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13 Jan 2009 : Column 654W—continued
Gifted Children: Free School Meals
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils from (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools participating in the Young, Gifted and Talented Programme are eligible to receive free school meals. [246085]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The CfBT Education Trust, which runs the Young Gifted and Talented Learner Academy, does not currently collect data about the eligibility of its members for free school meals.
National Assessment Agency
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which Minister approved the decision to establish the National Assessment Agency as a division of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; and when that decision was taken. [245827]
Jim Knight: The former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke) announced to Parliament on 17 November 2003, Official Report, column 25WS, that the QCA was proposing to establish the National Assessment Agency.
National Assessment Agency: Pay
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been paid on average in bonuses to officials at the (a) National Assessment Agency and (b) Qualification and Curriculum Authority in 2008; and if he will make a statement. [245571]
Jim Knight: For the financial year ending in March 2008, the average NAA bonus was £2,623 and the average QCA bonus (excluding NAA) was £2,206.
Bonus payments are made after the end of the financial year to which they relate.
National Curriculum Tests
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the value is of the contract awarded to Edexcel to administer key stage 2 tests in 2009. [245826]
Jim Knight: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) announced Edexcel as its preferred bidder for the one-year contract to supply national curriculum test operation services for the 2009 series, on 31 December 2008. The contract, worth £25 million over the contract period, covers the supply of national curriculum test operation services for key stage 2 statutory tests and other non-statutory tests for the 2009 test cycle.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to his oral statement on the Sutherland Inquiry, whether Ken Boston and David Gee will receive full pay during the period of their suspensions. [245830]
Jim Knight: Dr. Ken Boston and David Gee have been suspended on full pay pending the outcome of an internal QCA review.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority discovered that ETS had lost the contract to administer the Graduate Management Admissions Test in the US, referred to in paragraph 2.18 of the Sutherland Inquiry report, HC 62. [245831]
Jim Knight: The Department does not hold this information. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) is responsible for the development and administration of National Curriculum tests. I have therefore asked the QCA to write to the hon. Member directly in response to this question.
Nursery Schools: Leeds
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he expects the free nursery education entitlement change from 12.5 hours to 15 hours a week to be implemented in Leeds, West constituency; and if he will make a statement. [246173]
Beverley Hughes: Leeds City council is a “pathfinder” local authority for the extension of the free early learning entitlement from 12 Â1/2 to 15 hours per week. At present, around 4,000 free early learning places of 15 hours have been secured across Leeds and we expect 15 hours to be available to almost all children in Leeds by autumn 2009. We cannot separately identify figures for the Leeds, West constituency.
Offenders
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many former prisoners are employed by his Department; and what his Department's policy is on employing former prisoners. [246351]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department undertakes employment history, Disclosure Scotland and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks as appropriate. If these checks identify any issues around people with criminal records then suitability for employment is considered with the Department’s interest paramount and the top priority is to safeguard the children and adults whom we serve.
In addition, all individuals recruited to a regulated post, or to a post where they have access to personal or sensitive data about children or vulnerable adults, are subject to an enhanced CRB check.
Although the information is used as part of the recruitment process, we do not then transfer any details on criminal records to the central personnel record and as such the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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. [245601]
Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 11 November 2008, Official Report, column 45W. No further information is available at this stage about the number of calls answered since September 2008.
Personal Social and Health Education
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department has taken to strengthen and improve teaching in personal, social and health education. [244900]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The importance of good quality personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education has never been greater. PSHE education has a major contribution to make to young people’s personal development and well-being. Therefore, on 23 October we announced our intention to make PSHE education statutory and launched an independent review to investigate how to achieve this in an effective and practicable way. Sir Alasdair Macdonald, head teacher at Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, has been asked to lead the review and will report to Ministers with recommendations in April 2009.
Alongside making PSHE statutory, our key delivery challenge is to develop the skills and confidence of the workforce that delivers PSHE education in schools. To address this, £2 million of funding is available each year to train teachers and professionals who deliver PSHE education in schools. We will encourage schools to use INSET to improve staff awareness on the duty to promote well-being and the importance of high quality PSHE education in particular. We are also working with the Training and Development Agency for Schools to develop a specialist route through initial teacher training.
Pupil Exclusions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of fixed period exclusions were given to pupils (a) with special educational needs and (b) entitled to free school meals in (i) secondary schools and (ii) primary schools in each year since 1997. [241852]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Information on fixed period exclusions was collected for the first time for the school year 2003-04. The requested information on fixed period exclusions for pupils with special educational needs for years 2003-04 to 2006-07 is shown in the table.
Information on fixed period exclusions by free school meals is only available for the years 2005-06 and 2006-07 and is shown in the table. The information for the year 2005-06 is not available for primary schools.
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