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4 Mar 2009 : Column 1674W—continued
Written Questions: Government Responses
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what proportion of hon. Members’ questions to his Department for written answer on a named day in the 2008-09 Session of Parliament to date have received (a) a holding response on the day named, (b) a substantive response on the day named, (c) a substantive response after the day named and (d) no response. [258774]
Mr. Simon: The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Quantity | Percentage | |
Children, Schools and Families
Academies
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for what purpose he has commissioned an analysis of academy schools from PricewaterhouseCoopers; what skills and capabilities provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers for this purpose are not available in his Department; and how much his Department has paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers for this project. [259670]
Jim Knight: In 2002, as the first cohort of academies opened, the Department decided that it was important to have an independent evaluation of the programme, given the high-profile and innovative nature of the scheme.
The Department tendered for an external organisation to carry out a five year evaluation and PricewaterhouseCoopers were selected on the strength of their proposals. They were able to provide a team of professional educationalists with experience in academic educational research, who were available to work on the evaluation for five years, bringing continuity of personnel. The value of the contract was £1,559,940 and their fifth and final report in the contract was published last November
Academies: Special Educational Needs
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which 10 academies had the highest (a) number and (b) proportion of pupils with statements of special educational needs in the last school year for which records are available. [258348]
Jim Knight: The requested information is set out in the following table. In addition, provisional data from the School Census 2008 shows that the proportion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) statements for all maintained schools is 2.8 per cent. Provisional School Census 2008 data also shows that the proportion of pupils with SEN (with and without statements) in academies is 32.7 per cent. compared to a national average of 20.0 per cent.
| Top 10 academies by number of pupils with special needs with statements in 2008 | |||
| Number | Percentage | ||
| Source: School Census File 2008 | |||
| Top 10 academies by percentage of pupils with special needs with statements in 2008 | |||
| Number | Percentage | ||
| Source: School Census File 2008 | |||
Children: Day Care
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent assessment he has made of the reasons for changes to the cost of childcare. [260632]
Beverley Hughes: As part of the duty to secure sufficient child care local authorities have a responsibility to assess costs and affordability issues alongside demand and supply in order to ensure that the child care market is meeting the needs of local families.
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which childcare settings he expects to be exempt from being on an Ofsted register. [260630]
Beverley Hughes: Child care provision for children aged 8+ is not required to register. For younger children the following categories of child care provision are exempt from registration:
Provision in hotels where this occurs between 6 pm and 2 am for no more than two clients;
Provision where individual children are looked after for two hours or less per day;
Childminding in the parents’ own home (for example, nannies);
Childminding provided only between 6 pm and 2 am;
Activity-based provision designed to offer not more than two activities (and where children aged three to five spend less than four hours a day);
Provision where individual children are cared for for four hours or less and where parents remain on the premises or within their immediate locality;
All provision where this is being made as part of a “home education arrangement” for children of compulsory school age;
Open Access Schemes (for example supervised adventure playgrounds);
All provision made on particular premises for 14 days or fewer in any year and where Ofsted are notified in writing at least 14 days before the first day of operation;
Provision made in maintained, approved non-maintained or independent schools for a child who is a registered pupil at the school but has not yet attained the age of three when admitted but will do so before the expiry of his or her first term at the school.
Children in Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many English children in care were placed in children's homes in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland in each year since 1997. [259291]
Beverley Hughes: There were 59,500 looked after children in England at 31 March 2008, of which 6,300 were placed in children’s homes. In total 540 of the children looked after by English local authorities at 31 March 2008 were in placements outside England and 90 of these were in children’s homes, this includes those in placements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These figures exclude those children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements.
It is not possible to provide figures for earlier years or to give figures for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland separately due to data availability.
Children in Care: Boarding Schools
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the answer of 25 November 2008, Official Report, column 1418W, on children in care: boarding schools, when he expects the school census team to provide the information which is to be placed in the Library. [249909]
Beverley Hughes: The information has now been placed in the Libraries.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much Capgemini has been paid for its work on ContactPoint in each year since the inception of the project. [259398]
Beverley Hughes: The Department paid Capgemini £3.9 million in 2006-07, £19.7 million in 2007-08 and £9.9 million in the first 10 months of financial year 2008-09, for work on the ContactPoint Project.
Children’s Centres
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he expects the programme for the provision of Sure Start children's centres to be complete. [260678]
Beverley Hughes: The Government's aim is to have at least 3,500 Sure Start Children's Centres up operational during 2010. Local authorities are responsible for planning the delivery of Sure Start Children's Centres and they are currently finalising their local plans to achieve this target.
Children’s Play
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether play workers running open-access schemes are required by his Department to register on the Ofsted (a) early years and (b) childcare register. [260124]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 2 March 2009]: There is no requirement for open access provision—as defined by the Childcare (Exemptions from Registration) Regulations—to be registered on either the (a) Early Years Register or (b) the General Childcare Register.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy for his Department to sign the Information Commissioner's Personal Information Promise. [258972]
Jim Knight: The Government welcome the Promise as a commendable initiative to raise awareness of the importance of effective data protection safeguards, particularly for those organisations with no similar commitments already in place.
The Government take data protection very seriously. Following the Cabinet Office review of data handling procedures in Government, departments have implemented a raft of measures to improve data security.
The Ministry of Justice is considering actively with the ICO how the Promise might add additional value to those measures we have already signed up to. These include the Information Charters, the recommendations of the Data Handling Review and the Thomas/Walport Review and, of course, our legal obligations under the Data Protection Act and other legislation and regulations.
Departmental Operating Costs
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the running cost of his Department and predecessor departments was in each of the last 10 years. [249887]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The following table shows the annual running costs of the Department and predecessor Departments for the last 10 years.
| Table 1: Annual running costs for DCSF | ||
| £ million | ||
| Post MOG | Pre MOG | |
| Notes: 1. On 28 June 2007 a Machinery of Government change (MOG) was announced which meant a restructuring of Government responsibilities. DfES was split into DCSF and DIUS. 2. Post MOG figures were only restated from 2002-03 and match COINS. These figures are taken from the Departmental Report 2008 (CM 7391). 3. Pre MOG figures have been taken from Departmental report 2007 (CM 7092). | ||
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