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12 Oct 2009 : Column 198W—continued

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of childcare staff had childcare qualifications which were obtained overseas in each of the last five years. [290400]

Mr. Coaker: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey collects information on staff qualifications that are relevant to working with children and young people. The percentage of paid staff in England holding an overseas qualification for each year available is shown in the following table. Information on the number of paid staff is not available.


12 Oct 2009 : Column 199W
Table 1: Proportion of all paid staff holding overseas qualifications
Percentage
2005 2006 2007

Full day care

<0.5

<0.5

<0.5

Full day care in children's centres

n/a

<0.5

0

Sessional

<0.5

<0.5

<0.5

After school clubs

n/a

<0.5

<0.5

Holiday clubs

n/a

<0.5

<0.5

Childminders

n/a

<0.5

<0.5

Nursery schools

n/a

<0.5

<0.5

Primary schools with nursery and reception classes

n/a

1

<0.5

Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes

n/a

0

<0.5

Notes:
1. Children's centres were included in the survey for the first time in 2006; therefore data are not available for previous years.
2. After school and holiday clubs were sampled differently in 2005 and comparable figures for this year are not available.
3. Early years settings in maintained schools were not included in the 2005 survey.

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many registered childminders there were in each region in each quarter of the last year for which figures are available. [290460]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is shown in the table.

Number of registered childminders in each quarter of the last year( 1)
As at end:
Government office region August 2008( 2) December 2008( 3) March 2009 June 2009

East of England

7,700

7,400

7,200

6,500

East Midlands

5,500

5,400

5,300

5,300

Inner London

3,400

3,300

3,300

3,300

Outer London

7,300

7,100

7,100

7,000

North East

3,000

2,900

2,800

2,700

North West England

7,200

7,000

6,900

6,200

South East England

12,300

12,000

11,800

11,700

South West England

5,900

5,700

5,600

5,500

West Midlands

5,500

5,400

5,200

5,100

Yorkshire and the Humber

5,900

5,700

5,600

5,600

England

63,600

61,900

60,900

60,200

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100. Totals may not add up due to rounding.
2. Latest position before new arrangements were introduced in September 2008.
3. First position since new arrangements were introduced in September 2008.
Source:
Ofsted

New Registers, the Early Years Register and the General Childcare Register (including its Voluntary Register), were introduced under the Childcare Act 2006 as part of the Government's reforms to simplify early years regulation and inspection. From 1 September 2008, Ofsted started to record providers in line with these new legal requirements.

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of carers in daycare settings for children were male in each year since 1997. [290500]

Dawn Primarolo: The 2007 Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey estimated that the average proportion of male staff working in full day care settings in England was 2 per cent. In total, there was 2,900 male staff working in full day care settings in England. Data for each year available are shown in the following table.


12 Oct 2009 : Column 200W
Table: Male staff working in full day care settings in England
Average proportion of male staff per setting (%) Total number of male staff( 1)

2001

2

1,900

2003

2

2,000

2005

2

2,500

2006

2

2,500

2007

2

2,900

(1) All numbers provided have been rounded. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100 if they are greater than 1,000, to the nearest 50 if the number is 100-999 and to the nearest 10 if the number is below 100.

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government has taken to ensure an adequate number of free nursery places from autumn 2009. [291524]

Dawn Primarolo: Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006 places a new duty on all local authorities to secure-so far as is reasonably practicable-sufficient child care to meet the needs of parents (in particular those on low incomes or with disabled children) in their area.

Local authorities are also legally required to secure a free Government-funded early education place (currently for 12.5 hours per week over a minimum of 38 weeks per year) for every three and four-year-old in their area. The offer will be extended to 15 hours per week, delivered more flexibly to better suit families' needs, by September 2010. From September 2009, most local authorities, including Coventry, are offering the increased entitlement to 25 per cent. of their most disadvantaged three and four-year-olds, as part of the phasing in of the full extension by 2010.

In addition, the Department is working with Government offices to support all local authorities to roll out an offer of free, Government-funded, early learning and care to 15 per cent. of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds in their area from September 2009.

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether the £671,000 grant allocated to Gloucester City Council by his Department from the workplace nurseries capital initiative has been repaid. [292174]

Dawn Primarolo: Gloucestershire local authority was allocated £671,770 capital funding for workplace nurseries in 2008-09. This formed part of the main capital block of the Sure Start, early years and child care grant and contributed to the authority's total allocation of £7,167,636 in that block.

Funding in this block is not ring-fenced and the authority has the freedom to decide how much to spend on each area supported by the grant, in line with local needs and priorities.

Local authorities claim their capital funding quarterly throughout the year and should only claim for what they have spent. The Department then makes adjustments based on audited returns. The audited returns for 2008-09 are not yet due, and therefore we do not have information on how much has been spent by authorities in that year.

The Department allows the carry-forward of unspent capital annually until the end of 2010-11 financial year.


12 Oct 2009 : Column 201W

Children: Social Services

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how much his Department has allocated to the Together for Children programme in 2010-11; [289308]

(2) how much funding his Department has allocated to Together for Children (a) in each year since its establishment and (b) for 2009-10; [289339]

(3) how much has been allocated to local authorities to employ Serco in supporting the implementation of the Sure Start programme in (a) each of the last three years and (b) 2010-11. [289307]

Mr. Coaker: Together for Children, a consortium of Serco, Tempus Resourcing Ltd, 4Children and Continyou, was contracted as the Department's delivery partner for Sure Start Children's Centres in October 2006 to provide support to local authorities to plan and deliver their children's centre programmes. The following table gives details of the cost of the contract for each year since its commencement. The costs of the contract are met centrally by the Department. The Department has allocated approximately £7.2 billion to local authorities in capital and revenue funding for Sure Start Children's Centres and predecessor Sure Start Local Programmes since the inception of the programme.

Total cost (excluding VAT)
(£ million)

2006-07

3.4

2007-08

6.5

2008-09

7.2

2009-10(1)

7.5

2010-11(1)

3.7

(1) Estimated costs on current workplans

Children: Victim Support Schemes

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recovery services are available to support child victims of violence, abuse, neglect and maltreatment. [289572]

Dawn Primarolo: Services to support the recovery of child victims of violence or maltreatment are provided by a variety of statutory and third sector organisations. The type of service required will depend on the needs of the child and the way in which the violence or harm may have had an effect on their health and development.

Where the child has been judged to be at continuing risk of significant harm and is the subject of a child protection plan, local authority children's social care has lead responsibility for implementing the plan. In these circumstances, the services required are most likely to be provided by the local authority, health, voluntary and independent sectors.

Children's Centres

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many Sure Start children's centres have been built in each month of 2009. [289318]

Dawn Primarolo: At the end of July 2009 a total of 135 Sure Start Children's Centres were designated across
12 Oct 2009 : Column 202W
England in 2009. The following table gives the number of children's centres designated in each month.

Month Number of Sure Start Children's Centres delivered

January

4

February

4

March

93

April

1

May

3

June

18

July

12

Total

135

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