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26 Feb 2008 : Column 1558W—continued
Pupils: Intimidation
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what research his Department has commissioned on methods used in different schools to tackle bullying; what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of different methods of preventing bullying; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle the causes of bullying in schools. [187848]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has taken a wide range of measures to tackle the causes of bullying and is providing around £1.7 million for anti-bullying programmes this year. Through the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme, we are developing skills in pupils including empathy, a sense of social responsibility and assertiveness which directly contribute to a school climate in which bullying cannot thrive.
Prevention is also a key theme of the guidance entitled “Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti-Bullying Work in Schools” which we issued in September 2007. This includes specific advice on homophobic bullying and cyberbullying, and links to guidance on bullying around racism, religion and culture that we issued in 2006. We are currently preparing further advice on how to prevent and tackle the bullying of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
We have placed a legal duty on head teachers to determine measures to promote good behaviour, respect for others and to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils as part of their overall behaviour policy. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 also provides head teachers with the power, to such extent as is reasonable, to regulate the conduct of pupils when they are off-site or not under the control or charge of a member of staff.
We have issued the Anti-Bullying Charter, which includes a detailed list of questions for the school community to consider when formulating its anti-bullying policy. We have worked with and funded a number of partners, including the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), who arrange the annual Anti-Bullying Week and provide a range of advice and support to local authorities; ParentLine Plus, who run a helpline for parents whose children are being bullied and provide other resources through their ‘Be Someone to Tell’ campaign; and ChildLine in Partnership with Schools (CHIPS) who currently run peer mentoring schemes for the Department. We also fund awards for anti-bullying work as part of the Princess Diana Memorial Awards scheme.
We have asked the National Strategies and Anti-Bullying Alliance to work with schools and local authorities to ensure the guidance is effectively implemented on the ground and we are monitoring this very closely. We have also asked the National Strategies to provide challenge and support to those schools which have been identified as weak or ineffective in their approach to dealing with bullying.
My Department has gone out to tender on research into the effectiveness of anti-bullying strategies. This should help inform any further development of Government policy in this area as well as helping schools decide which anti-bullying strategies are most effective in a range of circumstances. Our partners in the Anti-Bullying Alliance, and the National Strategies work at a local level to advise schools on their anti-bullying policies and monitor the implementation of the various anti-bullying strategies.
Schools: Crime
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what definition of a school-specific offence his Department uses; and if he will list those school-specific offences recognised by his Department. [187878]
Kevin Brennan: The Department does not use any particular definition of a school-specific offence. If ‘school-specific offence’ means an offence created by or under the Education Acts in relation to schools, or an offence framed by reference to schools, the offences listed as follows would seem to be relevant in relation to England. References are to sections of the Acts mentioned unless otherwise stated.
336(5) (failure to comply with requirement imposed by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal in respect of the discovery or inspection of documents or giving of evidence)
434(6) (contravention or failure to comply with any requirement imposed by regulations on registration of pupils)
443(1) (failure of parent to comply with the requirements of school attendance order)
444(1) (failure of parent to secure regular attendance at school of registered pupil)
444(1A) (knowing failure of parent to secure regular attendance at school of registered pupil)
506(2) (failure of parent of pupil to present pupil for examination by medical practitioner in accordance with notice)
525(1) (neglecting the cleanliness of pupil)
547(1) (causing or permitting nuisance or disturbance to the annoyance of persons who lawfully use school premises)
559(3) (employing child in contravention of prohibition or restriction imposed by local education authority or for failure to provide the authority with information for the purpose of ascertaining the circumstances of employment)
323(5) and paragraph 5 of schedule 26 (failure of parent to comply with requirements of a notice served by local education authority considering whether to make an assessment of special educational needs)
159(1) (conducting an independent school which is not a registered school)
159(6) (wilfully obstructing the Chief Inspector in inspecting premises and taking copies of documents, in relation to offence of conducting an independent school which is not a registered school)
162B(4) (intentionally obstructing a person in the exercise of his functions in relation to an inspection of a registered school)
165(9) (failure of proprietor to comply with an order of registration authority requiring the proprietor to cease using part of the school premises, to close part of the school’s operation or to cease to admit any new pupils)
167(9) (failure of proprietor to comply with an order of Care Standards Tribunal requiring the proprietor to cease using part of the school premises, to close part of the school's operation or to cease to admit any new pupils)
168(2) and regulation 10 Education (Provision of Information by Independent Schools) (England) Regulations 2003 (failure of proprietor to comply with requirement to provide a return within the first three months of operation, an annual return, to report the facts of a dismissal, or to provide information requested by the Secretary of State relevant to his function of prohibiting unsuitable persons from teaching)
10(2) (obstructing the Chief Inspector in relation to the inspection of a school for the purposes of section 5 or 8)
109(1) (non-permitted disclosure of information received about eligibility for education maintenance allowances relating to a particular person)
111(1) (non-permitted disclosure of information received about tax credits and social security relating to a particular person)
Education and Inspections Act 2006
103(3) (offence of parent where parent’s child, an excluded pupil, is present in a public place at any time during school hours on one of first five days to which exclusion relates)
139A(1) (having bladed or sharply pointed article on school premises)
139A(2) (having an offensive weapon on school premises)
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
8(5) (acting as a member of the governing body of an educational institution for the provision of education to children, or a maintained nursery school, without being monitored in relation to regulated activity relating to children)
Schools: Procurement
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools took part in the pilot for the Online Procurement for Educational Needs system; how many orders were sent as part of the pilot; and what the cost of the system has been. [186970]
Kevin Brennan: OPEN—the Online Procurement for Educational Needs system is the Department’s e-procurement tool for schools that has been developed with and for schools to aid them in procuring their goods and services in one convenient location should they wish to use it.
During the OPEN pathfinder phase, which when complete will have run for one year, a total of 463 schools from five areas of England generously took the time to support the development and functionality testing of the system:
A group of Devon schools;
East Sussex county council;
e-Spi, a north west based consortium, hosted by Rochdale metropolitan borough council; and
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The aim of the pathfinder was to rigorously test the system for reliability, appropriateness, ease of use and integration with schools’ financial management systems.
During the period 15 March 2007 to 31 January 2008 a total of 630 orders were placed.
OPEN is a development of, and operates on, the Zanzibar public sector e-procurement solution operated by OGCbuying.solutions which is available to the whole of the UK public sector. OPEN is the schools portal to this e-marketplace.
The release of information relating to the amounts being paid to individual companies would prejudice commercial interests in this instance and could affect the Department’s future negotiating position.
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many invoices have been unsuccessfully submitted by schools under the electronic invoice system Online Procurement for Educational Needs. [186971]
Kevin Brennan: OPEN—the Online Procurement for Educational Needs system—is the Department’s e-procurement tool for schools that has been developed with and for schools to aid them in procuring their goods and services in one convenient location should they wish to use it.
Schools do not submit invoices to OPEN, only fully authorised orders. Suppliers then receive the order via the supplier portal component of OPEN and can then raise an electronic invoice.
These invoices are currently sent to schools via email. The option to import these invoices directly to the schools’ financial management system is currently unavailable as part of the pathfinder phase, but the Department is in discussion with FMS providers regarding the integration of OPEN into future releases.
Currently, in order to ascertain the number of orders unsuccessfully raised by schools, every school registered on OPEN would need to be contacted with a list of orders they had raised through OPEN, asked to provide the invoice numbers relating to those orders and then have these queried against the supplier portal (the area where suppliers transact with schools) to establish which had been created electronically.
At this time, and with existing functionality, to capture information to this detail would be an unnecessary burden to schools in administrative time required to ensure that the data and cross checking are complete. Furthermore, this is not something that the pathfinder phase of OPEN intended to assess. However, EPC has been working with FMS providers regarding subsequent releases of their systems to facilitate upgrades that will allow a full audit trail for invoices.
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the annual cost has been of his Department’s Purchasing Team for the Online Procurement for Educational Needs (OPEN) system; and how much has been paid to (a) PA Consulting and (b) Proc Serve to establish the OPEN system in the last three years. [186972]
Kevin Brennan: OPEN—the Online Procurement for Educational Needs system is the Department’s e-procurement tool for schools that has been developed with and for schools to aid them in procuring their goods and services in one convenient location should they wish to use it.
Due to the complexity of the project, the development requirements of the system, and the number of schools that potentially may wish to avail of it, a decision was taken to fund OPEN for three years, up to 2011. This is within CSR07 financial period and is usual for programmes of this nature.
The OPEN system is based on the existing pan-Government platform Zanzibar which is provided by ProcServe. However, it was felt that this system would not be directly applicable to schools in its current format, hence the need to employ a consultancy with the specialist skills needed to support the development of this schools-focused solution.
The cost of the OPEN system to the Department’s Purchasing Team has been incurred under a pan-Government contract with OGC.bs.
The cost of managing this contract, which has been running for 12 months, is £141,510.
The release of information relating to the amounts being paid to individual companies would prejudice commercial interests in this instance and could affect the Department’s future negotiating position.
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many of the suppliers to the Online Procurement for Educational Needs system had received orders by the end of January 2008. [186973]
Kevin Brennan: For the period 15 March 2007 to 31 January 2008; 77 different suppliers received orders placed by schools. As of 18 February 2008 729 suppliers are registered to use OPEN.
In order for a greater number of transactions to take place, a greater number of schools’ suppliers also need to be available on OPEN for them to transact with. As this was a pathfinder, limited resources were available to engage with the educational supplier marketplace and effort was concentrated on those suppliers nominated by schools that they usually traded with in the first instance.
Schools: Sports
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what survey data his Department has collected on the average time (a) independent secondary and (b) maintained secondary school pupils spend participating in sport each week; and if he will make a statement. [188981]
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 80 per cent. of pupils at maintained secondary schools take part in at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport each week. No comparable figure is available for independent secondary schools.
The Department supports the establishment of links between independent schools and School Sport Partnerships.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and which schools in (a) Southend and (b) Essex have established links with a (i) football, (ii) cricket, (iii) rugby union, (iv) rugby league and (v) tennis club in each of the last five years. [188996]
Kevin Brennan: The annual PE and School Sport Survey was introduced in 2003/04 and collects data relating to participation in PE and School Sport. The number of schools linked to these clubs are as follows:
| Level | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | |
| (1) The 2006/07 definition included ‘tag rugby’ for the first time. | |||
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