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13 May 2008 : Column 1501W—continued
| Maintained secondary schools and all special schools: number (headcount) of pupils( 1) : January 200 7 . Southend local authority | ||||
| Urn | LEA number | Estab number | School name | Headcount of pupils |
| (1) Excluded dually registered pupils. | ||||
| Maintained secondary schools and all special schools: number (headcount) of pupils( 1) : January 200 8 (provisional) . Southend local authority | ||||
| Urn | LEA number | Estab number | School name | Headcount of pupils |
| (1) Excluded dually registered pupils. | ||||
School Meals: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the impact of rising food prices on the cost of schools meals; and if he will make a statement. [202638]
Kevin Brennan: The Government have not made such an assessment.
However, the Government are taking forward a number of steps to help to keep down the price of school meals. We are investing over £650 million between 2005-11 to help raise nutritional standards and keep school lunch prices down. This funding is also being used 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.
The School Food Trust is working with manufacturers, caterers and schools to ensure the long term sustainability and efficiency of the country’s school food service. They are working with food producers and manufacturers to ensure that the nutrient menus have a minimum effect on the price of school meals as well as working on kitchen efficiencies, including both skilling the workforce and looking at international business models. The Trust has produced
guidance focusing on efficient and sustainable school food procurement. This guidance is being distributed to all schools in April 2008.
The Department is working in close alliance with the Trust and other Departments, to identify opportunities and develop initiatives to further improve efficiencies in procurement. These include price benchmark variance reporting, common food standards and terms and conditions to support local and national competitive tendering, as well as the use of shared contracts from other Departments, where they can be shown to meet the needs of schools.
In response to a survey carried out in January 2008 by the School Food Trust 2008, 68 per cent. of local authorities (LAs) reported that, in principle, their catering service was expected to break even, with 9 per cent. expected to operate at a deficit, and 10 per cent. expected to make a surplus. For the 2007/08 financial year, 44 per cent. of LAs expected their catering service to break even or make a surplus, compared to the 41 per cent. of LAs who achieved this in 2006/07. Similar numbers of LAs expected their financial outcome to improve (15 LAs) as expected it to worsen (14 LAs). The results of the Trust’s survey can be found on its website at:
Schools: Procurement
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what advice his Department has issued to schools on procuring food from small, local producers. [205237]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has not issued any advice to schools on procuring food from small, local producers. However, it asked the School Food Trust to provide advice on food procurement issues to local authorities and schools and the trust has recently published “A fresh look at school food procurement: efficiency and sustainability”—guidance for schools and local authorities on how efficient and sustainable food procurement can be pursued in tandem. It can be viewed on the trust’s website at:
The guidance actively promotes the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI), which aims to increase tenders from small and local producers and improve their ability to do business. The guide encourages buyers to identify and reduce barriers to small and medium-sized local enterprises (which may prevent them from tendering) and recognises that smaller suppliers can compete with larger businesses. It also recognises that their participation in the public sector supply chain can benefit local and regional economies. The trust’s website also contains a number of case studies where local authorities and schools demonstrate how they have successfully tendered for local produce for their meals’ service.
In addition, the National Governors Association has recently published a supplement to “Food Policy in Schools—a strategic policy framework for school governing bodies”. This advises governors on how to produce whole school policy statements to promote
healthy food, and improve sustainability and efficiency in their procurement of food and catering services. Like the trust’s guidance, it actively promotes the PSFPI.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were (a) classified as having special educational needs, (b) given a statement of special educational needs and (c) classified as having emotional and behavioural difficulties in each year since 1990, broken down by (i) sex and (ii) local authority. [205077]
Kevin Brennan: Information on the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) by gender is only available from 2002 onwards.
Information was collected from schools on pupils who are supported at “School Action Plus” and those pupils with statements of SEN about their main or primary need and, if appropriate, their secondary need for the first time in 2004.
We publish national level information on the number of pupils identified with SEN, by gender, and with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties at School Action Plus and with statements of SEN annually. From 2004 the figures can be found in the Statistical First Release ‘DCSF: Special Educational Needs in England’, the latest of which can be accessed at:
Figures for 2003 and earlier were published in the Statistical Bulletin: ‘Special Educational Needs in England’, which can be accessed at:
Equivalent publications are available for earlier years.
We publish a local level analysis for a range of data on SEN, which can be found in the additional tables at the aforementioned websites. A local level analysis of the number of pupils with SEN and those with statements of SEN by gender in each year since 2002 as well as local level figures for the number of pupils with behaviour, emotional and social difficulties in each year since 2004 could only be produced as disproportionate costs.
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