| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
25 Nov 2008 : Column 1420W—continued
Children: Day Care
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) distribution of the budget for delivery of the free childcare entitlement. [235895]
Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 591-92W.
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in Houghton and Washington East constituency took up free nursery places in the most recent period for which figures are available. [235902]
Beverley Hughes: The Department publishes information on the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds. This is derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and two and a half hours per week as 0.2 places.
The following table provides this information for Houghton and Washington, East parliamentary constituency area in 2008.
| Part-time equivalent number of free early education places( 1,2) filled by three and four-year-olds: Parliamentary constituency—Houghton and Washington, East | ||||||
| Position in January 2008 | ||||||
| Three-year-olds | Four-year-olds | |||||
| Maintained nursery and primary schools( 3) | Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 4) | Total three-year- olds | Maintained nursery and primary schools( 5) | Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 6) | Total four-year-olds | |
| (1) A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. (2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,00 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the School Census. (4) Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the School Census. (5) Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the School Census. (6) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the School Census. | ||||||
The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 12/2008 “Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2008”, available on my Department’s website
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many childcare places there were in Crosby constituency in (a) 1997 and (b) 2008. [236685]
Beverley Hughes: The information requested is not available by parliamentary constituency. The following tables show the number of child care places in Sefton local authority for 1997 and 2008.
| Table 1: Number( 1,2) of day care places for children under eight years of age by type of provider—Sefton local authority area, Position at 31 March 1997 | |
| Type of provider | 1997 |
| (1) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. (2) Data source: Children's Day Care Facilities Survey. | |
Since 2003 Ofsted has been responsible for the registration and inspection of child care providers. Ofsted have produced figures on the numbers of registered child care providers and places on a quarterly basis from March 2003. Their latest figures were published in their report ‘Registered Childcare Providers and Places, August 2008’, which is available on their website
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many nursery
places for three and four year olds there were in Crosby constituency in (a) 1996 and (b) 2007; and what proportion of all three and four year olds in the constituency these figures represent in each year. [236686]
Beverley Hughes: All four year olds have been entitled to a free early education place since 1998 and from April 2004 this entitlement was extended to all three year olds. Therefore, information prior to these years is not available.
Information on the number of nursery places for three and four year olds is not collected centrally. The table provides information about the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four year olds in Crosby parliamentary constituency area in 2007.
| Part-time equivalent number of free early education places( 1, 2 ) filled by three and four-year-olds: p arliamentary constituency Crosby—Position in January 2007 | ||||||
| 3-year-olds | 4-year-olds | |||||
| maintained nursery and primary schools( 3) | other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 4) | total 3 - year - olds | maintained nursery and primary schools( 5) | other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 6) | total 4 - yea r- olds | |
| (1) A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. (2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the School Census. (4) Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the School Census. The part-time equivalent is derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and two and a half hours per week as 0.2 places. (5) Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the School Census. (6) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the School Census. The part-time equivalent is derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and 2 and a half hours per week as 0.2 places. | ||||||
Information on the proportion of all three and four year olds in the constituency is not available.
The latest figures on early education places for three and four year olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 12/2008 "Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2008", available on my Department's website
Children: Protection
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent arrangements have been made by his Department to support child protection in (a) Leeds West constituency and (b) Leeds City area. [238774]
Beverley Hughes: All local authorities are required to put in place robust arrangements to protect children, including a Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). Where a serious incident regarding safeguarding occurs, the LSCB will consider undertaking a Serious Case Review (SCR) to learn the lessons and improve practice. There are two SCRs under way in Leeds at present. In addition, three SCR reports have been completed this year and have been sent to Ofsted. As part of the SCR process, the LSCB is responsible for drawing up an action plan for discussion with the regional Government office.
Ofsted undertake an Annual Performance Assessment (APA) of every area's children's services against the five Every Child Matters outcomes. The assessment against ‘staying safe’ in last year's APA for Leeds was that services were adequate. A copy of the full assessment can be found on Ofsted's website at
The APA results for 2008 are due to be published on 17 December 2008.
Leeds local authority has also agreed with the Government office a Local Area Agreement which includes the following designated targets relevant to protecting children:
NI 58 Behavioural and emotional health of looked after children
NI 63 Stability of placements of looked after children: length of placements and
NI 66 Looked after children cases which were reviewed within required timescales.
It is not possible to provide separate information for Leeds West and Leeds City since safeguarding arrangements are planned and managed on a local authority wide basis.
Children's Centres: Enfield
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children's centres have been established in the London Borough of Enfield since 1997; [235442]
(2) how many Sure Start centres there are in the London Borough of Enfield; and how many children resident in that borough have used Sure Start. [235406]
Beverley Hughes: Enfield currently has 16 Sure Start Children's Centres with a further eight due to open by 2010, in order to provide universal coverage for children under five and their families.
Information is not collected centrally on the number of children accessing the services offered by children's centres but on average we expect each centre to serve communities of around 800 children under five and their families.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) work and (b) provide assistance for his Department. [231690]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The DCSF has 20 press officers of which one is part-time. There are no additional press officers providing assistance for the Department.
Departmental Internet
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for which Government websites his Department is responsible; how many visitors each received in the last period for which figures are available; and what the cost of maintaining each site was in that period. [235038]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department is responsible for a number of online services to a wide range of audiences including schools, their governors, local authorities, children's services, parents, young people and children, including online publications services. The Department is working towards consolidation of all its websites. Public-facing content is being migrated to Directgov and business content to Businesslink.
The Department's services received just over 9.8 million unique visits from April to August 2008. During this period the Department spent £1,131,403.00 on these services.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many staff in his Department are responsible for branding activity; and what the cost of employing such staff was in 2007-08. [237459]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department has one full-time equivalent member of staff responsible for branding activity. They were employed at a cost of £44,109 in 2007-08.
Departmental NDPBs
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the remit is of each non-departmental public body sponsored by his Department; and what budget each has been set for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11. [236917]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The DCSF has 12 Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs), nine of which are Executive NDPBs and three are Advisory NDPBs. In summary, the remit of each NDPB is as follows:
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA): is the government lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of the e-strategy. It influences the strategic direction and development of national education policy to take best advantage of technology. BECTA informs and influences education
decisions by developing and disseminating high quality evidence of the progress and impact of technology in education, technology innovation and effective practice.
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS ): looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings. It works with children and their families, and then advises the courts on what it considers to be in the best interests of individual children.
Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC): improves the lives of children, young people, their families and carers by ensuring that all people working with them have the best possible training, qualifications, support and advice. It also helps children and young people's organisations and services to work together better so that the child is at the centre of all services.
National College for School Leadership (NCSL) : works to make a difference to children's lives through excellent school leadership - growing and supporting current and future school leaders so that they can have a positive impact within and beyond their schools.
Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC, also referred to as '11 Million'): looks after the interests and acts as the voice of children and young people.
Partnership for Schools (PfS): supports the local delivery of the Department's 'Building Schools for the Future' programme (including Academies) to renew or rebuild every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA): is committed to building a world-class education and training framework by regulating, developing and modernising the curriculum, assessments, examinations and qualifications.
The School Food Trust (SFT) has a remit to transform school food and food skills, promote the education and health of children and young people and improve the quality of food in schools.
Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA): works with schools to develop the workforce and ensure that schools can recruit good quality, well trained people. Supporting schools to provide extended services for parents, children and young people.
The Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (TPIAG) advises the Government on the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and monitors its implementation. The Strategy aims to halve the rate of conceptions in under-18s by 2010 and to increase the participation of teenage parents in education, training and employment.
School Teachers' Review Body (STRB): examines and reports on such matters relating to the statutory conditions of employment of school teachers in England and Wales as may from time to time be referred to it by the Secretary of State.
Teachers' TV (TTV): provides a service to help head teachers, teachers, governors, teaching assistants, school support staff and other people who work in schools to deliver education to the highest possible standard. The Teachers' TV Board of Governors oversees the performance management of the channel to ensure it delivers value for money and meets audience needs.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |