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30 Apr 2008 : Column 532W—continued
General Certificate of Secondary Education
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of children at Key Stage 4 secured at least five A* to C GCSEs, including mathematics, English, a science and a modern language in each year since 1996; and if he will make a statement. [201202]
Jim Knight: The information required is given as follows.
| Percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A*-C including English, mathematics, science and a MFL | |
| Note: Figures up to and including 2003/04 are based on 15-year-old pupils (age at start of academic year, i.e. 31 August). Figures from 2004/05 onwards are based on pupils at the end of key stage 4. | |
Gifted Children
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many local authorities are not taking part in the gifted and talented programme. [203146]
Jim Knight: All local authorities in England are participating in the gifted and talented education programme.
Health Services
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department provides health or social care services out of public funds, with reference to the Statement by the Minister of State, Department of Health, in the Health and Social Care Bill Committee, of 17 January 2008, Official Report, column 327. [200218]
Kevin Brennan: The Department does not provide health and social care services out of public funds.
Higher Civil Servants
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of his Department’s and its predecessors’ senior civil service staff worked part-time in each year since 1997. [200556]
Kevin Brennan: In December 2007 my Department had a total of 106 staff in the senior civil service, of which six (5.7 per cent.) are recorded as working part-time.
Although not directly comparable, due to the 28 June 2007 Machinery of Government changes, the corresponding figure in the predecessor Department, the Department for Education and Skills, was 10 (7.63 per cent.) staff working part-time out of a total of 131 in the senior civil service, at December 2006. Figures for earlier years for the Department for Education and Skills can be found in the Civil Service Statistics Archive:
Pre-School Education: Standards
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of childcare staff in nurseries had an Early Years Foundation Degree in (a) Basingstoke constituency, (b) Hampshire and (c) England in each of the last five years. [200564]
Beverley Hughes: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey collects information on staff qualifications that are relevant to working with children and young people. The qualifications are grouped together in the levels that they have been accredited with by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It is not possible to look at specific qualifications held.
The Early Years Foundation Degree is a level 5 qualification. The percentage of paid staff in England holding at least a level 5 qualification is as follows:
| Table 1: Percentage of paid staff holding at least a Level 5 qualification: 2006 | |
| Percentage | |
Within those figures, those staff with any level 5 qualification relevant to working with children and young people is shown in Table 2:
| Table 2: Percentage of paid staff holding a Level 5 qualification: 2006 | |
| Percentage | |
Comparable data are not available for previous years due to changes in the way that the qualification levels were defined.
Data are not available at a local authority level.
Public Information Booklets
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2008, Official Report, column 1534W, on public information booklets, who is responsible for (a) authorising and (b) auditing expenditure on the production of information for the public; and what information is held centrally on such costs. [202679]
Kevin Brennan: Authorisation for expenditure on the production of information for the public is delegated by the Head of Department to individual policy teams, rather than to a central board dealing with a particular communications channel. This expenditure would be included within the annual audit of DCSF departmental resource accounts by the National Audit Office.
Although we do not centrally co-ordinate records for the production of public information booklets, we do maintain central records relating to the Department’s overall publications distribution contract.
Pupil Exclusions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools excluded more than (a) 10 per cent. and (b) 30 per cent. of their pupils in the latest year for which figures are available. [201134]
Kevin Brennan: The number of schools excluding more than 10 and more than 30 per cent. of their pupils is not readily available and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils in secondary schools were given a (a) fixed period and (b) permanent exclusion in the last 12 months, broken down by local authority index of multiple deprivation decile. [202108]
Kevin Brennan: The available information has been placed in the House Library.
Pupil Referral Units: Sports
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of pupil referral units offer two hours of physical exercise every week. [201855]
Kevin Brennan: The 2006/07 PE and School Sport Survey found that 91 per cent. of Pupil Referral Units provided at least two hours high quality PE and school sport a week for at least one of its pupils. Overall, 84 per cent. of all pupils in PRUs participated in at least two hours high quality PE and sport a week.
School Meals: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what he expects the minimum spend on ingredients for school meals to be per pupil per day; and if he will make a statement; [202636]
(2) what the minimum spend on ingredients for school meals per pupil per day was in each year since the minimum spend was introduced; and if he will make a statement. [202637]
Kevin Brennan: There is no minimum spend on ingredients requirement for school meals. Food prices vary by region leading to different purchasing power. It is, therefore, for local authorities or, where the budget for school meals is delegated to them, school governing bodies to decide what monies they assign to school lunches. However, the School Food Trust's 2007 annual survey reported an average spend on ingredients of 57p per meal in primary schools.
The Government are taking forward a number of steps to improve school food and help to keep down the price of school meals. We are investing over £650 million between 2005 to 2011 to help raise nutritional standards and keep school lunch prices down. This includes funding to help build kitchens in areas with no kitchen facilities; to better support the development of training centres for the school food workforce; and to improve overall take-up.
Schools: Drinking Water
Sandra Gidley: (1) To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of schools which freely provided fresh drinking water for pupils at the latest date for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement; [201217]
(2) if he will provide grants for schools in England so that modern water coolers can be made available for pupils. [202735]
Jim Knight: The Department has not made an estimate of the number of schools which freely provide fresh drinking water for pupils and has no plans to provide grants to schools in England so that modern water coolers can be made available to pupils.
The Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 require schools to have a wholesome supply of water for domestic purposes including a supply of drinking water. The responsibility for ensuring compliance with the School Premises regulations rests with local authorities.
The Education (Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food) (England) Regulations 2007 require schools to ensure that drinking water is provided free of charge at all times to registered pupils on school premises.
Schools wishing to attain Healthy Schools status must offer easy access to free, clean and palatable drinking water.
Schools: Sustainable Development
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he has taken towards establishing a carbon test for new schools as a supplement to the BRE Environmental Assessment Method rating. [202539]
Jim Knight: The Children's Plan sets out our ambition for newly built schools to be zero carbon by 2016 and contains our current requirement for all newly built schools to reduce carbon emissions by at least 60 per cent. We are in the process of establishing a task force to determine; how to achieve zero carbon schools; whether the timescale is realistic; and how to reduce carbon emissions in the intervening period.
With regard to the current requirement to reduce emissions from new school buildings by 60 per cent. the Department has developed a simple piece of software—the ‘carbon calculator'—which estimates the carbon savings and capital costs for a range of low carbon technologies. This allows users to test combinations of potential features for each school's design. The carbon calculator, and guidance on its use, can be downloaded from the Teachernet web-site(1). Our guidance on how to use the calculator also contains information on a wide range of low carbon technologies. This refers users to other more detailed sources of information on each of these technologies, such as publications or specialist organisations that can provide further technical or financial support.
Our specific measures to address carbon emissions are additional to our requirement for all major school building projects; register for a BREEAM Schools assessment; and aim to achieve a minimum rating of ‘very good’.
Secondary Education: Absenteeism
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which secondary schools had an unauthorised absence rate of over (a) 10 and (b) 20 per cent. at the latest date for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [201068]
Kevin Brennan: Information on unauthorised absence rate for individual schools are published as part of the Achievement and Attainment Tables which can be found at:
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