 18.
(2) Local Labour Force estimates relate to people of academic age 18 to 24.
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