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16 Mar 2009 : Column 868W—continued
Information on the number of complaints received about the use of physical punishment in Muslim schools is not held centrally.
There were 15,985 pupils in independent Muslim schools and 3,410 in maintained sector Muslim schools in January 2008.
General Certificate of Secondary Education
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of pupils obtained five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C in (a) England, (b) Leicestershire and (c) Leicester East constituency in 2008. [262440]
Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the following table:
| Percentage of pupils( 1) achieving 5 or more A* to C grades at GCSE and equivalent, 2008( 2) | |
| Percentage of pupils | |
| (1) Figures are based on pupils at the end of key stage 4. (2 )Figures are based on revised data. (3 )Pupils attending maintained schools located in Leicester, East constituency. (4 )Figure includes all schools. | |
Information for all parliamentary constituencies will be placed in the House Libraries.
General Certificate of Secondary Education: Young Offender Institutions
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many young people in the secure estate achieved (a) one GCSE at A* to G, (b) five GCSEs at A* to G, (c) five GCSEs at A* to G including English and mathematics, (d) five GCSEs at A* to C and (e) five GCSEs at A* to C including English and mathematics in each year since 1997; [259293]
(2) how many young people in the secure estate sat GCSE examinations in each year since 1997. [259294]
Beverley Hughes: The information is not held by the Department.
Grandparents: Parental Responsibility
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department and its predecessors have met representatives of the Grandparents Raising Children Network to discuss the rights of grandparents raising children since 2001. [258814]
Beverley Hughes: The Department does not keep a central record of meetings with organisations. I am, therefore, unable to confirm whether any meetings have taken place with the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Network since it was set up in March 2008.
Organs: Donors
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made in the consultation on organ donation and presumed consent. [262917]
Ann Keen: I have been asked to reply.
In September 2007 my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health asked the independent Organ Donation Taskforce to examine the implications of moving to a system of presumed consent. The Taskforce consulted a wide range of stakeholders. Their report, “The potential impact of an opt out system for organ donation in the UK”, was published with a written ministerial statement on 17 November 2008, Official Report, column 6WS. The report is available for viewing at:
and a copy has been placed in the Library.
Pupil Referral Units
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what information his Department holds on pupil referral units. [262479]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department currently collects data on:
the number of pupil referral units in England;
the overall number of pupils in pupil referral units and by:
age
gender
ethnicity
special educational needs (including those with a statement of special educational needs)
those entitled to free school meals and the number of those taking up the option of free school meals
the number who are solely registered in pupil referral units and the number who are dual registered in a pupil referral unit and a school or other provider, such as a college of further education;
the number of teachers in pupil referral units and, of those, how many are full-time and how many are part-time;
the number of support staff in pupil referral units, including teaching assistants, administrative staff and technicians;
the amount of contact time for pupils by pupil age.
We also hold some data on the attainment of pupils in pupil referral units but this is not collected by the Department. Attainment data for pupils in pupil referral units are collected by local authorities for key stage 1 pupils, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for key stage 2 and key stage 3 pupils, and by the exam boards for key stage 4 and key stage 5 pupils.
We announced in the alternative provision White Paper, “Back on Track”, published in May 2008, that we intend to publish data later this year on the attainment of pupils in pupil referral units. We have also collected data on attendance at pupil referral units in January this year and will publish them in May.
Via the consistent financial reporting (CFR) data collection, the Department collects details of the income, expenditure and balances (surpluses/deficits) that have occurred during the previous financial year for all local authority maintained schools in England. CFR is a statutory return for all authority maintained schools
with delegated budgets. However, for pupil referral units a CFR return is optional, and during the 2007-08 collection we received data from 55 PRUs.
Via local authorities’ budget statements, my Department collect details of local authorities planned expenditure on the provision of education at pupil referral units. Via this data collection, local authorities also provide details of the devolved school standards grant (including personalisation) allocated to PRUs.
Local authorities are required to publish this information locally and consequently every local authority will have their own budget statement published on their own website. In addition, the DCSF publish this data via the Section 52 website at:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/section52/subPage. cfm?action=section52.default&ID=58
Pupils: Bullying
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will give guidance to schools on the nomination of a named staff contact for parents who are concerned about bullying incidents in school and on the journey to and from school. [253397]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry [holding answer 2 February 2009]: Our guidance ‘Safe to Learn’ provides specific advice to schools on complaints procedures for parents. It recommends that the first contact point to report concerns about bullying should be the class teacher or form teacher. The guidance provides a sample anti-bullying information sheet to be sent to parents, which could include a named contact for reporting concerns about bullying. We introduced legal provisions in the 2006 Education Act which gave school staff new powers to discipline pupils for bad behaviour outside the school gate. We have asked the Anti-Bullying Alliance and National Strategies to work with local authorities and schools to ensure the ‘Safe to Learn’ guidance is effectively implemented on the ground, and that schools make effective use of the other materials.
Pupils: Diabetes
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many school staff have received training on diabetes issues in each of the last five years. [262415]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department does not collect this information.
Pupils: Internet
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effect on school pupils' educational attainment of lack of access to the internet at home. [260836]
Jim Knight: Becta analysis of national attainment data has found the difference in attainment in maths and English between pupils with and without internet access (controlled for other variables) is equivalent to half a GCSE grade.
In 2005 the Department commissioned the University of Sheffield to conduct a study of the educational impact of children's use of internet-connected computers at home. The aim was to look at identifying the effect on educational attainment due to lack of access to technology (Valentine et al, 2005).
The study found that the use of computers at home was linked to higher levels of educational performance than expected in maths and English at Key Stage 2 and GCSE.
From this assessment it was concluded that lack of access adversely affects pupils' educational attainment in maths and English at these levels.
Pupils: Obesity
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children have been diagnosed as medically unfit to attend school on the grounds of obesity or obesity-related disorders in the last three years. [262336]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Data on the number of children diagnosed unfit to attend school on the grounds of obesity or obesity-related disorders are not available.
Schools: Purbeck
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much of the funding to be made available to Dorset County Council for implementation of the recommendations of the review of school provision in Purbeck will be allocated for expenditure on (a) secondary schools and (b) proposed primary schools. [263859]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: School capital allocations were made available to local authorities at the beginning of the three year spending review period 2008-09 to 2010-11, to be prioritised locally in accordance with asset management plans.
£70.8 million has been allocated to Dorset schools. Of this, £22.7 million is allocated directly to primary and secondary schools as Devolved Formula Capital, £8.4 million for the Primary Capital programme, £9.9 million for Modernisation, £4.1 million for Basic Need expansion, with other allocations for Extended Schools, Schools Access Initiative, Targeted Capital Funding and ICT, and £8.1 million equivalent funding for Voluntary Aided schools. In addition, Dorset has a One School Pathfinder project in progress for which £31.3 million has been allocated, with further allocations for kitchens and maintained boarding schools.
Apart from Devolved Formula Capital and the Primary Capital programme, it is for the local authority to decide what will be allocated to (a) secondary schools and (b) proposed primary schools. This can also include other resources raised locally.
The Department does not receive information from local authorities of local asset management plans, including the split of expenditure between primary and secondary schools.
Special Educational Needs: Children in Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in care attended maintained special educational needs schools in each year since 1997. [256893]
Beverley Hughes: Information on children in care is usually sourced from the Looked After Children database but this cannot be used to answer this question as it does not identify the school each child attends. However, data on pupils in care are also collected via the school census and the available information is shown in the table. Pupil in care data are not available prior to 2004.
This census shows that there were 34,390 pupils aged five to 19 attending primary, secondary and special schools classed as being in care as at January 2008. Data published by the Department as SFR 23/2008: Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008, shows 47,600 children aged between five and 19 as being looked after as at 31 March 2008. However 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.
| Maintained Special Schools( 1) : Number of pupils in care2 — Position in January each year 2004 to 2008, England | |
| Number | |
| (1) Excludes general hospital schools. (2) Includes dually registered pupils and boarding pupils. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census | |
Special Educational Needs: Disadvantaged
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils in (a) special schools and (b) independent schools in each decile of income deprivation affecting children indices had statements of special educational needs in (i) 2003 and (ii) 2008. [260808]
Jim Knight: The Department does not collect address information for pupils attending independent schools therefore it is not possible to provide residency based information for pupils attending independent schools.
The available information is set out in the following table:
| Number of pupils attending special schools( 1 ) with a statement of special educational needs by IDACI decile( 2) of pupil residence | ||
| IDACI decile of pupil residence | Special schools | |
| 2003 | 2008 | |
| (1) Includes solely registered pupils attending foundation special schools, community special schools and non-maintained special schools. (2) Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index 2007 at Super Output Area level. Source: School Census. | ||
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