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11 Nov 2008 : Column 1072W—continued


Table 2 shows the regional occupancy rates for different types of child care providers for 2007. Data for earlier years are not available in the format requested.

Table 2: Regional occupancy rates for 2007
Percentage

Full day care Full day care in children’s centres Sessional After school Holiday Child minders Nursery schools Primary schools with nursery and reception classes Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes

East Midlands

80

77

82

67

65

65

92

87

81

East of England

84

85

86

73

66

72

94

86

83

London

78

82

87

77

70

61

96

93

95

North East(1)

(2)81

(2)73

(2)85

(2)71

(2)67

(2)75

96

n/a

79

Yorkshire and Humber

(2)

(2)

(2)

(2)

(2)

(2)

94

n/a

84

North West

83

83

88

72

65

73

91

n/a

82

South East

83

79

88

71

73

69

97

90

87

South West

81

83

85

69

60

75

99

88

81

West Midlands

83

77

84

73

66

73

96

88

82

(1) Data for child care providers are not separately available for the North East and Yorkshire and Humberside regions.
(2) Indicates brace.
Note:
Data are not available for primary schools with nursery and reception classes in the North East and North West regions as an insufficient number of interviews were achieved in these areas. Data are also not available for primary schools with nursery and reception classes in Yorkshire and Humberside as this region was grouped with the North East and North West to ensure that national figures were representative.

Data on occupancy rates are not available at a local authority level.

Parents: Advisory Services

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many calls there have been to the Parent Know How helpline in each month since it was established; what the cost of the helpline has been; and if he will make a statement. [233610]

Beverley Hughes: The Parent Know How programme is funding seven third sector organisations to deliver helplines for parents. The funding for these helplines commenced on 1 April 2008. Management data, including the number of calls taken by the helplines, are collected quarterly. In the first quarter (April to June) 34,936 calls were taken, in the second quarter (July to September) 31,399 calls were taken. The third sector organisations are funded by grants to deliver the helpline services. The total cost in 2008-09 is £3.4 million.


11 Nov 2008 : Column 1073W

Pupil Exclusions: Young Offenders

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of young men in young offender institutions have previously been excluded from school. [234218]

Beverley Hughes: This information is not collected centrally. However, a report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons in 2004 ‘Juveniles in Custody’ stated that 83 per cent. of boys had been excluded from school. The research concentrated on young people under the age of 18 within YOIs.

Also, the Ministry of Justice has recently published research ‘The problems and needs of newly sentenced prisoners: results from a national survey’ which surveyed 1,457 newly sentenced prisoners, of which 181 were young offenders aged 18 to 20. 52 per cent. of young offenders participating in the survey said they had been permanently excluded from school.

Pupils: Languages

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families according to the most
11 Nov 2008 : Column 1074W
recent school census, how many pupils in care had a language other than English as their first language. [234025]

Beverley Hughes: The most recent census data relates to January 2008. The information requested from this census is shown in the table.

The census shows 34,390 pupils aged five to 19 attending primary, secondary and special schools who are classed as being in care as at January 2008. Data published by the Department as SFR 23/2008: Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008, shows 47,600 children aged between five and 19 as being looked after as at 31 March 2008. The school census does not cover all looked after children; information is not collected for pupils in alternative provision, including pupil referral units, FE colleges, voluntary provision and those not in education or training. These differences in coverage will explain the different counts to an extent, but it is possible that the school census undercounts the number of looked after children in primary, secondary and special schools.

Primary, secondary and special schools( 1,2,3) n umber and percentage of pupils classified as being in care by their first language( 4) : England as at January 2008
Pupils whose first language is classified as:
English Other than English Unclassified

Number of pupils Percentage Number of pupils Percentage Number of pupils Percentage

Pupils in care(5)

31,690

92.2

2,560

7.4

140

0.4

All pupils(6)

5,795,430

87.2

824,490

12.4

23,020

0.3

(1) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(2) Includes CTCs and academies.
(3) Includes both maintained and non-maintained special schools, excludes general hospital schools.
(4) Pupils of compulsory school age and over were classified by first language.
(5) The number of pupils in care collected via the school census is known to be under-reported.
(6 )Headcount of pupils, including dual registrations, aged between five and 19 as at 31 August 2007.
Note:
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
School Census

Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average funding per primary school pupil was in (a) England and (b) Somerset in (i) 1996-97 and (ii) 2007-08; and what real term change this represented. [234690]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry [holding answer 10 November 2008]: The per pupil revenue funding figures for primary schools pupils and for all funded pupils for England and Somerset local authority in 1997-98 and 2005-06 are as follows. Figures for 1996-97 are not available on a comparison basis. These figures are in real terms:

England Somerset

Primary pupils (3-10 years)

1997-98

2,615

2,469

2005-06

3,999

3,672

Percentage increase from 1997-98 to 2005-06

52.9

48.7

All pupils (3-19 years)

1997-98

3,185

2,974

2005-06

4,485

4,100

Percentage increase from 1997-98 to 2005-06

40.8

37.9


The revenue per pupil figures shown in the following table are taken from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which was introduced in April 2006. They are not comparable with those for the years 1997-98 to 2005-06 because the introduction of the DSG in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded.

The 1997-98 to 2005-06 figures are based on Education Formula Spending (EFS) which formed the education part of the Local Government Finance Settlement, plus various grants. This was an assessment of what local authorities needed to fund education rather than what they spent. The DSG is based largely on an authority’s
11 Nov 2008 : Column 1075W
previous spending. In addition, the DSG has a different coverage to EFS. EFS comprised a schools block and an LEA block (to cover LEA central functions) whereas DSG only covers the school block. LEA block items are still funded through DCLG’s Local Government Finance Settlement but education items cannot be separately identified. Consequently, there is a break in the Department’s time series as the two sets of data are not comparable.

To provide a comparison for 2006-07 DSG, the Department have isolated the schools block equivalent funding in 2005-06; as described above this does not represent the totality of ‘education’ funding in that year. The per pupil revenue funding figures for years 2005-06 to 2008-09 for England and Somerset local authority are provided in the following table. As the DSG is a mechanism for distributing funding, a split between primary and secondary schools is not available. The following figures are for all funded pupils aged 3-19 and are in real terms:

England Somerset

All pupils (3-19 years)

2005-06 DSG baseline plus grants

4,233

3,890

2008-09 DSG plus grants

4,695

4,221

Percentage increase from 2005-06 to 2008-09

10.9

8.5

Note:
Price Base: Real terms at 2007-08 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 30 September 2008.

Schools: Choice Advisers

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many choice advisers are employed by each local authority; and if he will make a statement. [234752]

Beverley Hughes: The following table shows the number of Choice Advisers in each local authority as at 1 September 2008, based on information provided voluntarily by local authorities to CAS and QAN. The table shows the total number of advisers employed in each local authority, not full-time equivalents.

Local authorities have the flexibility to make Choice Advice available in the way which best meets local needs. Some may employ only one Choice Adviser while others may find they need more than one. Similarly, some may employ full-time Choice Advisers while others may employ Choice Advisers on a seasonal basis.


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