| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
20 Nov 2008 : Column 782W—continued
Pupils: Intimidation
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress his Department is making in tackling cyberbullying in schools. [236728]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department introduced legal provisions in the 2006 Education Act which gave school staff new powers to confiscate mobile phones and to discipline pupils for bad behaviour outside the school gate, including cyber bullying. We published detailed guidance for schools on how to prevent and tackle cyber bullying in September 2007, and have more recently produced a resource pack for school staff which includes a DVD and a booklet for teachers. We ran a digital information campaign on cyber bullying last year aimed at 12 to 15-years-olds, and as part of anti-bullying week we are currently re-running this campaign to drive home the message that if young people laugh at, or pass on bullying messages online or with mobile phones, they are taking part in bullying. I have asked the Anti-Bullying Alliance and National Strategies to work with local authorities and schools to ensure the cyber bullying guidance is effectively implemented on the ground, and that schools make effective use of the other materials.
Runaway Children
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many young runaways there were in each year since 2000; and what steps have been taken to assist them over that period; [236941]
(2) what estimate his Department has made of the number of children who were sleeping rough in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority. [236948]
Beverley Hughes: Statistics on the numbers of all children who are reported as missing, and on the number of children who sleep rough are not collected centrally. However, a recent Children’s Society survey (“Still Running II, 2005”) estimates that each year 100,000 children in the UK run away or are forced to leave home to escape problems. That survey suggests that one in six of those young people will sleep rough while they are away.
In June 2008, the Department, in partnership with the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government, published the Young Runaways Action Plan. This set out how we will support those who have run away from home or care, draws on the findings of a series of parliamentary hearings, and reflects the direction set by the working group of officials and local government and voluntary sector experts which my Department set up earlier this year to drive work to improve services for runaways. In particular, we have committed to update the statutory guidance for local authorities about service provision for runaways; to produce a resource pack that schools and other organisations working with young people can use to educate them about the dangers of running; and to review the provision of emergency accommodation, which helps those young people who do run to stay safe.
Additionally, the National Police Improvement Agency’s Missing Persons Bureau has been working with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the charity Missing People to establish joint working arrangements to improve the recording, sharing and exchange of information, to improve the way in which missing persons are dealt with, and to inform our understanding of the problem in order to develop strategies to address it. A comprehensive national police database of missing and unidentified people reported either to the police or the charity has been established, and will be supported by a new police Code of Practice on the recording of data relating to missing people, which will be in place in the spring. Local areas will be asked to confirm the extent to which this data is collected and used appropriately at a local level as part of the new indicator, N1 71, ‘Missing from Home or Care’, which will be in place from April 2009.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what provision is in place for long-term specialist foster carers to take in young runaways for an extended period of time; and if he will make a statement. [236951]
Beverley Hughes: Local authorities are responsible for commissioning sufficient placements in order to respond to the diverse needs of children in their care. The information requested, therefore, is not held centrally.
Our Care Matters White Paper outlined a range of initiatives to offer support to foster carers and improve placement choice.
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what original estimate was made of the costs of implementing the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006; and what his most recent estimate is of such costs. [235897]
Meg Hillier: I have been asked to reply.
Implementing the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 required the setting up of a new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) through which unsuitable people would be barred from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. The VBS Full Business Case of 28 September 2007 showed set-up costs for 2007-08 and 2008-09 are expected to be £84 million in total, with five-year operational costs expected to be £246 million. Hence, over the five years of implementing the scheme, and vetting approximately 11.3 million people, the total costs will be £330 million. Since the figures quoted in that business case, the costs have not risen.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average time taken to issue a statement of special educational needs was in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) England in the latest period for which figures are available. [231603]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Audit Commission has collected figures on how many draft statements have been completed by each local authority within the statutory 18 weeks, both when none of the allowed exceptions to the time limits within the 18 weeks are relevant and when they are. The latest figures available are for 2006-07 and are available on the Audit Commission's website at
(Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) 43a and 43b). These show that Stoke-on-Trent achieved an average of 98.2 per cent. of draft statements completed within 18 weeks excluding exceptions and 87.6 per cent. with exceptions. The average local authority scores for England were 97.5 per cent. and 86.5 per cent. respectively.
2007-08 is the last statutory period for the collection and reporting of the BPVIs. The new national indicator set, which has replaced all other local authority performance indicators, includes an indicator on what percentage of final statements each local authority completes within the statutory 26 weeks.
Special Educational Needs: East of England
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding was allocated to special needs provision in each county in the East of England in each year since 1997. [232622]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The available information on how much funding was allocated to special needs provision in each local authority in the East of England in each year since 1997 is contained within the following table: Data is not available prior to 2000-01.
| Budgeted net expenditure on the provision of education for children with special educational needs by local authorities in England since 2000-01 | |||||
| £ | |||||
| Budgeted net expenditure on the education of children with special educational needs | |||||
| Local authority name | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| £ | ||||
| Budgeted net expenditure on the education of children with special educational needs | ||||
| Local authority name | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| Source: The data are drawn from local authorities Section 52 Budget Statements (Tables 1 and 2) submitted to the DCSF (formally the DfES). | ||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |