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12 Dec 2007 : Column 718W—continued
Assessments: Standards
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether any of the key stage 3 English tests are marked overseas; and if he will make a statement. [172505]
Jim Knight: The eligibility criteria for markers of key stage 3 English tests include a requirement that they have an address in the United Kingdom for delivery of scripts.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the timescale is for publication of the report his Department commissioned from Deloitte on ContactPoint’s security procedures. [171698]
Kevin Brennan: Given the obvious importance of ensuring that ContactPoint has extremely robust security measures in place, on 20 November, the Secretary of State asked for an independent assessment of ContactPoint’s security procedures—to be conducted by Deloitte.
The findings will be compared with the international security standard ISO27001, which defines the requirements for an information security management system, and the Government’s own Manual of Protective Security (MPS) standards. The expectation is that the independent assessment will report back to the Secretary of State at the end of January 2008. We plan, thereafter, to make public the key findings of Deloitte’s report.
Children: Equal Opportunities
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken to widen equality of opportunity for children since 1997. [169327]
Jim Knight: Since 1997, with the support of teachers and practitioners, we have achieved an unprecedented increase in school standards. And, in the context of raising school standards, we have also met the challenge of broadening equality of attainment for many under-achieving groups. Our continued focus is to raise school standards and deliver a world class education system where every child, irrespective of gender, race, disability or background, receives the best possible education, personalised to their needs, aptitudes and aspirations.
Doubling funding per pupil in real terms since 1997, record number of adults in the classroom, our national strategies, our focus on literacy and numeracy, personalised learning, progression, curriculum changes, behaviour, academies and a better choice of schools—all these actions and achievements will continue to support this effort. Additionally, targeted interventions to address disadvantage and promote equality, such as City Challenge, Aiming High, approaches to benefit boys’ attainment where they have been under-achieving, attracting more girls into physics, addressing prejudice driven bullying, and increased school funding for children from poor families, with special needs and/or with English as an additional language, will continue to support this effort.
In addition to raising school standards we have made a number of far-reaching policy commitments to widen equality of opportunity for children. The cross-Government Every Child Matters programme will secure an expansion of early education, the development of Children’s Centres and extended schools and the development of integrated multi-agency working to support children and young people with additional needs.
Our 14 to 19 reforms will ensure equality of opportunity for all young people. We are creating an entitlement for every young person to be able to study the new Diplomas, and this will require schools, colleges and other providers to work together to deliver
these new courses to all young people in their area. Diplomas will be offered at Levels 1, 2 and 3, and will include Functional Skills, so that young people get a real grounding in basic English, maths and ICT as well as more subject-specific knowledge. The entitlement to Diplomas is in addition to the existing National Curriculum offer, and will give young people much greater choice about what and where they study.
We are working hard to tackle problems of disengagement and low attainment. The 14 to 19 reforms not only offer a broader curriculum, but also one with clearer pathways from Entry Level through to Level 2 qualifications and beyond. We want as many young people as possible to attain Level 2 qualifications by the time they reach the age of 19, as we believe it is Level 2 qualifications which will give them real employability.
We want as many young people as possible to stay in education and training until the age of 18 so that they can maximise their potential and gain the key skills which will enable them to be successful in employment and in life. We will raise the compulsory education and training leaving age to 18 to ensure that all young people have as much of an opportunity as possible to set themselves up with key life skills.
We will set out our commitments in more detail in the forthcoming Children’s Plan.
Children: Exercise
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of five to 16-year-olds taking part in at least two hours high quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum in each week; and if he will make a statement; [172156]
(2) how much has been spent in each local authority on delivering the PE, school sport and club links strategy since 2003; and if he will make a statement. [172157]
Kevin Brennan: The annual PE and school sport survey collects data relating to participation in PE and school sport. The 2006/07 survey found that 86 per cent. of pupils take part in at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport a week.
Investment in the PE, school sport and club links strategy has been £978.5 million in the five years to 2008. Funding is routed through School Sport Partnerships and partner organisations rather than local authorities.
Children: Poverty
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken to reduce the number of children living in poverty since 1997. [169326]
Beverley Hughes:
The Government are working to halve child poverty by 2010-11 and eradicate it by 2020. Since 1997, many steps have been taken to improve financial support for families, provide employment opportunities for all, provide support when people cannot work, tackle material deprivation through promoting financial inclusion and better housing and
improve children’s life chances and break cycles of deprivation (as set out in “Child Poverty Review” (July 2004) HM Treasury). A total of 600,000 UK children have been lifted out of relative poverty since 1998/99, (both before and after housing costs). The number of children in absolute poverty (before housing costs) has been more than halved since 1998/99.
The Government have recently published a Delivery Agreement (DA), underpinning the Child Poverty Public Service Agreement (PSA) which, alongside other delivery agreements aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people, also impacts on child poverty. These comprise agreements aimed at narrowing the gap in educational achievement, raising educational attainment, improving children’s health and well being, increasing the number of young people on the path to success, and improving the safeguarding of children. The Child Poverty Unit has also been set up to drive forward the Government’s commitment to eradicate child poverty by bringing together policy and analytical civil servants from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Children’s Centres: Low Incomes
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department provides to low income key workers who are parents of twins, triplets or greater multiple births and wish to arrange childcare via their local Sure Start Children's Centre. [173270]
Beverley Hughes: The Department does not provide guidance directly to parents who wish to arrange childcare via their local Sure Start Children's Centre. Our guidance for local authorities and children's centre managers (Sure Start Children's Centres Planning and Performance Management Guidance November 2006) makes it clear that all centres should provide advice and information for parents about local childcare options. Those centres serving the most disadvantaged communities will include early years provision (integrated early learning and full daycare places) within the services they offer at the centre.
Parents can find out about local childcare options by contacting their local Children's Information Service on freephone 0800 2 346346 or on line at
Class Sizes
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many key stage 2 pupils were in classes of 30 pupils or more in each year since 1996. [172092]
Jim Knight: The available information is given in the table.
Class Sizes: Cleethorpes
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the ratio of pupils to teachers was in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Cleethorpes constituency in the latest period for which figures are available. [172517]
Jim Knight: The following table provides the pupil:teacher ratios in local authority maintained primary and secondary schools in Cleethorpes constituency and England in January 2007.
| Pupil:teacher ratios in local authority maintained primary and secondary schools in Cleethorpes constituency and England, January 2007 | ||
| Cleethorpes constituency | England | |
| Source: School Census. | ||
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what steps his Department has taken to protect the personal data on members of the public which it holds; [171425]
(2) how many documents sent either to or from the Department have been reported as missing in the past year. [171039]
Kevin Brennan: I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 21 November 2007, Official Report, column 1179. The review by the Cabinet Secretary and security experts is looking at procedures within Departments and agencies for the storage and use of data. A statement on Departments’ procedures will be made on completion of the review.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many staff work in his Department, broken down by area of responsibility; and if he will make a statement. [172550]
Kevin Brennan: 2,923 staff work in the Department. The following table provides a breakdown of this figure by area of work, as covered by each of the directorates:
| DCSF directorate | Number of staff |
Education: ICT
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government has taken to widen the availability of technology in support of learning. [165421]
Jim Knight: The Government set their strategy for technology in education in their Harnessing Technology document published in 2005. The priorities for the strategy are underpinned by a number of system-wide and sector-specific actions applying to the children’s services, schools, 14 to 19, HE and lifelong learning sectors. In addition, there have been targeted programmes to put ICT in the homes of the most disadvantaged pupils, and a taskforce, set up earlier this year to look at how we might ensure sustainable access for all school age learners, is due to report next year.
Education: Local Authorities
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will rank local authorities by (a) percentage change in real spending on education and (b) percentage improvement in five A*-C GCSE results since 1997-98. [172105]
Jim Knight: The requested information for (a) has been provided in the following table. The available information for (b) about the percentage improvement in five A*-C GCSE and equivalent in each local authority for each year since 1977-98 is published in the Secondary School Achievement and Attainment tables in the Library of the House.
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