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31 Mar 2009 : Column 1126W—continued
Local Safeguarding Children Boards
Lynne Featherstone:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many local safeguarding children boards are chaired by (a) an independent chair, (b) the Director of Children's
Services in the local authority, (c) a senior officer from the local health authority and (d) a senior officer from the local police authority; and if he will make a statement. [258350]
Beverley Hughes: The Department maintains a list of the chairs of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) which includes information about the status of the chair. The latest list of LSCB chairs is available on the Every Child Matters website. The website address to access the list is:
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of the compliance of local safeguarding children boards with the provisions of paragraph 5 (a) of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards Regulations 2006; and if he will make a statement. [258352]
Beverley Hughes: Local Safeguarding Children Boards' (LSCBs) compliance and effectiveness in their statutory role to develop policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is monitored by local authority scrutiny, through peer review based on self evaluation, performance indicators and joint audit and through the judgments made by inspectorates. The work of LSCBs has to be planned properly and fit within a framework of action set out in the Children and Young People's Plan.
Ofsted assesses and inspects local authority area level services for children, including the effectiveness of the LSCB. It has done so through annual performance assessments (APAs) and joint area reviews (JARs) of children's services. From April 2009 it will do so, with other inspectorates, as part of new arrangements for comprehensive area assessment (CAA). There will also be a three yearly cycle of inspections specifically of safeguarding and services for looked after children, undertaken by Ofsted and the new Care Quality Commission.
In his recent report, The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report, Lord Laming states that
“Despite Local Safeguarding Children Boards being relatively new, they are already having a positive impact on services for protecting children.”
Ofsted published 21 Joint Area Reviews of children's services between April to June 2008 and in 18 of those they reported that LSCBs are already making a significant positive difference to their local services. Lord Laming's report makes a number of recommendations designed to strengthen further the positive impact of LSCBs. The Government have accepted Lord Laming's recommendations and set out in its immediate response, published on 12 March, how we will strengthen the role of the LSCB so that they challenge every member of the Children's Trust, through the Children's Trust Board, on their success in ensuring that children and young people are kept safe. The LSCB should also publish an annual report on the effectiveness of arrangements locally for keeping children safe, as recommended by Lord Laming.
The Government will publish a detailed response to all Lord Laming's recommendations by the end of April 2009.
Music Standards Fund
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent on the Music Standards Fund in each year since 1999, expressed in 2008-09 prices. [255911]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Music Standards Fund was introduced in 1999/2000. The table shows the total amounts allocated through the standards fund in each year since then, and expressed in 2008-09 prices.
| £ million, rounded | ||
| Amount | Amount in 2008-09 prices | |
Between 2005-06 and 2008-09 local authorities have been expected to achieve efficiency gains of at least 2.5 per cent. per annum in line with the recommendations of the Gershon review.
Offences against Children: Haringey
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether Lord Laming was permitted to read the serious case review into the death of Baby P as part of his investigation into safeguarding. [266834]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 26 March 2009]: Lord Laming was given permission to read the serious case review into the death of Baby P to inform his work; however his remit was to prepare a report on progress nationally on safeguarding and child protection. He also had access to Ofsted's first annual report of evaluations of serious case reviews published in December 2008, the two biennial overview reports of serious case reviews published in January 2008, and the emerging findings of the next biennial overview report of serious case reviews to be published this spring.
Pre-school Education: Finance
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans he has to link the allocation of the Nursery Education Grant to outcomes achieved through the early years foundation scheme; and if he will make a statement. [267279]
Beverley Hughes: In the Government's recent document, “Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare”, published in January we committed to exploring with local authorities the principles and practicalities of linking funding for the free early education entitlement more closely to the contributions providers make to children's development outcomes.
Officials in the Department began discussions with local authorities on this and other issues in the document through a series of regional events during March.
Pupils: Nutrition
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding the Government has made available for improving nutrition in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) early years settings in the last 12 months; how much funding it has allocated for such work in 2009; and which schemes to improve nutrition in early years settings it has (i) funded in the last 12 months and (ii) plans to fund in 2009. [251930]
Jim Knight: We made available £220 million between 2005-06 to 2007-08 to assist authorities and schools in improving the quality of school lunches and other school food. A further £240 million is being provided between 2008-09 and 2010-11, to support the costs of school lunches.
Information is not available on how this funding is allocated between primary and secondary schools. The total amount of funding provided to maintained schools, academies and CTCs for the three years to 2009-10 is £239 million, as follows:
| £ million | |
The Government provide approximately £37.5 million per annum to fund the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, which gives an entitlement to all four to six-year-old children in LEA-maintained infant, primary and special schools, to a free piece of fruit or vegetable each school day.
School Leaving: GCSE
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils left secondary school without a GCSE at grade D or above in mathematics and English in ( a) North Wiltshire, (b) Swindon, (c) London and (d) England in each of the last 10 years. [255330]
Jim Knight: The information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Schools: Boilers
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex are heated by oil-powered boilers. [267267]
Jim Knight: The Department does not hold this information. This information is usually held by local authorities.
Schools: Disadvantaged
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many (a) maintained and (b) non-maintained special schools in the (i) top and (ii) bottom decile of area deprivation as determined by the income deprivation affecting children index were judged to be (A) outstanding, (B) good, (C) adequate and (D) inadequate at their last Ofsted inspection; [264609]
(2) how many and what proportion of schools assessed as inadequate by Ofsted there are in each decile of area deprivation. [264670]
Jim Knight: These are matters for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and copies of her replies have been placed in the House Libraries.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 23 March 2009:
Parliamentary Question Number 264609: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, how many (a) maintained and (b) non-maintained special schools in the (i) top and (ii) bottom decile of area deprivation as determined by the income deprivation affecting children index were judged to be (A) outstanding, (B) good, (C) adequate and (D) inadequate at their last Ofsted inspection.
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for reply.
Table A shows the number of maintained special schools and non-maintained special schools inspected by Ofsted in the 10% most deprived and 10% least deprived areas, along with their inspection outcomes. These indices of deprivation are taken from the income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI) 2007, produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
| Table A—Overall effectiveness of special schools at their most recent inspection under the current inspection framework | ||||||
| Overall effectiveness: number of schools inspected | ||||||
| Type of special school | IDACI( 1) | Outstanding | Good | Satisfactory | Inadequate | Total |
| (1) Income deprivation affecting children index 2007 (Department for Communities and Local Government) | ||||||
As at 2 March 2009, 984 maintained special schools and 73 non-maintained schools were open in England; 958 of the maintained special schools and 70 of the non-maintained special schools have been inspected by Ofsted up to 31 December 2008, the latest inspection data available. Schools in the 10% least deprived and 10% most deprived areas were then identified using their postcodes.
One non-maintained special school in the 10% of most deprived areas was last inspected under the previous inspection framework, in use before September 2005. This is not included in Table A. The inspection outcome for this non-maintained special school was good. Under the previous school inspection framework (commonly known as Section 10), the overall effectiveness judgement was made using a seven point scale: excellent, very good, good,
satisfactory, unsatisfactory, poor and very poor. It is not possible to operate a simple read-across approach from a seven- to a four-point scale. Ofsted’s criteria for making inspection judgements about schools are clearly set out in our inspection guidance. Inspectors do not make reference to, or comparisons with, the previous inspection framework.
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 23 March 2009:
Parliamentary Question Number 264670: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, how many and what proportion of schools assessed as inadequate by Ofsted there are in each decile of area deprivation.
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for reply.
Table A shows the number and proportion of maintained schools found to be inadequate at their last inspection, allocated to ten bands according to the income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI) 2007, produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government, where 1 indicates the most deprived 10%, and 10 indicates the least deprived 10%.
| Table A—Schools with inadequate overall effectiveness at their most recent inspection, by area deprivation | ||
| Bands of deprivation (based on IDACI( 1) ) | Number of schools | Percentage |
| (1) Income deprivation affecting children index 2007 (Department for Communities and Local Government) Note: Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100 | ||
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