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9 Jan 2008 : Column 653W—continued
Marriage Guidance: Expenditure
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent on (a) marriage support services, (b) research into causes of marital breakdown and (c) research into ways of preventing marital breakdown as a result of section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 in each year since it became law; and what use he plans to make of this legislation in the future. [175671]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 7 January 2008 ]: The recently published Children’s Plan commits to the development of better proposals to support parents and children during and after family breakdown, but we have no current plans to use section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996. Funding for family support services including marriage and relationship support and parenting is currently provided through the Children, Young People and Families Grant programme, using section 70 of the Charities Act 2006.
Since 2006, the family policy element of the CYPF Grant programme funds 31 organisations, of which, 23 are strategic and eight are specific projects. The total grant given in this area since the policy responsibility passed by predecessors to this Department in 2003, is as follows:
| Total family policy grant funding (£ million) | |
| (1) Machinery of government changes funding rationalisation. | |
The remainder of the information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many letters his Department and its predecessors received from hon. Members and Peers in each session of Parliament since 1997. [174927]
Kevin Brennan:
The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members/peers correspondence. Information relating to 2007 will
be published as soon as it has been collated. The report for 2006 was published on 28 March 2007, Official Report, columns 101-04WS. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.
Minimum Wage
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many London-based staff are employed by his Department on the national minimum wage. [175978]
Kevin Brennan: All London-based staff in the Department are employed above the national minimum wage level.
Primary Education: Class Sizes
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children there were on average in infant classes in Hendon in (a) 1997 and (b) 2007; and if he will make a statement. [177495]
Jim Knight: The requested information is shown in the table.
| Maintained primary schools( 1 ) average size of key stage one classes taught by one teacher( 2: ) Position in January 1997 and 2007: Hendon parliamentary constituency area | ||
| 1997 | 2007( 3) | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Classes as taught during the one selected period in each school on the day of the census in January. (3 )Includes reception classes. Source: School Census | ||
Primary Education: Play
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the average time spent by children in Key Stage (a) 1 and (b) 2 on free play during the school day. [177220]
Kevin Brennan: I have made no estimate of the average time spent by children in Key Stages 1 and 2 on free play during the school day. This is a matter for individual schools to decide and data about their choices are not collected by this Department.
There is no prescription over how much time is spent teaching the primary national curriculum, provided that all the statutory content is covered during each Key Stage. Head teachers are free to design their own timetables and, once they are satisfied that they are meeting the statutory requirements of the national curriculum, they have the freedom to introduce other experiences and subjects—such as free play—to meet the needs and aspirations of their pupils.
Primary Education: Public Participation
Andrew Rosindell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in what circumstances local education authorities may be exempt from new
legislation requiring that a competition consultation phase be held for all new primary schools. [176336]
Jim Knight: Under section 7 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, competitions are required for all new primary schools, including a statutory period of consultation, unless the Secretary of State has given his consent under section 10 of the Act for proposals to be published outside a competition.
Applications for consent are considered on their individual merits, taking into account the particular circumstances in each case. Guidance issued by the Department confirms that consent may be given to applications to establish a new primary school to replace closing infant and junior schools, and also to applications to establish a new school with a religious character to replace closing schools with the same character. The guidance also sets out the principal factors that will be considered for each application as follows: the contribution the school would make to local diversity; local standards; the prospect of other proposer interest; the urgency for the school to be in place; and any views expressed by interested parties.
Private Education
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) when he will publish the findings of his consultation on the transfer of responsibility for the regulation and registration of independent schools and non-maintained special schools; [175640]
(2) in respect of which independent schools his Department has concerns on governance and management; [175645]
(3) how many officials work in his Department's independent schools team. [175646]
Jim Knight: The analysis of responses to the consultation on the transfer of responsibility for the regulation and registration of independent and non-maintained special schools will be published within the next few weeks.
There is currently no regulatory standard relating to governance and management in independent schools and we do not therefore have details available in the format requested. However, failures to meet many of the regulatory standards often stem from systemic failures in management and leadership.
There are currently 18.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts in the Department's independent education and boarding team.
Pupils: Diabetes
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department has considered issuing guidance to local education authorities on best practice by schools in the management of diabetes among pupils. [176981]
Jim Knight: This Department has already issued guidance entitled “Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Setting”.
This guidance, published in 2005 jointly with the Department of Health, specifically addresses what schools can do to help children with diabetes and other medical
conditions. We also produced sister guidance in the same year, entitled “Including me: managing complex health needs in schools and early years settings”.
Pupils: Discipline
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he is taking to improve discipline in the classroom. [177492]
Kevin Brennan: The proportion of schools judged by Ofsted to have inadequate standards of behaviour is at a historic low. But pupils’ behaviour can be challenging, so we are implementing a major national programme to strengthen schools’ capacity in this crucial area. This includes:
giving schools access to high-quality behaviour management training materials and consultancy, curriculum materials to help develop pupils’ social and emotional skills and practical guidance on dealing with bullying;
providing extra funding for schools facing the greatest behaviour challenges;
reinforcing the legal basis of school discipline by giving school staff a clear statutory power to discipline pupils;
helping schools form partnerships with other schools to strengthen behaviour management;
reinforcing parental responsibility by enabling schools and local authorities to make parenting contracts and seek court-imposed parenting orders relating to children’s behaviour; and
giving school staff a statutory power to search pupils for weapons and encouraging schools to become involved in Safer Schools Partnerships, which place police officers on school premises.
In addition, Ofsted have issued new guidance to inspectors providing rigorous descriptors of outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate standards of behaviour. Inspectors will mark down any school where a significant proportion of lessons is affected by low-level disruption.
Pupils: Exercise
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of pupils in each London borough took part in two hours or more physical exercise during the school day in each week in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [175561]
Kevin Brennan: The annual national school sport survey has been running for the past four years, but the survey has only collected data by local authority since 2004-05.
The following table sets out the percentage of pupils in each local authority taking part in at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport in a typical week for the last three years. Direct comparisons between local authorities are not appropriate as the number of schools in school sport partnerships, and the length of time they have been within partnerships, differs. Since September 2006, all maintained schools in England are within a school sport partnership.
| Percentage of pupils taking part in two hours high quality PE and sport by London boroughs | |||
| Two hour take-up | |||
| London b orough | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
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