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3 Mar 2009 : Column 1562W—continued
| Table 5: Number of children attending child care and early years providers by age , 2005 | ||
| Type of p rovider | Under 2 years old | 2 to 4 years old |
| Table 6: Proportion of children in England attending child care and early years providers by age , 2005 | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Type of p rovider | Under 2 years old | 2 to 4 years old |
| (1 )These providers were only asked to provide data on the age groups where proportions are presented. Notes: 1. Children may attend more than one provider and therefore will be included in the figures and proportions for more than one of the provider types in the tables. For this reason some columns total more than 100 per cent. 2. Sessional care: defined as “facilities where children under eight attend day are for no more than five sessions a week, each session being less than a continuous period of four hours in any day. Where two sessions are offered in any one day, there is a break between sessions with no children in the care of the provider.” | ||
Mrs. Maria Miller:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 5 February 2009, Official Report, column 1478W, on pre-school education, by what date he expects the
extension of free early education entitlement to nursery care from 12.5 hours to 15 hours a week to apply in the case of two-year-olds in all local authority areas. [260141]
Beverley Hughes: The extension to the free early education entitlement for three and four year-olds from 12.5 hours to 15 hours a week will be delivered, in all local authorities, by September 2010.
An offer of free early education to 15 per cent. of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds and their families will begin to be delivered in all local authorities by September 2009. We will be testing offers of both 10 and 15 hours in different local authorities, while we evaluate the best approach to further roll out of the offer.
Decisions regarding the pace and scale of wider roll out will be taken based on evidence gathered from the pilot and in the light of wider fiscal considerations as part of the next comprehensive spending review.
Pupil Referral Units: Young Offenders
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of children in young offender institutions were previously in pupil referral units on the latest date for which figures are available. [259094]
Beverley Hughes: Data on the number of children in young offender institutions (YOIs) who were previously in pupil referral units are not collected centrally.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of children in pupil referral units were subsequently detained in young offender institutions in the last year for which data are available. [259095]
Beverley Hughes: Data on the number of young people in pupil referral units who were subsequently imprisoned in young offender institutions (YOIs) are not collected centrally.
Pupils: Computers
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent on the Electronic Learning and Mobility Programme to date; how many laptops have been provided to qualifying pupils under this scheme; and how many laptops issued (a) are out on loan, (b) have been returned damaged and (c) have not been returned and are considered lost or stolen. [259531]
Jim Knight:
The Electronic Learning and Mobility Project (E-LAMP), which provides quality distance learning opportunities for children who travel for part of the school year, is managed by the National Association of Teachers of Travellers (NATT+). NATT+ works with 50 local authorities and over 1,000 Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils on this project. NATT+ has reported that 1,317 laptops were issued from 2004-05 to 2008-09 and that the vast majority of these are still out on loan to the students. There have only been seven incidents of minor accidental damage. One laptop was sold by the family, but recovered quickly as it had been tagged by
the local authority and the appropriate action taken to recover the cost. DCSF funding to NATT+ to support the project will comprise £600,000 for the two years beginning September 2008.
Residence Orders
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many applications for residence orders were made by grandparents in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [258303]
Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
Figures on the number of applications by grandparents for Section X Private Law residence orders in county and High Courts in England and Wales are given in the following table. Public law applications (few in number) are not included, figures for family proceedings courts, where around 15 per cent. of applications are made, are also not provided as comprehensive information on applicant relationships is not available. Please note that the figures for 2008 are provisional and remain subject to change.
Around 5 per cent. of applications have more than one applicant to child relationship specified. This could happen for a number of reasons. It could be that the applicant has a different relationship with each of the children in the case, that the application is made by more than one person or there may be counter applications made by two or more people. The table shows the total number of applications where any of the applicant-to-child relationships was specified as “grandparent”, even if other such relationships existed in connection with the same case.
| Table 1: Relationship to child of applicants for Section 8 r esidence o rders in England and Wales: County and High Courts applications made, including transfers, counted by child | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Notes: 1. The figures include transfers from other courts. 2. Included in the figures are applications made in 2 different months. This may be because the case was transferred or because a second applicant made a counter application in a later month. Where this occurs the application will be counted twice in the total. | |||
School Meals
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effects of the new requirements for nutritional analysis of school lunches on the capacity of schools to (a) maintain their own menus and (b) provide nutritionally-balanced meals; what representations he has received from schools on the matter; and if he will make a statement. [260445]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry:
Nutrient-based standards have been mandatory in primary schools since September 2008 and come into effect in secondary and special schools from September 2009. The School Food Trust has undertaken pilots in both primary and secondary schools to assess the practical steps schools and catering organisations would need to take in order to implement
the standards. Both sets of pilots found that while implementing the nutrient-based standards does require schools to change those menus that are not compliant, the standards are nevertheless achievable and essential to improving the nutritional health of children. The lessons learned from both the primary and secondary pilots have been published in the trust’s guidance on introducing nutrient-based standards which includes case studies at primary and secondary level.
The School Food Trust has produced a caterer’s guide to enable caterers to gather the information needed to demonstrate compliance with the standards. It has also undertaken an independent review of Nutritional Analysis Support Packages; this has been published as a guide and distributed to schools who manage their own catering services.
While we are aware of concern in some parts of the sector around introducing nutritional standards in secondary schools from September, no representations from schools have been received on these.
Schools: Buildings
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many schools have adopted alternative performance standards from those set out in Building Bulletin 93 (a) in 2008 and (b) since Building Bulletin 93 came into force; [260386]
(2) how many schools have been found to be non-compliant with Building Bulletin 93 for acoustic conditions (a) in 2008 and (b) since Building Bulletin 93 came into force. [260387]
(3) how many schools have been tested for the quality of acoustics (a) in 2008 and (b) since Building Bulletin 93 came into force. [260388]
Jim Knight: The Department does not have any figures for the numbers of schools that have adopted alternative performance standards, as permitted by Clause 1.2.1 of BB93. However many new schools use Clause 1.2.1 to inform some minor aspects of the acoustic design.
All new school designs and major refurbishments are required to comply with the Building Regulations Part E on Acoustics. This quotes BB93 as the normal means of compliance. Checks for compliance with Building Regulations are made by Local Building Control Bodies and records on the levels of non-compliant schools are not held centrally.
BB93 recommends that the client requires acoustic performance tests to be conducted but testing is not required for Building Regulations compliance.
Schools: Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average length of a school Private Finance Initiative contract was in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [258956]
Jim Knight: The average length of a school private finance initiative contract in each year since 2001 is given in the following table:
| Average length of contract of school PFI contract (years) | |
Schools: Rural Areas
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools defined as rural there were in each county in each year since 1997. [256454]
Jim Knight: The following table shows the number of maintained (a) primary schools designated as rural in 2007 and 2008 and (b) secondary schools currently defined as rural in each county in England.
Rural primary schools were first designated in 2007 by a special Order. The Order was updated in 2008 when the Department adopted the common classification system developed by the Office of National Statistics. We do not have a record of schools defined as rural prior to 2007.
Rural secondary schools are not designated. They are identified by the classification on the Department's register of schools. Once the register has been updated we do not retain the historic data and we are only able to provide the current number of secondary schools defined as rural.
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