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5 Mar 2009 : Column 1822W—continued
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what the (a) actual and (b) target period of time is from invitations to bid to the signing of a contract for each Building Schools for the Future contract for the period 2006 to January 2009; and if he will make a statement; [255283]
(2) what the average (a) length and (b) cost to the public purse of the bidding process at Building Schools for the Future projects has been; and if he will make a statement. [255006]
Jim Knight: At the outset of the programme the target was 78 weeks. To date, the average time taken by local authorities to procure their private sector partners to deliver their Building Schools for the Future projects is 102 weeks. This timing compares favourably to other PFI deals in the education and other sectors and is typical of procurement using European Union competitive dialogue or negotiated procedure processes for major procurements. Following a review of BSF procurement (completed in May 2008) we have introduced changes that aim to further significantly streamline the procurement process. As a result, the target procurement time will fall to 74 weeks for authorities just entering the programme.
During the procurement period, local authorities engage with the private sector bidders and work towards the selection of a partner through competitive bid evaluation. The bidding costs during this part of the process are borne by the private sector, with the public sector incurring costs associated with the project management of the procurement. These costs can vary significantly depending on a number of project-specific factors, including the size of the project.
Children in Care: Primary Education
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many primary school pupils at key stage 2 have been children in care in each year since 2000; and how many of those were among the 5 per cent. identified as most talented. [241557]
Beverley Hughes: Data published by the Department as SFR 23/2008: “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008”, show 47,600 children aged between five and 19 as being looked after by local authorities as at 31 March 2008. The source of this publication is the SSDA903, which does not collect information on whether a child is part of their school's gifted and talented cohort. Information on gifted and talented pupils is, however, collected in the School Census which also collects information on whether a child is in care whilst at their school.
The most recent census data relate to January 2008. The census shows 34,390 pupils aged five to 19 attending primary, secondary and special schools who are classed as being in care as at January 2008. The School Census does not cover all looked after children; information is not collected for pupils in alternative provision, including pupil referral units, FE colleges, voluntary provision and those not in education or training. These differences in coverage will explain the different counts to an extent, but it is possible that the School Census undercounts the number of looked after children in primary, secondary and special schools.
The information available is shown in the following table. Information on gifted and talented pupils was first collected for primary and secondary schools in 2007 therefore information for the last five years is not available.
| Maintained primary and state-funded secondary schools:( 1,2 ) Number and percentage of pupils who have and have not been in care in their current school and of those the number which are gifted and talented—Position in January each year 2007 and 2008, England | ||||||
| Maintained primary schools( 1) | ||||||
| Pupils who have not been in care in their current school | Pupils who have been in care at their current school( 3) | |||||
| Total pupils | Gifted and talented | Percentage | Total pupils | Gifted and talented | Percentage | |
| State-funded secondary schools( 1,2) | ||||||
| Pupils who have not been in care in their current school | Pupils who have been in care at their current school( 3) | |||||
| Total Pupils | Gifted and talented | Percentage | Total Pupils | Gifted and talented | Percentage | |
| (1 )Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes city technology colleges and academies. (3) There is a degree of under-reporting in the School Census return of pupils who are looked after compared to the two main statistical collections on looked after children. The figures here show those pupils who are or who have been in care whilst at their current school. Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Information on gifted and talented status is not collected from Special Schools. Source: School Census | ||||||
Children: Corporal Punishment
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if his Department will provide funding to support the Council of Europe's Raise your hand against smacking campaign in England. [259283]
Beverley Hughes: Our approach is to provide parents with positive support and guidance to help them manage their children’s behaviour more effectively without smacking. As part of this, approximately £300 million is being invested between 2008 and 2011 to improve the quality and supply of parenting support and ensure that parents have access to the information, advice and guidance needed to support them in their parenting role.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families who is responsible for the accuracy of data in the ContactPoint database. [259313]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 27 February 2009 ]: The persons or bodies responsible for the accuracy of data in the ContactPoint database are those required or permitted to supply information to it, as set out in the Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007. Data suppliers to ContactPoint already have obligations for data accuracy under the 4th Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998, and must take reasonable steps to ensure that the information they or their organisation hold and provide to ContactPoint is accurate and up to date.
Records from a range of national and local sources will be combined in ContactPoint, using data matching technology, to produce a set of basic information about each child. This makes it highly resilient to errors in any individual source. Where errors are identified, they will be notified back to the source, for correction.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what contracts his Department has had with Capgemini since 1997. [259397]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Information for the full period from 1997 is not available as the maximum time for the retention of records relating to contracts for services of the type supplied by Capgemini is six years.
The Department and its predecessor, the Department for Education and Skills, have placed three major centrally negotiated contracts with Capgemini. The first of these, a Business Services Framework Agreement dating from November 2001, covered five service categories together with the transition of services from a previous supplier. These services were applications support and maintenance, applications development, information systems support, hosting and consultancy, and business transformation. Work orders were used to commission specific pieces of work in these categories from Capgemini.
Following expiry of this contract on 30 September 2008, a second contract was placed for the period to 31 March 2011. This contract, also requiring individual work orders, covers the same range of services but will be used primarily for applications support and maintenance.
The third contract is for the build and testing of ContactPoint and its continuing support and hosting. The support and hosting element expires no later than 2014. Details of expenditure on this contract have been given in response to PQ259398, 4 March 2009, Official Report, column 1676W.
Additionally since March 2006 three consultancy contracts were awarded by the Department to Capgemini. Two of these were for advice for the Corporate Service Transformation Programme, and one was for expert advisers to work with low-performing schools. Information on other contracts is not held centrally and to gather the information retrospectively would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.
Children: English Language
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what support his Department provides to children who do not speak English as a first language; and how much that support (a) cost in each of the last five years and (b) is expected to cost in the next three years, broken down by type of expenditure. [258984]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: All pupils of school age, including those for whom English is an additional language (EAL), are supported by the core school funding programmes notably Dedicated School Grant (DSG) which totals £29 billion this year. In addition the Department allocates to all local authorities on a needs-based formula Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG), which contributes towards costs of additional support to meet the specific needs of EAL learners. The total grant paid or allocated for each year from 2003-04 to the end of this spending period is as follows:
| EMAG (£ m illion ) | |
In addition, an Exceptional Circumstances Grant (ECG) has been introduced to reflect in-year changes in local authorities’ pupil numbers. It has three elements covering: an increase of 2.5 per cent. in overall pupil numbers; an increase of 2.5 per cent. in the proportion of pupils with English as an additional language; and a one-off payment to any authority whose proportion of such pupils was below 10 per cent. and rises by 2.5 per cent. In the current year a total of £264,000 has been paid to four local authorities (City of London, Barking and Dagenham, Peterborough and Blackburn with Darwen) in response to qualifying increases in their proportions of EAL children.
It is not possible to disaggregate DSG, EMAG or ECG expenditure by type.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the percentage of children in England at (a) primary school and (b) secondary school who did not speak English as a first language in each of the last five years. [258985]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The percentage of children in primary and secondary schools who did not speak English as a first language in each of the last five years can be found in the following table.
The latest figures are in the Statistical First Release ‘Pupil Characteristics and Class Sizes in Maintained Schools in England: January 2008 (Provisional)’ and can be found at:
| The percentage of children in primary and secondary schools who did not speak English as a first language in England | ||
| Pupils of compulsory school age and above( 1,2,3) | ||
| Primary s chools( 1) | Secondary s chools( 1,2) | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Excludes dually registered pupils. (3) The number of pupils by their first language expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils of compulsory school age and above. (4) Includes CTCs and Academies. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and totals as shown. Source: School Census | ||
Children: Protection
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on what date Lord Laming’s progress report on safeguarding will be published. [260985]
Beverley Hughes: We expect Lord Laming’s progress report on safeguarding to be published on 12 March.
Children's Workforce Development Council: Finance
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the budget of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) was in each year since it was established; and how much has been allocated for CWDC’s budget in each of the next three years. [260238]
Beverley Hughes: Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) was established in 2005. The resources received by CWDC in each financial year since establishment to date are (the vast majority being grants made by DCSF or DFES was):
| Resources received( 1) (£) | |
| (1 )Information taken from CWDC audited and published accounts. | |
CWDC became a non-departmental public body in April 2008. For the current financial year the total budget available is £82,454,000. The actual expenditure will be published in the annual accounts. A copy of these accounts will be placed in the House Library and will be available via CWDC’s website at:
The budget and remit for 2009-10 is currently being agreed with CWDC as part of the business planning cycle. Once agreed, a copy of the remit letter (including budget) will be available on their website at:
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