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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1528W—continued

Children in Care: Missing Persons

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government plan to take to address trends in the number of children going missing while in care. [199410]


21 Apr 2008 : Column 1529W

Beverley Hughes: In 2002 the Government published ‘Children Missing from care and from home—a guide to good practice’. This guidance was issued along with Circular LAC (2002)17 under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, requiring local authorities to comply with it. The guidance sets out how local authorities and their partner agencies are expected to respond when young people go missing from their care placements. It includes information about measures that local authorities should put in place to prevent children from going missing as well as on reporting incidents. One of its requirements is that each local authority must appoint a designated senior manager to be responsible for monitoring “missing from care” incidents to identify any trends and to instigate any action necessary to respond to children’s needs ensuring that they are properly safeguarded.

On 26 March we published ‘Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care’. This sets out our intention to update and re-issue guidance to the Children Act 1989 and subsequent legislation. As part of this process we will be reviewing our 2002 guidance. This will provide us with the opportunity to consider whether in future we should include more information about how local authorities carry out their responsibilities to monitor any patterns and trends relating to children going missing from their care placements.

Children: Abuse

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many times reasonable chastisement has been used as a defence in court cases involving violence against children in each of the last 10 years. [186807]

Kevin Brennan: This information has not been collected centrally and is therefore not available for each of the last 10 years as requested. However, since July 2007 the Crown Prosecution Service area offices have been notifying the Crown Prosecution Service's Policy Directorate of any cases in which the reasonable punishment defence has been used. To date no such cases have been notified.

Children: Day Care

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of managers of day care settings who were male in (a) Basingstoke, (b) Hampshire and (c) England in each year since 1997. [197431]

Beverley Hughes: Data are not available on the sex of managers of full day care.

The 2006 Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey estimated that the average proportion of male staff working in full day care settings in England was 2 per cent. In total, there were 2,500 male staff working in full day care settings in England.

The average proportion of male staff working in full day care settings in England for each year available is shown in the following table:


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Male staff working in full day care settings in England
Average proportion of male staff per setting (percentage) Total number of male staff

2001

2

1,900

2003

2

2,000

2005

2

2,500

2006

2

2,500


Data are not available at local authority level.

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the average number of hours worked per week by (a) childcarers in maintained settings, (b) childcarers in private, voluntary and independent nurseries and (c) childminders in each year since 1997. [199873]

Beverley Hughes: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey estimated that staff working in full day care in children's centres worked an average (mean) of 34 hours a week in 2006, compared with an average of 17 hours a week for staff in sessional settings. Data for all childcare and early years providers for each year available are shown in the following table.

Average number of hours worked per week by staff in child care and early years provision in maintained schools
2003 2005 2006

Full day care

35

32

33

Full day care in children’s centres

n/a

n/a

34

Sessional

17

18

17

After school clubs

19

n/a

19

Holiday clubs

31.5

n/a

27

Nursery schools

32.5

n/a

32

Primary schools with nursery and reception classes

33

n/a

31

Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes

28

n/a

30

Notes: 1. Children's centres were included in the survey for the first time in 2006; therefore data is not available for previous years. 2. After school and holiday clubs were sampled differently in 2005 and comparable figures for this year are not available. 3. Early years settings in maintained schools were not included in the 2005 survey.

In 2006 full day care staff in privately owned settings worked an average of 35 hours a week, compared with 26 hours for full day care staff in settings under voluntary ownership. 2006 data for all child care providers available are shown in the following table.

Average number of hours worked per week by staff in child care providers, by ownership of setting, 2006
Private Voluntary Local authority School/college Other

Full day care

35

26

32

33

35

Full day care in children's centres

35

34

34

34

35

Sessional

17

16

20

25

15

Out of school care

26

20

25

19

27

Note:
Data for other providers are not available by type of ownership.

The 2006 Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey estimated that childminders looked after children for an average of 16 hours a week in term time, and for 23 hours a week in school holidays. Data for each year available are shown in the following table.


21 Apr 2008 : Column 1531W
Average number of hours childminders looked after children
Term time School holidays

2005

17

25

2006

16

23

Note: The wording in the childminders survey was changed in 2005; therefore comparable data for previous years is not available.


Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of (a) private, voluntary and independent nurseries and (b) childminders received funding from local authorities to deliver the free entitlement in each local authority area in each of the last five years. [199875]

Beverley Hughes: The available information is shown in the table.

The table provides information about the number of private, voluntary and independent providers delivering a free early education to three and four-year-olds in England. Data is provided for 2004 to 2007 only because data for 2003 is not available.

The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 19/2007 “Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2007”, available on my Department's website


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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1533W

21 Apr 2008 : Column 1534W
Number of private, voluntary and independent providers delivering a free early education to three and four-year-olds: January each year
2004 2005 2006 2007

England

19,940

20,100

20,800

20,430

North East

450

470

470

460

Darlington

25

25

25

25

Durham

75

75

80

80

Gateshead

45

50

45

45

Hartlepool

10

15

15

10

Middlesbrough

20

25

30

25

Newcastle upon Tyne

75

75

75

75

North Tyneside

25

25

25

30

Northumberland

85

85

85

90

Redcar and Cleveland

15

15

15

10

South Tyneside

10

10

15

15

Stockton-on-Tees

25

30

30

25

Sunderland

30

35

30

30

North West

2,365

2,390

2,480

2,455

Blackburn with Darwen

50

45

50

45

Blackpool

55

55

55

55

Bolton

85

80

90

85

Bury

55

55

65

65

Cheshire

330

335

345

345

Cumbria

165

175

185

185

Halton

55

50

55

50

Knowsley

15

15

15

20

Lancashire

460

465

475

485

Liverpool

125

125

130

130

Manchester

115

115

120

120

Oldham

90

100

95

95

Rochdale

90

90

90

85

Salford

55

65

65

70

Sefton

75

70

75

75

St. Helens

55

55

55

50

Stockport

80

85

90

85

Tameside

50

50

55

50

Trafford

75

80

80

85

Warrington

70

75

70

75

Wigan

100

95

90

85

Wirral

120

125

130

120

Yorkshire and the Humber

1,615

1,625

1,715

1,670

Barnsley

50

55

60

60

Bradford

125

130

135

125

Calderdale

90

90

95

105

Doncaster

55

70

70

70

East Riding of Yorkshire

130

110

130

125

Kingston Upon Hull, City of

55

55

55

60

Kirklees

175

180

190

180

Leeds

175

180

185

180

North East Lincolnshire

50

45

45

40

North Lincolnshire

55

60

60

60

North Yorkshire

305

295

320

305

Rotherham

55

60

55

55

Sheffield

140

140

150

150

Wakefield

60

70

65

60

York

90

90

100

95

East Midlands

1,715

1,770

1,810

1,795

Derby

65

70

70

70

Derbyshire

285

275

285

285

Leicester

105

115

125

120

Leicestershire

340

355

350

350

Lincolnshire

285

300

305

300

Northamptonshire

285

305

320

320

Nottingham

70

75

75

75

Nottinghamshire

245

250

255

255

Rutland

25

25

30

25

West Midlands

1,940

1,940

2,070

2,015

Birmingham

330

335

360

340

Coventry

100

105

105

110

Dudley

85

85

85

80

Herefordshire

105

105

100

100

Sandwell

40

45

45

50

Shropshire

175

170

175

170

Solihull

65

70

70

75

Staffordshire

340

300

375

370

Stoke-on-Trent

60

65

70

65

Telford and Wrekin

60

65

70

60

Walsall

30

30

35

35

Warwickshire

235

240

240

240

Wolverhampton

30

30

40

35

Worcestershire

285

290

295

285

East of England

2,520

2,535

2,590

2,550

Bedfordshire

180

185

185

175

Cambridgeshire

295

305

305

300

Essex

620

640

640

635

Hertfordshire

430

455

460

465

Luton

60

65

60

60

Norfolk

380

340

385

365

Peterborough

95

95

100

95

Southend-on-Sea

80

65

75

70

Suffolk

335

335

335

325

Thurrock

50

50

50

50

London

2,570

2,530

2,705

2,620

Inner London

1,025

960

1,070

1,015

City

5

5

5

5

Camden

90

80

85

85

Hackney

85

90

95

85

Hammersmith and Fulham

65

65

65

65

Haringey

55

70

70

70

Islington

80

75

75

75

Kensington and Chelsea

45

50

45

45

Lambeth

100

75

110

105

Lewisham

too

85

105

95

Newham

55

55

60

55

Southwark

95

100

100

95

Tower Hamlets

55

55

55

50

Wandsworth

130

110

130

125

Westminster

60

50

60

55

Outer London

1,545

1,570

1,635

1,605

Barking and Dagenham

25

30

30

35

Barnet

120

115

120

115

Bexley

60

65

65

65

Brent

80

85

85

85

Bromley

160

150

170

160

Croydon

130

135

140

140

Ealing

95

100

105

100

Enfield

95

100

105

105

Greenwich

60

65

65

65

Harrow

75

80

75

75

Havering

85

90

90

95

Hillingdon

80

70

70

75

Hounslow

65

70

70

70

Kingston upon Thames

45

50

50

50

Merton

55

60

65

60

Redbridge

75

80

80

80

Richmond upon Thames

100

100

105

100

Sutton

70

70

70

65

Waltham Forest

70

70

75

70

South East

4,065

4,160

4,190

4,160

Bracknell Forest

50

50

50

50

Brighton and Hove

95

105

110

115

Buckinghamshire

260

270

270

270

East Sussex

270

270

260

255

Hampshire

660

660

655

655

Isle of Wight

60

60

60

60

Kent

725

710

710

730

Medway

125

130

125

115

Milton Keynes

110

110

110

110

Oxfordshire

330

340

345

335

Portsmouth

85

85

90

90

Reading

50

55

55

55

Slough

20

20

20

20

Southampton

80

95

90

90

Surrey

545

560

565

555

West Berkshire

75

80

80

80

West Sussex

390

425

440

430

Windsor and Maidenhead

70

70

75

75

Wokingham

70

70

70

70

South West

2,700

2,680

2,765

2,700

Bath and North East Somerset

90

85

85

85

Bournemouth

75

80

85

85

Bristol, City of

115

135

135

130

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

275

275

295

285

Devon

405

395

395

400

Dorset

210

215

215

210

Gloucestershire

380

380

385

365

North Somerset

95

100

100

100

Plymouth

115

110

110

110

Poole

65

50

55

55

Somerset

320

300

340

320

South Gloucestershire

140

130

140

140

Swindon

75

80

80

80

Torbay

45

45

40

40

Wiltshire

290

295

295

290

Note:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 5
Source:
Early Years Census

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