| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
2 Apr 2009 : Column 1340W—continued
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) staff and (b) Ministerial away days have been organised by his Department and its predecessor in each of the last five years; and what the cost of such events was in each year. [266211]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Information on away days for staff is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the organisation of meetings outside the Department's buildings will be based on sound planning and, where accommodation costs and other charges are involved, our policies on appropriateness and value for money.
Information on the number of away days organised for Ministers in each of the last five years are set out as follows.
| Year( 1) | Number |
| (1) Assumes financial, not calendar years. | |
The Department’s accounting records do not collate information to the level of detail requested on event costs and a response could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. All expenditure, however, has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of ‘Managing Public Money’ and the Treasury handbook on ‘Regularity and Propriety’.
Departmental Translation Services
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department spent on translation services in each area of allocation in 2008. [267448]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Our records show that this Department spent £11,157 on translation services in 2008.
GCSE: Disadvantaged
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children in areas of each decile of multiple deprivation of (a) pupil residence and (b) local authority did not gain any GCSEs in the latest period for which figures are available. [267428]
Jim Knight: The Department routinely publishes information about pupil attainment linked to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI). The requested information linked to IDACI is provided in the following table:
| Number and percentage of pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 not achieving any passes at GCSE and equivalents in 2008 by IDACI decile of pupil residence and school location | ||||
| Pupil residence( 2) | School location( 3) | |||
| IDACI decile( 1) | Number of pupils not achieving any passes | Percentage not achieving any passes | Number of pupils not achieving any passes | Percentage not achieving any passes |
| (1 )Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index 2007. (2 )Pupil residence data is provisional 2008. (3 )School location data is revised 2008. (4 )Includes pupils of unknown residence. Source: Secondary Achievement and Attainment Tables and National Pupil Database. | ||||
Guardianship: Lancashire
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in Lancashire have a special guardianship order; and how many of those orders include financial assistance from Lancashire county council. [267654]
Beverley Hughes: Information on the number of looked after children who have a special guardianship order broken down by local authority can be found in Table LAD6.
Table LAD6 is taken from the Statistical First Release entitled “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008”, which is located at
and can be found within the first set of additional tables.
Information on how many of these special guardianship orders include financial assistance from Lancashire county council is not collected centrally by the Department.
Home Education
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of (a) girls and (b) boys are receiving home schooling in each local authority area, broken down by ethnic group. [268488]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Ofsted: Complaints
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much Ofsted spent on responding to complaints from (a) schools and (b) other education providers in the last four years for which figures are available. [266104]
Jim Knight: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply has been placed in the House Libraries.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 30 March 2009:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for a response.
Ofsted inspects education and training for learners of all ages. The total cost of Ofsted’s regional and central complaints teams covering the providers listed in the question and including an independent adjudication service, is approximately £443,000 per year (at 2008-09 prices).
This includes (a) £416,000 on complaints relating to our inspection remit for state maintained schools, some independent schools, pupil referral units, and initial teacher education; and (b) £27,000 on complaints relating to our inspection remit for further education colleges and other providers of publicly funded adult education and work-based learning.
This does not include the costs of inspectors and managers investigating individual complaints as part of their daily workload. These data are not collected as a matter of course, and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Please note that Ofsted’s financial records do not include this level of detail for earlier years, but the costs will have been broadly similar.
Since the formation of the new Ofsted in April 2007, Ofsted has reviewed our complaints handling structure and processes and expects to reduce these costs significantly from September 2009.
A copy of this reply has been sent to the Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Pre-school Education: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many childcare places there were in Tamworth constituency in (a) 1997 and (b) 2008. [268005]
Beverley Hughes: The information requested is not available by parliamentary constituency. The tables show the number of child care places in Staffordshire local authority for 1997 and 2008.
| Table 1: Number( 1,2,3) of day care places for children under eight years of age by type of provider Staffordshire local authority area—position at 31 March 1997 | |
| Type of provider | 1997 |
| (1) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. (2) Data source—Children’s Day Care Facilities Survey. (3) Figures may not add up to total due to rounding | |
Since 2003 Ofsted has been responsible for the registration and inspection of child care providers. Ofsted have produced figures on the numbers of registered child care providers and places on a quarterly basis from March 2003. Figures at 31 March 2008 were published in their report “Registered Childcare Providers and Places, March 2008”, which is available on their website,
Primary Schools: Closures
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many primary schools in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex closed permanently in each year since 1990. [267249]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Decisions about school closures are taken under local decision-making arrangements which were introduced in September 1999. Information about decisions made under the arrangements that operated prior to September 1999 is not reliable and is not, therefore, included. The Department's data is recorded at local authority level and for the period from September 1999 there have been no primary school closures in East Sussex where the provision has ceased to be maintained and has not been replaced.
Pupils: Disadvantaged
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children received free school meals in the last 12 months; and what proportion of children were entitled to free school meals in the last 12 months. [267214]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The available information relates to January 2008 and is shown in the table:
| Nursery and primary schools( 1) , secondary schools( 2) and special schools( 3) : School meal arrangements( 4) , January 2008 (final): Coverage: England | |||||
| Number on roll | Pupils taking free school meals( 5) | Percentage taking free school meals | Number known to be eligible for free meals | Percentage known to be eligible for free meals | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes CTCs and academies (3) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools, excludes general hospital schools. (4) Includes dually registered pupils and boarding pupils. (5) The number of pupils recorded as taking a free meal on the census date in January. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between totals and constituent parts. Source: School Census | |||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |