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2 Apr 2009 : Column 1331W—continued
Children, Schools and Families
Children in Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many mothers have more than (a) one, (b) five, (c) 10 and (d) 15 children in care. [268598]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: This information is not collected centrally by the Department.
Children: Autism
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on the provision of training for the staff of children's services in respect of autism. [268160]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The then Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Health published “Good Practice Guidance” on autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) in 2002 for providers of services to children with autism, including local authorities. The guidance advised that all those who plan or provide for children should have some knowledge and understanding of autism and gave pointers to good practice on the provision of in-service training:
The Department, with the National Strategies, is publishing in-service training DVDs and booklets on “Supporting children on the autism spectrum” for schools and early years settings and distributing these via local authorities:
Links to other sources of support are included, such as training courses in autism and the West Midlands “autism spectrum disorders: training policy and framework” which is for use in planning and training for those in education, social care, health and the independent and voluntary sectors.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which companies other than Capgemini bid for his Department's ContactPoint contract. [264171]
Beverley Hughes: The Department used an existing EU compliant Framework Agreement between the Department and Capgemini UK plc for the design, and subsequently, the build, test, hosting and support of ContactPoint.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether there are circumstances in which a person's ContactPoint data might be retained on ContactPoint for longer than six years after their 18th birthday. [267310]
Beverley Hughes: Local authorities, or the Secretary of State, may decide that a record can be retained in the archive for longer than six years if it is necessary to support an ongoing investigation under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, which relates to a child who may be suffering or is at risk of suffering significant harm, or a Local Safeguarding Children's Board serious case review or investigation into a child's death.
Children: Day Care
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full day care settings closed in each quarter of the last year. [268636]
Beverley Hughes: The latest available information on full day care settings for a full quarter was published in Ofsted's June 2008 report "Registered Childcare Providers and Places". The information requested is reproduced in the following table:
| Number and percentage of full day care settings that have opened and closed( 1) —Position as at each quarter, England | ||
| Full Day Care | ||
| Number | Rate per 100 settings( 2) | |
| (1) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. (2) Rates are calculated by multiplying the number of openings/closures in each quarter by 100, and dividing this value by the stock at the beginning of each quarter. Source: Ofsted. | ||
Children: Disabled
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which organisations have been allocated funding through the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme. [268032]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department for Children, Schools and Families has offered grants to, or is contracted with, the following organisations through the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme:
All English local authorities
147 parent groups throughout England
Together for Disabled Children
Council for Disabled Children
The National Strategies
Department of Health Business Services Authority
Shared Care Network
Kids
Children: Maintenance
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much was paid by absent fathers for maintenance via the child support system in each of the last three years; and what the total unpaid liability for maintenance was in each of those years. [264201]
Kitty Ussher: I have been asked to reply.
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families about child maintenance was transferred to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions as the child maintenance system falls within his remit. Responsibility for the delivery of the statutory child maintenance schemes is the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner was promised.
You asked how much was paid by absent fathers for maintenance via the child support system; and what the total unpaid liability for maintenance was in each of those years. [264201]
We contacted your office and clarified that you were asking for information from each of the last five years. It should be noted that child maintenance is collected from non-resident parents, around 95 per cent. of whom are male, and 5 per cent. female. Information on the amount of maintenance collected from either fathers or mothers is not available.
Information relating to the amount of child maintenance collected and arranged is routinely published in Table 19.5 of the Child Support Agency's Quarterly Summary of Statistics. This is available in the House of Commons library, or via the internet at:
This information for the last five calendar years, as well as an estimate of the total annual child maintenance liability, is set out in the attached table.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
| Child Support Agency—Total maintenance collected and arranged 2004-08 | |||
| Total collected and arranged( 1) (£ million ) | Estimated annual maintenance liability( 2) (£ million ) | Total maintenance as percentage of regular liability( 3) | |
| (1) The amount of arrears of maintenance collected within each year may include arrears accrued in previous years.( 2) The estimate is of child maintenance becoming due in that year. (3) Total maintenance as a percentage of regular liability is calculated by dividing the child maintenance liability over the year by the total child maintenance collected and arranged by the agency over the same period. Notes: 1. Information relating to the amount of child maintenance collected and arranged is routinely published in Table 19.5 of the Child Support Agency's Quarterly Summary of Statistics. This is available online at: http://www.childmaintenance.org/publications/statistics. html. 2. Figures shown relate to each of the last five calendar years. | |||
Children: Protection
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many cases investigated by independent reviewing officers have been referred to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service in the past five years. [268597]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) have had three formal referrals from independent reviewing officers (IROs) in the last five years.
Informally, CAFCASS have received 65 requests for support from IROs in the year 2007-08, and some 52 requests in 2008-09. CAFCASS lawyers have provided guidance and assistance in response to these requests.
Children: Social Services
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) whether the cross-government national safeguarding delivery unit will have powers to intervene in children's services departments in local authorities; [266324]
(2) when he plans to announce which experts from (a) central Government, (b) local agencies and (c) the voluntary sector will staff the cross-government national safeguarding delivery unit. [266347]
Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 27 March 2009, Official Report, column 798W.
Children’s Centres: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has spent on funding Sure Start centres in Tamworth constituency since 1997. [267975]
Beverley Hughes: Information on Sure Start spending is collected at a local authority level. Staffordshire local authority is responsible for the Sure Start centres in the Tamworth constituency.
The first Sure Start Local programmes were set up in 1999-2000. Data for revenue spend for years prior to 2003-04 are not readily available at local authority level.
The delivery of first phase Children’s Centres began in 2003-04.
The combined Sure Start Local programme and children’s centres revenue spend is shown in table A.
| Table A | |
| SSLP and children’s centres revenue spend 2003-04 to 2007-08 for Staffordshire local authority | |
The combined Sure Start Local programme and children’s centres capital spend from 1999-2000 to 2007-08 is £10,449,472.
The Sure Start Local programmes received a single allocation for capital. This has meant that it is not possible to accurately track the year by year spend for SSLP capital. Staffordshire’s capital spend for Sure Start Local programmes from programme inception to 2005-06 was £5,173,204.
Staffordshire’s children’s centres capital spend from 2003-04 to 2007-08 is given in table B.
| Table B | |
| Staffordshire children’s centres capital spend 2003-04 to 2007-08 | |
Delivery of National Curriculum Tests in 2008 Inquiry
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when the inquiry into the findings of the Sutherland Report undertaken by the board of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority will be completed. [267670]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Lord Sutherland published his report on the 2008 National Curriculum Test delivery problems on 16 December last year. On the same day, the QCA Board suspended on full pay Dr. Ken Boston, its chief executive, and David Gee, the managing director of the National Assessment Agency, while the board fully considered their position.
On 2 February, the Secretary of State published in the House the Department’s response to Lord Sutherland’s report, together with the report of 16 January from the Chairman of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), setting out QCA’s progress in implementing Lord Sutherland’s recommendations.
On 1 April, following an internal inquiry, the QCA Board announced that it had accepted both Dr. Ken Boston’s and David Gee’s resignations, with the agreement that they are effective immediately. The QCA’s statements can be found in full on the QCA website at:
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