Written Answers to Questions
Friday 8 May 2009
Children, Schools and Families
Children In Care
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which local authorities have children or young people in their care who are in placements outside the authority area; and how many young people in the case of each authority are so placed. [271340]
Beverley Hughes: Information about the location of placements of looked after children and whether they are placed inside or outside of their local authority area can be found on the DCSF statistics website at the following link:
The required information is set out in Tables LAA18 and LAA19. These are in EXCEL format in the third set of additional tables on the above website.
Departmental Advertising
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent by his Department on advertising in the last 12 months. [243723]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Promotional campaigns, including those using advertising, are funded from the Department's central Advertising and Publicity Budget and from individual programme budgets held by policy directorates.
Advertising is part of a full integrated promotional campaign. The question refers specifically to advertising and we have been able to separate the Department's spend on advertising, as this is centrally placed through the Central Office of Information.
The cost of recruitment advertising for the department has not been included as it is not possible to establish a definitive figure, except at disproportionate expense.
The Department's advertising spend and that of its predecessor (DFES) since April 2007 is set out as follows, with a breakdown of individual campaigns. All figures exclude VAT.
| DCSF advertising billing 2007/08 | |
| Campaign title | Media total (£) |
| DCSF advertising billing 2008/09 (Costs invoiced to date) | |
| Campaign title | Media total( 1) (£) |
| (1)2008/09 figures refer to costs invoiced to date and not actual DCSF spend. | |
Departmental Voluntary Work
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department’s policy is on its staff undertaking voluntary work; and what estimate he has made of the number of such staff who undertook voluntary work in the last 12 months. [272496]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department believes that volunteering is important to enable staff to engage with communities they serve and have a better understanding of local issues to help deliver the Children’s Plan.
The Department has a well established policy to encourage all staff to volunteer on a regular and sustained basis. The Department has an annual 10 per cent. target of staff volunteering. The Department’s recent Staff Survey showed that up to 317 of staff have volunteered in the last 12 months (13 per cent. of those who responded). The Department encourages staff to volunteer by regularly advertising national and local opportunities on the Department’s intranet and local communication channels; there are also local volunteering contacts on all of the Department’s sites in Darlington, Sheffield, Runcorn and London.
Food
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make an estimate of the (a) monetary value and (b) quantity of waste food disposed of from his Department’s premises in the last 12 months. [273442]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) does not currently record the amount of food waste that is generated at each of our buildings. This is included within our overall land fill statistics. Separate records are kept for all other waste streams that are recycled, for example paper, glass, plastics and cans. Discussions are under way with our catering and waste management providers as to how the DSCF can reduce or eliminate the amount of food waste that is sent to landfill.
Grandparents: Parental Responsibility
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent research his Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned on the attitudes of grandparents to providing childcare support for their grandchildren. [273816]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Officials from the Department for Children, Schools and Families reviewed the literature around the attitudes of grandparents providing child care support for their grandchildren, as part of the work to develop the strategy document “Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare” (published January 2009).
Later this year we will hold a consultation event with grandparents and grandparents’ interest groups to update the position on support grandparents need from services.
Primary Education
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of primary school places required in England for children (a) one of whose parents is non-UK born, (b) who were born abroad and (c) whose first language is not English in each year from 2009-31. [273993]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Local authorities are responsible for planning the supply of school places in their area and must ensure provision is responsive to local circumstances and needs. When projecting future demand for places we expect authorities to take account of factors that will have an impact on future pupil numbers, such as changes in the immigrant population—including children born abroad to a non-UK parent and whose first language is not English.
Pupil Exclusions
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils were excluded from school before they were due to sit GCSE examinations in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) the North East and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year since 2005. [268361]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Information is not available in the form requested.
The available information on the number of pupils aged 15, in secondary and special schools, who received a permanent exclusion or one or more fixed period exclusions in England, the North East and Middlesbrough local authority area is shown in the table.
Comparable figures for 2005 are not available because in 2005-06 information on fixed period exclusions was collected from secondary schools only.
Information on exclusions in the UK is not collected by the Department. Information relating to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are available from the Welsh Assembly Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Department of Education, respectively.
To provide data at constituency level would incur disproportionate cost
| Secondary and special schools( 1,2) :( ) Number of pupil enrolments aged 15 who received a permanent exclusion or one or more fixed period exclusions( 3,4) : England 2006-07 | |
| Number | |
| (1) Includes maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies (including all-through academies). (2) Includes maintained and non maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (3) Pupils who were aged 15 on 31 August 2006. (4) Some pupils will have more than one enrolment and will be counted more than once, if they are registered at more than one school or moved schools during the year. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. | |
The Department's exclusions guidance sets out those governing bodies must review all permanent exclusions from their school, and fixed period exclusions that would result in a pupil missing a public examination. It also states that the governing body should try to meet before the date of the examination, or if exceptionally this is not practical, that the chair of governors—using his or her powers to act in an emergency—may consider the exclusion and decide whether or not to reinstate the pupil. Where a pupil is excluded, depending on the nature and seriousness of the exclusion, the governing body/management committee may exercise its discretion to allow an excluded pupil on the premises for the sole purpose of taking a public examination.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what powers head teachers in maintained schools have to permanently exclude pupils. [271351]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Section 52 of the Education Act 2002 gives head teachers the power to exclude pupils for a fixed period or permanently, on disciplinary grounds.
Departmental guidance sets out the procedures to be followed, and explains that the decision to exclude a pupil permanently should be taken only in response to serious breaches of the school's behaviour policy, and if allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.
Pupils: Absenteeism
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of gifted and talented pupils were persistent absentees in the latest period for which figures are available. [268485]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The available information is shown in the following table.
| Primary, secondary and special schools( 1,2) : Persistent absentees within the gifted and talented cohort( 3,4 ) England 2007-08 | |||
| Number of gifted and talented enrolments( 5) | Number of gifted and talented enrolments( ) who are persistent absentees | Percentage of gifted and talented enrolments who are persistent absentees | Percentage of all enrolments who are persistent absentees |
| (1) Includes city technology colleges and academies (including all-through academies). (2) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (3) Persistent Absentees are defined as having more than 63 sessions of absence (authorised and unauthorised) during the year, typically over 20 per cent. overall absence rate. (4) Pupils who were identified as gifted and talented at the time of the January 2008 census. (5) Number of pupil enrolments in schools from start of the school year to 23 May 2008. Includes pupils on the school roll for at least one session who are aged between five and 15, excluding boarders. Some pupils may be counted more than once (if they moved schools during the school year or are registered in more than one school). Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census | |||
Schools: Admissions
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many new school places he plans to create in each of the next five years. [272866]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry:
Local authorities are responsible for planning the creation of new school places and are under a duty to ensure sufficient school places are available to meet local needs. The Department allocates Basic Need funding to enable local authorities to provide the additional places needed in response to a growth in pupil numbers. Allocations are based on each authority’s own pupil projections which they provide to the Department annually through the Surplus Places Survey. To enable authorities to plan deployment of their resources, these allocations are set for three years at the start of each spending review period. In addition, in 2008 the Department
operated a “safety-valve” mechanism for funding new pupil places, to deliver additional funding for authorities facing exceptional circumstances because of the rate of growth of pupil numbers.
During the current spending review period (2008-09 to 2010-11), £1.2 billion of Basic Need funding will be allocated among the 150 local authorities in England. Additionally, four authorities were allocated exceptional Basic Need safety valve funding totalling £83.24 million.
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