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18 Dec 2008 : Column 1112W—continued
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Day Care
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the average cost of day care provision in each local authority; and if he will make a statement. [244791]
Beverley Hughes: The Department does not collect this information by local authority. However, the Department's 2007 National Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey shows that the national average that parents pay for a full day care place is £3.20 per hour.
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many child care places are (a) available in each region and (b) planned in the next three years; and how many lone parents in each region have at least one child under seven years of age. [244966]
Beverley Hughes: The available information on child care places available by region is shown in the table.
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:
The Office for National Statistics collects information on lone parent families with a child under seven years old. The available information is shown in the table.
| Lone parent families where the youngest child is under seven years old by GOR UK 2007 | |
| Region | Number (Thousand) |
| (1 )As with all figures in the table, the total is rounded to the nearest thousand. Source: Annual Population Survey. | |
Children: Health Services
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for what aspects of the Children’s Health Strategy his Department will have responsibility. [245274]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department for Children, Schools and Families is jointly responsible, with the Department of Health, for promoting the health of all children and young people: this has been the case since the Machinery of Government changes in June 2007 announced the creation of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The Child Health Strategy is being developed jointly by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department of Health and will set out the Government’s long-term strategy to support children’s and families’ health. It will be aimed at the NHS, Local Government and partnership organisations, and build on the work already being delivered through Every Child Matters and the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services. It will consider and clarify how health services, working with schools and other partners, can work better to improve children’s and young people’s health through ages 0 to 19. It has been developed through widespread consultation with service providers, commissioners, and other stakeholders, and with young people and parents, and will fulfil a commitment in the ‘Children’s Plan—Building brighter futures’.
Children: Protection
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many representations his Department has received in the last 18 months from social workers raising concerns about child protection matters in each local authority in the last 18 months. [240760]
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many representations his Department has received from social workers on child protection issues in the last 18 months; and to which authorities these were referred. [241889]
Beverley Hughes: The Department for Children, Schools and Families receives a large number of representations across a wide range of issues, mostly in the form of correspondence. A significant number relate to safeguarding and child protection issues. It is often unclear whether the correspondent is writing in a personal or official capacity, and correspondents very rarely identify themselves explicitly as social workers. It is not therefore possible to estimate with any confidence the total number of representations received, or the number relating to particular local authorities, from social workers on child protection matters.
Connexions Service: Internet
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many hits the Connexions website received in each of the last five years. [244442]
Beverley Hughes: Since its commencement in 2004, the Connexions website has received a total of 21,645,903 hits. Yearly breakdowns are as follows:
| Year from January -December | Total number of hits to Connexions Direct website |
| (1) To date | |
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with how many faith-based organisations his Department has contracts to provide public services. [244841]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The information requested is not held centrally and to provide this would incur disproportionate cost.
Departmental Data Protection
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many civil servants in his Department have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended and (c) dismissed for (i) losing and (ii) deliberately disclosing (A) data stored on departmental equipment and (B) confidential information in each year since its inception. [242921]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Since the Department was created in July 2007, and up to the end of November 2008, no cases of data loss or disclosure have been investigated.
The Department takes any breach of security very seriously and, in some cases, may take disciplinary action against those who commit such breaches. Policies and guidance on IT security are available to all staff on the departmental intranet. Logging into the Department's IT system requires that staff must agree to abide by these policies.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many special advisers were employed in his Department at each pay band on 30 November 2008; and what his Department's expenditure on special advisers was in 2007-08. [243579]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Government are committed to publishing an annual list detailing the number and costs of special advisers. Information for 2007-08 was published by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 22 July 2008, Official Report, columns 99-102WS.
Departmental Pay
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy to ensure that those temporary and permanent employees at the same grade in his Department who are paid at an hourly rate are paid at the same rate. [244398]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: In the Department, all permanent and temporary employees are salaried, and the same policies are applied on starting salary.
Departmental Procurement
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether there has been any nugatory expenditure by his Department and its agencies relating to tendered procurement where the tender process has been cancelled prior to the award of the contract since the inception of his Department. [242457]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department does not collect information of this kind and an answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Work Experience
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many individuals have worked in his Department on (a) paid and (b) unpaid work experience or internships in each year since its establishment; on average how many hours a week were worked by such people in each year; what types of work each was involved in; what proportion were in full-time education; what proportion did not complete their set period of work experience; and how much those who received remuneration were paid on average per week in each year. [242122]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Since its creation in June 2007 to date, the Department has made 49 paid internships and 113 unpaid work experience places available. For internships, 24 interns were placed in summer 2007 and 25 interns in summer 2008. All interns were university-level students in Cabinet Office programmes. For work experience, 40 year 10 and 11 students and 11 graduates were placed from 28 July to December 2007 and 55 year 10 and 11 students and seven graduates were placed from January to December 2008. Information on work experience hours is not collected centrally but it is expected that students and graduates would work similar hours to full-time staff on the relevant site, in or outside of London, and at the discretion of the team to which they have been assigned. Information on students who did not complete their set period of work experience is not collected centrally and, along with the work hours worked, could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Payments for internships for 2007 and 2008 were £285 per week in London and £245 per week outside London.
All interns and work experience students and graduates undertook a range of structured and supervised tasks to learn and feedback on the delivery of a range of projects for the Department using the core skills of Professional Skills for Government.
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