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17 Mar 2009 : Column 1056W—continued
Schools: Assessments
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of the merits to adding the two GCSE qualifications to its list of approved qualifications which it will fund maintained schools to deliver under section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000; and if he will make a statement. [262828]
Jim Knight: To be considered for funding in maintained schools under Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, qualifications must first be accredited by Ofqual, the independent qualifications regulator. International GCSEs (iGCSEs) have not been put forward for accreditation by either of the two awarding bodies which offer them, Edexel and Cambridge International Examinations. A number of Cambridge International Certificates, which are similar to iGCSEs, have however recently been accredited by Ofqual and submitted to my right hon. Friend for approval under Section 96. A decision will be made shortly.
Schools: Finance
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which schools with 30 per cent. or more of pupils eligible for free school meals ran a budget surplus in the last year for which data are available; and how much the surplus was in each case. [249123]
Jim Knight: The table to be placed in the House Libraries sets out the value of the budget surplus as at 31 March 2008, for those schools with more than 30 per cent. of their children known to be eligible for free school meals. Balances for all schools in England for the financial year 2007-08 were published on 24 February 2009 and I made a statement to the house on the same day. The full data are available at
Schools: Hearing Impaired
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans his Department has to introduce pre-completion testing for acoustic conditions in schools that are required to comply with Building Bulletin 93. [263442]
Jim Knight: Building Bulletin 93 Acoustic Design of Schools states:
“To ensure that the performance standards are met, it is recommended that the client should include a requirement for acoustic testing in the building contract”.
Testing is not however required for compliance with Part E of the Building Regulations.
For Building Schools for the Future Projects, Partnerships for Schools have included a clause in their Facilities and Services Output Specification, November 2008(1) which is currently out for consultation. This states:
“The contractor will complete a set of calculations to indicate compliance with BB93. Testing and remediation will be carried out to prove compliance.”
In the current review of Building Bulletin 93, we are considering the possibility of strengthening the recommendation that all schools should be subjected to pre-completion testing.
(1) The PfS Facilities and Services Output Specification can be downloaded from:
http://www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk,/library/bsf_standard_docs.jsp#OutputSpecification
Schools: Standards
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what mechanisms his Department uses to assess the overall quality of school provision in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement. [263459]
Jim Knight: Ofsted assesses the overall quality of school provision at local authority area level. Until 2008 it has done this within an annual performance assessment (APA) of children’s services for each local authority, which includes a judgment on services for enjoying and achieving. From April 2009, APAs will be replaced by the new comprehensive area assessment (CAA), which will assess overall public services at local authority level. Ofsted will produce an annual rating for local authority children’s services. This rating, drawing on inspection judgments and performance data on schools in the area, as well as on evidence on other local authority children’s services, will be included in the CAA report.
Sefton
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2009, Official Report, columns 1298-1300W, how many grants his Department has administered in Sefton in each year since 1995. [262948]
Jim Knight: The tables showing the grants allocated by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to Sefton for each year since 1995-96, broken down between revenue and capital funding, will be placed in the House Libraries.
The revenue grant totals for 2006-07 onwards are not comparable with figures in 2005-06 and before, because the introduction of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded for Education Services.
Before 2006-07 local authorities were funded through Education Formula Spending (EFS). This formed part of the annual Local Government Finance Settlement. EFS comprised school functions and local education authority (LEA) central functions, whereas DSG only covers the school functions. The DSG is based on each local authority's spend on schools in 2005-06, uprated each year for cost pressures and adjusted for changes in pupil numbers. LEA central functions are still funded through the Local Government Finance Settlement but cannot be separately identified. Consequently, there is a break in the Department's time series as the two sets of data are not comparable. For information, the EFS figures for Sefton for 1997-98 to 2005-06 were:
| £ million (cash) | |
| Notes: 1. Equivalent data are not available prior to 1997-98. 2. Before 2003-04, called Education Standard Spending (ESS). 3. Figures reflect relevant sub-blocks of ESS/EFS settlements and exclude the pensions transfer to EFS and LSC. 4. Where responsibility for funding a school has transferred from an authority, related funding no longer appears in the series. | |
The Reducing Class Size revenue grants and the Nursery Education Grant were transferred to Education Formula Spending in 2003-04.
The Teachers Threshold and Performance Pay Grant was transferred to Dedicated Schools Grant in 2006-07.
Children's Services grant transferred to the Formula Grant paid by the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2008-09.
Capital figures include supported borrowing allocations. Allocations for targeted capital projects are shown in the year the project started.
The tables do not include children social care services grants before 2004-05 as responsibility for children social care services was transferred to this Department, from the Department of Health, in 2004-05.
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) were established under Machinery of Government changes on 28 June 2007. The response only covers those areas of responsibility for children and schools held by their predecessor the Department for Education and Skills and the DCSF.
Special Educational Needs
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1317W, on special educational needs, which 10 non-maintained special schools had 100 or more pupils. [262132]
Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the table.
Teachers: Recruitment
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) when he expects the first teachers in his proposed fast-track route for career switchers as referred to on page 36 of Working together: public services on your side to begin their employment in schools; [263679]
(2) how many teachers he expects to be recruited under his proposed fast-track route for career switchers as referred to on page 36 of Working together: public services on your side. [263680]
Jim Knight: The details are still to be finalised but we anticipate that the first participants will be recruited and training in schools within the next year.
Duchy of Lancaster
Charities: Finance
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what proportion of their funding charities need to receive from non-governmental sources in order to be designated as independent. [263370]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Charity Commission. I have asked the commission to reply.
Letter from Andrew Hind, dated March 2009:
As the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, I have been asked to respond to your written Parliamentary Question on the proportion of its income a charity can derive from the state whilst maintaining its independence.
As the regulator, we see independence as key to charitable status. All charities must be independent of government and other funders, and the trustees of a charity are bound to act solely in the interests of the charity and its beneficiaries, complying with charity law and the requirements of the charity’s governing document. It is for the trustees alone to decide on the most appropriate sources of funding for their charity, and this can include funding mainly or wholly provided by a public body.
Where a charity receives funding from a public body the trustees must be satisfied that this does not impede the charity’s independence. We produce guidance for charity trustees on this subject and I have arranged for copies of:
CC37: Charities and public service delivery; and
RR7: Charities and independence from the state;
to be placed in the House of Commons Library.
If you would like to discuss this issue further I would be very happy to arrange a meeting for you with some of our senior staff who lead on this area of our work.
I hope this is helpful.
Civil Servants: Vacancies
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what job vacancies have been advertised on the (a) public version and (b) Civil Service-only version of the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway in the last 12 months; and what the (i) job specification, (ii) job title, (iii) sponsoring body and (iv) salary range of the position advertised was in each case; [249920]
(2) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 25 February 2008, Official Report, column 1184W, on civil servants: vacancies, what criteria are used to decide whether a vacancy is advertised on the public part of the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway or on the staff-only section; [249935]
(3) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 25 February 2008, Official Report, column 1184W, on civil servants: vacancies, whether an equality impact assessment has been made of the criteria used to decide whether a vacancy is advertised on the public part of the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway or the staff-only section; [249937]
(4) what procedures govern the advertisement of vacancies by (a) Government Departments, (b) Executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies on the (i) publicly accessible and (ii) internal parts of the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway; [258602]
(5) what the Civil Service policy is on advertising Civil Service vacancies on the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway; [258610]
(6) pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2009, Official Report, column 202, on public information, what progress has been made on improving access to vacancies for Civil Service jobs; [258620]
(7) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 25 February 2008, Official Report, column 1184W, on civil servants: vacancies, how many of the jobs advertised on the staff-only part of the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway were subsequently advertised on the public part of the site. [258657]
Mr. Watson: There is no policy requirement for Government Departments and Executive agencies to advertise their vacancies on the Recruitment Gateway. However, the expectation is that all civil service jobs should be advertised on the Gateway.
Government Departments and Executive agencies have delegated responsibility for recruitment advertising. Each Department determines its own policies on where
they advertise their vacancies and have responsibility for assessing the equality impact of those policies.
Civil service vacancies are advertised internally first to surplus staff facing redundancy, in line with the “Protocol on Handling Surplus Staff”, which came into effect on 1 April 2008. The civil service redeployment policy is comparable to the policies of other companies and organisations in handling surplus staff.
The Civil Service Recruitment Gateway has published a total of 8,456 vacancies in the past 12 months, of which, 4,474 were advertised to the general public and 3,982 within the civil service. Providing answers to the specific queries relating to each post and whether internal vacancies were subsequently advertised to the public can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
On 25 February a new Jobs Online site went live in Beta, which replaces the former Recruitment Gateway. This provides for external civil service jobs to be available in the one place and in a single format, easily accessible to jobseekers. As we develop the site, other organisations will all be able to link to the site and jobseekers will be able to quickly find individual jobs using search engines.
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