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Special Educational Needs

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department's policy is on informing parents of children with complex educational and specialist health needs of public and charitable provision that is available for such children nationally and locally. [232459]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Under section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006 local authorities (LAs) are required to deliver information, advice and guidance on child care and other local services for parents of children and young people up to age 20.

The information which must be prescribed by local authorities has been prescribed in the Childcare Act 2006 (Provision of Information to Parents) (England) Regulations 2007 (“the regulations”). These regulations require LAs to provide information about whether particular child care is suitable for disabled children, and about services, facilities and publication which may be of particular benefit to disabled children, young people or their parents.

Nationally, the Early Support Programme is the Government's recommended family-centred approach for delivering integrated services for young disabled children, which includes information resources for parents on how to work with local professionals to understand and secure the support their child needs. In addition, the Department funds Contact-a-Family directly and through the Parent Know How programme to provide information to parents of disabled children, including on the state and charitable provision available.

Specialised Diplomas: Business

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the procedures are for ensuring compliance with child protection requirements within businesses applying to participate in joint ventures offering diploma courses. [230058]

Beverley Hughes: Some staff of businesses which deliver parts of diploma courses, including work experience placements, may be required by schools or colleges attended by the learners concerned, or by education business brokers on their behalf, to have Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.

CRB checks happen in certain circumstances where it is judged by those responsible for organising the learning or placement that a young person might be at risk of
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experiencing inappropriate behaviours, for example where they are vulnerable, or are working with someone on a one-to-one basis or over an extended period of time. Guidance for schools, colleges and businesses can be found in ‘Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education’.

Specialised Diplomas: Vetting

Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of (a) Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and (b) enhanced CRB checks which will be required on the members of staff of businesses offering part of a 14 to 19 diploma. [232329]

Beverley Hughes: CRB and Enhanced CRB checks required by members of staff of businesses offering part of a 14 to 19 diploma are expected to be small in number since the majority of diploma principal learning and additional specialist learning will take place in schools, colleges and training providers. Teachers, lecturers and trainers in these settings will have already been CRB checked.

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Teachers: Training

Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department’s targets for the number of people entering initial teacher training for each subject by (a) undergraduate, (b) post-graduate certificate of education and (c) other graduate teacher training routes were in each of the last five years. [233510]

Jim Knight: The following table shows the targets set for recruitment to mainstream Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for primary courses and secondary courses by subject for each academic year between 2004/05 and 2008/09. The Department does not set targets for each route into ITT.

Only the 2008/09 targets include Employment Based Routes Initial Teacher Training (EBITT) courses. Prior to 2008/09 the Department did not set targets for EBITT, although recruitment data for EBITT courses was still taken into account in projecting the future required numbers of recruits and successful completers on each type of programme and by subject to assist in determining the targets required for mainstream ITT targets.

Initial teacher training places( 1) , academic years: 2004/05 to 2008/09 , coverage: England
	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09
Primary	16,300	15,800	15,300	14,800	17,460
Secondary(1)	19,500	18,500	17,500	16,500	19,385
O f which:
Art	880	800	700	600	670
Citizenship	250	240	230	220	265
Economics, Social Sciences, Classics. Other subjects	300	290	240	185	325
English (including Drama)	2,350	2,200	2,040	1,920	2,670
Geography	935	925	850	770	770
History	910	810	700	600	685
Mathematics	2,350	2,350	2,350	2,350	2,735
Modern foreign languages	2,050	1,900	1,790	1,670	1,670
Music	725	690	640	600	690
Physical Education	1,500	1,450	1,310	1,180	1,570
Religious Education	730	730	695	665	740
Science	3,225	3,225	3,225	3,225	3,615
Technology, of which:	2,895	2,890	2,730	2,515	2,980
Business Studies	760	730	680	600	590
Design and Technology	1,085	1,060	1,010	930	1,195
Information and communications technology	1,050	1,100	1,040	985	1,195
Vocational subjects(2)	400	—	—	—	—
Margin of flexibility/secondary reserve(3)	—	—	—	—	—
Primary and secondary	35,800	34,300	32,800	31,300	36,845
(1) Targets prior to 2008/09 include School Centred ITT but excludes Employment Based Routes ITT (EBITT). Targets for 2008/08 onwards include EBITT, but exclude Teach First. (2) Places for vocational subjects in 2006/07 are included with the allocation for related academic subject: Science includes places for applied science, design and technology includes both manufacturing and engineering, ICT includes applied ICT, business studies includes applied business, geography includes leisure and tourism, art includes applied art and other subjects includes health and social care and subjects relating to the new diploma subjects. In 2004/05 places for vocational subjects were shown separately. In 2003/04 the margin of flexibility included places for a vocational subjects pilot. (3) The margin of flexibility/secondary reserve constituted places that the TDA could allocate to any secondary subject, to support providers whose baselines would otherwise be below economic levels: to ensure the appropriate denominational balance; and to help providers with a high proportion of places in shortage subjects and who therefore had particular uncertainty of income. Source: OGSF

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These data were published as part of the Statistical First Release: School Workforce in England (29/2007) and is available at:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000743/index.shtml

Young Offenders: Education

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what educational provision is in force for young people under 18 years remanded in custody at young offender institutions prior to court disposal. [234142]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 10 November 2008]: Education, training and personal development activities for all young people in custody are delivered as part of a package of placement services funded by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and prescribed by a joint YJB/DCSF/MOJ/Learning and Skills Council specification “The Offender Learning Journey for Juveniles”. All young people in custody should receive full-time education and personal development activities, which are based on the national curriculum but with flexibilities to take account of prior learning and other needs such as substance misuse, and behaviour management needs etc which young people may have. The YJB sets requirements for education in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) and require that 90 per cent. of young people receive 25 hours or more education, training and personal development activity per week.

Young People: Antisocial Behaviour

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what criteria his Department will use to assess the effectiveness of intensive intervention projects. [234730]

Beverley Hughes: The primary objective of intensive intervention projects is to improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable and challenging young people in society—and to improve outcomes for the communities in which they live. We specifically expect the projects to:

Significantly reduce antisocial behaviour;

Help reduce youth crime;

Improve participation in education and training;

Tackle substance misuse;

Reduce youth homelessness.

Projects are expected to take referrals from across the whole local authority area. The criteria for referral to the project should draw on the local assessment of young people’s needs which underpins targeted youth support reforms. The target group should include those young people identified as being:

Involved in crime or antisocial behaviour;

Involved in, or at risk, of substance abuse;

Persistent absentees or excluded from school or not in employment education or training (NEET);

Presenting as homeless or at risk of homelessness.

As a guide we would expect young people engaged with the project to also experience a range of the risk factors including:

At risk of teenage pregnancy;

Young teenage parents;

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Poor family support and support networks;

Family or friend involvement in gangs or with criminal convictions;

Poor aspirations/poor emotional social or coping skills;

Learning difficulties and disabilities;

Children of parents with substance misuse problems;

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