---

28 Apr 2008 : Column 168W—continued

Children, Schools and Families

Academies

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what evaluations of the academies programme have been commissioned by his Department for publication in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009; and if he will make a statement. [201101]

Jim Knight: The Department has a contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a yearly evaluation of the academies programme. This contract ends with the publication of the fifth annual report later this year. The Department is currently considering options for conducting future evaluations.

Academies: Admissions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether academies are permitted to select by aptitude in subject areas other than their specialism; and if he will make a statement. [201094]

Jim Knight: Any maintained school or academy may seek to admit up to 10 per cent. of its intake by aptitude in one of the relevant 'prescribed' subjects if it considers it has a specialism, whether or not that specialism is recognised formally by its designation as a specialist school or as an academy with a particular specialism. In the case of academies, such arrangements would have first to be approved by the Secretary of State.

Prescribed subjects are limited to modern foreign languages, performing or visual arts and physical education or sport. Academies may also continue to select 10 per cent. by aptitude in design and technology and ICT if and only if they or their predecessor schools already had such arrangements in place prior to the 2008 academic year.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many academies have refused to admit children after direction by local authorities since their establishment; how many such cases have been subject to an appeal to him; and if he will make a statement. [201113]

Jim Knight: Local authorities do not have the power to direct academies to admit children. The Secretary of State has the power of direction in the case of academies.

Academies: Head Teachers

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2008, Official Report, column 823W, on academies: head teachers, for what reasons the National Professional Qualification for Headship will be compulsory in all maintained schools other than academies; and if he will make a statement. [201404]

Jim Knight: We are considering the process for ensuring that all academies benefit from the best possible opportunities for enhanced leadership training appropriate to their circumstances, including the National Professional Qualification for Headship. I will write to the hon. Member with further details once that consideration is complete.

Academies: Pupil Exclusions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of rates of exclusions at academies; and if he will make a statement. [201052]

Jim Knight: As a group, academies have an overall pattern of exclusions that is almost identical to the pattern for a control group of similar schools. Academies often inherit a large number of disengaged pupils and need to establish good behaviour in order to
28 Apr 2008 : Column 169W
raise attainment. Academies place great emphasis on getting the basics right and improving behaviour in particular. As the new ethos and behaviour policy are implemented in an academy’s early days, the number of exclusions may rise, but it typically falls as behaviour improves. This phenomenon is not unique to academies; the same effect is often observed when a new head teacher transforms a struggling maintained school.

A paper illustrating the pattern of exclusions and comparing exclusions in academies with a control group of schools with similar characteristics has been placed in the House Library. The chart shows the overall distribution of exclusions in academies and a group of control schools.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what rights of appeal are available to pupils permanently excluded from academies; and if he will make a statement. [201067]

Jim Knight: The funding agreements of all academies provide that all pupils permanently excluded
28 Apr 2008 : Column 170W
from academies have the right to an independent appeal panel in the same way as they would following permanent exclusion from a maintained school.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether academies are required to provide parents of excluded pupils with a right of appeal to an independent exclusions appeal panel; and if he will make a statement. [201112]

Jim Knight: All academies are required to provide parents of permanently excluded pupils with the right of appeal to an independent appeals panel.

Academies: Sponsorship

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families who the (a) sponsors and (b) co-sponsors are of academies whose funding agreements were approved by his Department between 28 November 2007 and 15 April 2008. [201102]

Jim Knight: The information requested is in the chart as follows.

Academy name	FA signed	Sponsor	Co Sponsor	LA
Oasis Academy Hengrove	December 2007	Oasis Community Learning	—	Bristol, City of
Djanogly City Academy	December 2007	Sir Harry Djanogly	—	Nottingham
Bede Academy	December 2007	Emmanuel Schools Foundation	—	Northumberland
The RSA Academy, Tipton	February 2008	RSA	—	Sandwell
City of London KPMG Academy	March 2008	Corporation of London	KPMG	Hackney
City of London Academy	March 2008	Corporation of London	City University	Islington
The Open Academy	March 2008	Graham Dacre	Bishop of Norwich	Norfolk
Colston’s Girls	March 2008	The Society of Merchant Venturers	—	Bristol, City of
Pimlico Academy	April 2008	FUTURE	—	Westminster

Academies: Teachers

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what freedoms have been granted to academies over the pay and conditions of their staff; and if he will make a statement. [201044]

Jim Knight: It is the responsibility of the governing body of each academy to agree levels of pay and conditions of service with its employees. However, all teachers must have access to the Teachers Pension Scheme and all employees other than teachers must have access to the Local Government Pension Scheme. Any employees transferring to an academy from its predecessor school or schools have their existing pay and conditions protected under TUPE regulations.

Children

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many copies of his Department’s Children’s Plan Toolkit have been produced; and what the cost was of the production of those copies. [201265]

Beverley Hughes: A total of 1,550 packs have been produced. The total cost was £30,534, which included the design, production and distribution of the packs.

Children in Care

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children in care were parents in each of the last 10 years; [201856]

(2) how many children in care committed suicide in each of the last 10 years. [201864]

Kevin Brennan: Information on the number of mothers aged 12 and over who were looked after by English local authorities in each of the years ending 31 March 2005 to 2007 is shown in table A5 as follows. Table A5 is taken from the Statistical First Release (SFR 27/2007) entitled ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2007’. The SFR is located at

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000741/index. shtml

and table A5 can be found within the first set of excel tables on the website.

Information on the number of children in care who committed suicide is not collected centrally by the Department.

28 Apr 2008 : Column 171W

28 Apr 2008 : Column 172W

Table A5: mothers aged 12 years and over looked after at 31 March 2005 to 2007 by age at 31 March, age at birth of first child, category of need, ethnic origin and placement( 1,2,3)
England
	Numbers			Percentage
	2005	2006	2007	2005	2006	2007
All females looked after at 31 March( 1,2)	27,200	26,900	26,600	—	—	—
All mothers aged 12 years and over looked after at 31 March( 1,2)	300	310	360	100	100	100
Age at 31 March (years)	300	310	360	100	100	100
12 to 14	10	20	30	3	6	8
15	40	40	40	14	12	12
16	90	100	100	29	31	29
17	160	160	190	54	51	52
18 and over	0	0	0	0	0	0
Age at birth of first child (years)( 4)	*	310	360	*	100	100
12 to 14	*	40	40	*	11	11
15	*	60	70	*	19	19
16	*	70	80	*	23	21
17	*	40	50	*	11	14
18 and over	*	0	—	*	0	—
Birth date not reported	*	110	130	*	35	35
Category of need( 5)	300	310	360	100	100	100
Abuse or neglect	140	160	180	48	50	51
Child’s disability	—	—	—	—	—	—
Parent’s illness or disability	10	—	10	4	—	2
Family in acute stress	30	30	30	10	11	9
Family dysfunction	50	50	70	16	17	19
Socially unacceptable behaviour	10	10	10	5	4	3
Low income	—	0	—	—	0	—
Absent parenting	50	50	60	17	15	16
Ethnic origin	300	310	360	100	100	100
White	190	190	230	63	61	63
Mixed	20	30	30	8	9	8
Asian or Asian British	—	—	10	—	—	2
Black or Black British	80	80	90	25	26	24
Other Ethnic groups	—	—	10	—	—	3
Placement	300	310	360	100	100	100
Foster placements	110	150	150	37	46	42
Placed for adoption	0	0	0	0	0	0
Placed with parents	20	20	20	8	6	5
Placed in the community	80	80	100	26	26	28
Secure units, children’s homes and hostels	60	50	60	20	15	17
Other residential settings	20	20	20	7	5	5
Residential schools	0	0	0	0	0	0
Missing—absent for more than 24 hours from agreed placement	—	—	—	—	—	—
Other placement	—	—	—	—	—	—
(1) Source: SSDA903 return on children looked after. (2) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. (3) Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. (4) Data on the first child’s date of birth was first collected in 2005-06. (5) The most applicable category of the eight “Need Codes” (i.e. the reason why the child is receiving social services) at the time the child was taken into care rather than necessarily the reason they are looked after.

---