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22 Apr 2008 : Column 2034W—continued
Departmental Working Hours
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many hours (a) in total and (b) on average per employee were worked by civil servants in his Department in the last year for which records are available. [195822]
Kevin Brennan: The information is not held centrally in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Contracted hours for the majority of full-time members of staff based in London are 41 hours per week. Full-time employees based outside London, work a 42 hour week. Employees can work more than these hours and flexible arrangements are in place to allow people to take time off at a later date or to compensate them. A number of employees also work part-time.
Departmental Written Questions
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many written Questions to his Department had not received an Answer as at 25 February 2008 for (a) between two and four, (b) between four and six, (c) between six and eight and (d) more than eight weeks; and how many in each category were tabled for named day answer. [193387]
Kevin Brennan: The Department received a total number of 2,224 PQs during the period covering 6 November 2007 to 25 February 2008. According to our records, the breakdown of questions, at least two weeks old, that had not received an answer on 25 February 2008 was as shown in the following table.
| Commons named day | Commons written | Total | |
Disabled
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what targets his Department has set in relation to its employment of people with disabilities over the next five years. [199051]
Kevin Brennan: For the period following the implementation of the Cabinet Office 10 point plan, my Department has set challenging targets for the employment of disabled staff at senior civil service level, our current target of 4 per cent. exceeds Cabinet Office guidance.
The Department is currently looking at our workforce planning for the next five years and will be setting challenging targets for all grades shortly.
Domestic Violence
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department has taken on (a) domestic violence and (b) forced marriage since the coming into force of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2003. [198789]
Kevin Brennan: Keeping children and young people safe is a top priority for this Government and the Department. We have introduced new legislation, new guidance and new structures to make children safer.
The Children Act 2004 put in place a much stronger framework for children’s services and for safeguarding children in particular. This Act gave a range of statutory agencies a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Statutory guidance, “Making arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004”, issued in July 2005 and updated in March 2007, is aimed at the police, hospitals, prisons and others covered by the requirement and sets out what they should do to make sure children are safe. The guidance makes clear for example that police need to identify vulnerable children in domestic violence cases, and that housing authorities need to consider the safety of children when they are offering help in domestic violence cases.
“Working Together to Safeguard Children”, published in April 2006, is the Government’s main interagency guide to safeguarding. This explains what is meant by forced marriage, makes clear that it comes under the definition of domestic violence, and stresses the need for professionals to be aware of the strong
links between domestic violence and child protection concerns and to take appropriate action.
This Government have also created statutory local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) to co-ordinate what local bodies do to safeguard children and to ensure that they are working effectively together. We have also required local authorities to have lead members and directors who are clearly accountable for their children’s services.
The cross-Government “Staying Safe: Action Plan”, published in February 2008, sets out specific commitments to help tackle forced marriage and domestic violence. The Action Plan is underpinned by the new public service agreement to improve children and young people’s safety.
Working with the forced marriage unit, we will develop materials on the issue of forced marriage specifically for use by schools and tailored to young people and we will actively encourage schools to use them. DCSF Ministers will shortly be writing to all schools and local authorities reminding them of their responsibilities and of the existing guidance—both general safeguarding children guidance and the specific forced marriage guidance for education professionals, issued jointly with the forced marriage unit. We will also set out our plans to consult on revised forced marriage guidance which will then be placed on a statutory footing this autumn.
Domestic Violence: Finance
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has spent on work on (a) domestic violence and (b) forced marriage since 2003; and what budget allocations have been made for each in the next three years. [198788]
Kevin Brennan: Expenditure on safeguarding children from domestic violence and forced marriage is met principally by local authorities from general funding.
The then Department for Education and Skills took over certain policy responsibilities from the Department of Health in 2003 and with this came responsibility for grants to the Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE) which related to domestic violence. Under the section 64 grant scheme WAFE received £300,000 between 2003-04 and 2006-07, plus WAFE received £49,000 per year between 2003-04 and 2007-08 as a contribution to the National Domestic Violence Helpline service.
In addition, the Department currently provides funding under the Children, Young People and Families (CYPF) grant scheme to two domestic violence related projects. ‘Daybreak Family Group Conferences’ are funded for a project that aims to address the impact of domestic violence on the safety and welfare of children and their chances of achieving their full potential. The funding amounts to £283,000 over three years (2006-07 to 2008-09). WAFE currently receives funding to develop and raise the profile of support for women and children as victims of domestic violence. CYPF grant funding for WAFE is £120,000 over two years (2007-08 to 2008-09).
The Department is also committed to continued close working with the joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Home Office Forced Marriage Unit to revise the forced marriage guidance issued in 2005 and place this on a statutory footing. We are also working with the Forced Marriage Unit to develop materials on the issue of forced marriage specifically for use by schools and tailored to young people.
Fairtrade Initiative
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will take steps to promote Fair Trade Fortnight 2008 amongst staff within his Department; and if he will make a statement. [189499]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has an agreement with our catering supplier that a selection of Fairtrade food and drink products shall be available throughout all their catering operations—this will apply during fair trade fortnight. A range of internal communications channels will be used to promote fair trade fortnight to staff.
Forced Marriage
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what monitoring and evaluation his Department carries out on the implementation of its guidance on forced marriages; and if he will make a statement. [198787]
Kevin Brennan: “Working Together to Safeguard Children” (April 2006), the main interagency guide to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and “Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education” (November 2006), consolidated guidance on recruitment in education settings, explain what is meant by forced marriage, make clear that it comes under the definition of domestic violence, and advise that if there are concerns that a child is at risk of forced marriage, local agencies and professionals should contact the Forced Marriage Unit, the police and children’s social care.
“Working Together” provides a link to the guidance produced by the Forced Marriage Unit and partners, and “Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education” signposts specifically to the guidance for education professionals, “Dealing with Cases of Forced Marriage”. This was issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for Education and Skills, and Home Office in 2005. DCSF will be working with the Forced Marriage Unit to revise the existing forced marriage guidance and place it on a statutory footing this autumn.
Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) are responsible for co-ordinating what is done by each person or body represented on the Board for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and for ensuring the effectiveness of what is done by each such person or body for that purpose. The effectiveness of the LSCB itself should form part of the judgment of the inspectorates, particularly through the Joint Area Review (JAR).
As part of Ofsted inspections, schools are judged on whether they are meeting their statutory requirements on safeguarding.
The current system of local authority inspection (Joint Area Reviews and Annual Performance Assessments of children’s services) will be replaced by Comprehensive Area Assessments from 2009. This was announced in the 2006 Local Government White Paper, “Strong and Prosperous Communities”.
This will mean few rolling programmes of inspection of local authority services, with most inspections triggered on an authority-specific basis following an annual risk assessment. The case for separate programmed inspection of safeguarding is currently being considered and a decision will be made in spring 2008.
The Local Government White Paper made clear that any such programmes will incorporate proportionality in individual inspections. For more information on the new Comprehensive Area Assessments see:
Health Education: Alcoholic Drinks
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will hold discussions with Alcoholics Anonymous on educating school children on alcoholism and alcohol abuse. [199992]
Kevin Brennan: The Department is working on a Youth Alcohol Action Plan, which will look at what more might be done to reduce excessive drinking by young people. I have asked my officials to get in touch with Alcoholics Anonymous to make sure this work takes account of their views and expertise..
Inclusive Technology
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2008, Official Report, column 692W, what payments his Department and its predecessor made to Inclusive Technology in each year between 1997-98 and 2005-06. [199664]
Kevin Brennan: Our financial records show that the Department has not made any payments to Inclusive Technology in the last seven years. The Department is not required to keep financial records beyond that period.
Karian and Box
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the value was of each contract awarded by his Department and its predecessors to Karian and Box since 1997. [199632]
Kevin Brennan: Our financial records show that the Department has not made any payments to Karian and Box in the last seven years. The Department is not required to keep financial records beyond that period.
Primary Education: School Meals
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to increase access to healthy school meals in primary schools in (a) West Lancashire constituency and (b) England. [196856]
Kevin Brennan: The Department is taking a number of steps to improve the quality of meals served in primary schools and to ensure all children have access to healthy food while at school.
New food-based nutritional standards were introduced in September 2006 for school lunches and from September 2007 for other school food. Nutrient-based standards will be introduced for school lunches in September 2008 for primary schools and September 2009 for secondary schools.
School lunch take-up is a priority as demonstrated by the fact that it is one of the indicators in the new Child Health PSA and is one of the indicators in the National Indicator Set.
The School Food Trust was established in 2005 to support the implementation of changes in school food in England. One of their key targets is to increase take-up of school meals and they have launched their Million Meals Campaign to encourage schools to increase school lunch take-up.
The Government are also investing around £650 million of additional funding between 2005 and 2011 to help support the drive towards improved school food. Lancashire has already received £5,322,666 of that funding between 2005 and 2008 and will receive a further £1,777,973 in 2008-09.
Pupils: Epilepsy
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children with epilepsy were educated in mainstream primary and secondary schools in England in each of the last five years; [199980]
(2) what assessment his Department has made in its planning, policy and guidance for the education sector on the effects of epilepsy on a child's learning; [199981]
(3) what assessment he has made of the merits of implementing statutory training requirements for those working with children who have epilepsy; [199983]
(4) whether his Department plans to make the collection of data regarding the number of children with epilepsy in schools mandatory at local authority level. [199984]
Kevin Brennan: The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not collect data on epilepsy in schools and has no plans to make the collection of data regarding the number of children with epilepsy in schools mandatory at local authority level. It has also made no assessment of the impact of epilepsy on a child's learning or the need for statutory training requirements for those working with children who have epilepsy.
Schools and their employers have responsibilities towards the health and safety of all staff and pupils, and this may include making arrangements for individual pupils with medical needs, where it is reasonable to do so. There is, however, no legal duty on school staff to manage a pupil's medicine or support a child's medical need. However, our guidance ‘Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings’ issued by this Department jointly with the Department of Health, encourages schools and local authorities to develop local policies on the management of pupils’ medicines and on supporting
pupils with medical needs, taking account of local resources and their various responsibilities. It specifically addresses what schools can do to help children with epilepsy and other medical conditions. We also produced sister guidance entitled ‘Including me: managing complex health needs in schools and early years settings,’ both were published in 2005.
An individual health care plan can help staff identify the necessary safety measures to support children with medical needs and may reveal the need for staff to have further information about a medical condition or specific training. The employer should arrange appropriate training in collaboration with local health services.
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of children with epilepsy who have special educational needs; and if his Department will consider recognising epilepsy as a condition that may cause special educational needs. [199982]
Kevin Brennan: Children have special educational needs (SEN) if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Epilepsy is a medical condition which may be a cause of, or exist alongside, a learning difficulty necessitating special educational provision. In these cases, we would expect schools and local authorities to identify the need and make appropriate provision.
The Department does not collect information on the number of pupils with SEN who also have epilepsy.
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