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22 Oct 2009 : Column 1660W—continued
News International and Monitor Group
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) whether any (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had (i) meetings with, (ii) communications from and (iii) other contacts with News International in the last five years; and what the subject matter of any contact was in each case; [295017]
(2) whether any (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had (i) meetings with, (ii) communications from and (iii) other contacts with the Monitor Group in the last five years; and what the subject matter of any contact was in each case. [295016]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The requested information could not be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.
Pacific Ocean Islands: Overseas Aid
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what aid his Department plans to send to victims of the recent tsunami and earthquakes in the South Pacific. [293829]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development (DFID) has provided £100,000 to help address the immediate effects of the tsunami in Samoa. This was part of the co-ordinated international aid effort to support the Samoan Red Cross Society (SRCS).
The SRCS has opened five temporary shelter sites and is distributing clean water, first aid supplies, tarpaulins and other relief to those affected.
Tony Blair Faith Foundation
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department has provided to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation; for which events run by the Foundation his Department has provided sponsorship; and if he will make a statement. [293764]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not provided any funding directly to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF).
We have provided £30,000 to World Vision, who are co-sponsoring a seminar series with the TBFF focusing on the theme of faiths in development. Oxfam and Islamic Relief have also contributed funds to the series. These seminars are taking place at the Royal Society of Arts in London from 7 September to 12 November.
Yemen: Overseas Aid
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate has been made of the number of people displaced by fighting in northern Yemen; and what assistance the Government are providing to Yemen for humanitarian relief. [293786]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The United Nations (UN) estimates that as many as 150,000 people have now been displaced by the conflict in northern Yemen. Large numbers of these are women and children who are especially in need of protection and security.
On 9 October, the Department for International Development (DFID) announced £2 million for humanitarian aid to those who have been driven out of their homes by the ongoing fighting. This funding, delivered through the UN Flash Appeal, will be used to provide water, sanitation and hygiene services, food, health care, assistance to malnourished children, and shelter and relief items. It will also help to reduce immediate security and protection threats, and boost co-ordination within the humanitarian response effort.
Children, Schools and Families
Academies
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which proposed academies (a) have been authorised to open and (b) have been the subject of applications to open since 2002; what the (i) location and (ii) proposed date of opening is of each such academy; who the sponsor is of each such academy; and whether each such academy has been designated as having a religious character. [295114]
Mr. Coaker: Information on Academies which have been authorised to open and have been the subject of applications to open since 2002 can be found on the Department's website at:
Care Homes: Security
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent representations he has received from local authorities on the physical security of vulnerable people in local authority care. [284348]
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent representations he has received from local authorities on the physical security of vulnerable people in local authority care; and if he will make a statement. [284355]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 7 July 2009]: All children's homes must comply with regulations and national minimum standards. These require that premises must be fit and suitable for achieving the home's statement of purpose. Every home must be secure from unauthorised access. This could include, for example, using electronic surveillance to monitor those who enter and leave the premises or having ground floor windows that can be opened only part way.
Where a local authority looks after a child, including those that have been trafficked, then they are responsible for identifying a placement that will be appropriate to meeting their needs, including their need to be kept safe from any likely harm.
On 1 July 2009, we published new "Statutory Guidance on children who run away and go missing from home or care". This sets out the measures local authorities must take whenever a child that they look after goes missing from their care placement and includes specific information about managing support for especially vulnerable groups of looked after children-such as those asylum seeking children who may have been trafficked into the UK.
Children: Day Care
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many nursery nurses per head of population there were in Northamptonshire in each of the last 10 years. [293488]
Dawn Primarolo: These data are not available. However, national data on the numbers and characteristics of staff in the child care and early years work force are collected through the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey. The latest survey to be published in the series is for 2008 and was published at the end of September 2009. This can be found at the following website address:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/projectinformation.cfm?projectld=14590&;type=5&resultspage=1
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many nursery places per head of population there were in Northamptonshire in each of the last 10 years. [293489]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department publishes information on the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds in maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers. This is derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and two and a half hours per week as 0.2 places. Table 1 shows the number of part-time equivalent places filled by three and four-year-olds in Northamptonshire local authority from 2000 to 2009.
Information on nursery school places per head of population has not been included. This is because data on places available are not collected; only data on places filled are available and as children can access their free entitlement across different local authority areas, part time equivalent places are not on a comparable basis with the local authority population figures. Population figures at this level of disaggregation are also not as reliable as at the national level.
| Table 1: Part-time equivalent number of free early education places( 1,2) filled by three( 3) and four( 3) -year-olds, local authority: Northamptonshire | |
| Position in January each year | Number of three and four-year-olds |
| (1) A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. (2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Age of all children taken at 31 December in the previous calendar year. (4) Headcount of children aged three and four from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise. (5) Part-time equivalent number of three and four-year-olds from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise. (5) Part-time equivalent number of three and four-year-olds from the Early Years Census and School Census. | |
Children: Social Services
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will list serious case reviews which have been performed following the death of a child since 2005, citing only the month and year of the death, the local authority with jurisdiction and a reference code. [292358]
Dawn Primarolo: In April 2007 Ofsted assumed responsibility for the inspection of children's social care and local authorities became responsible for notifying Ofsted of serious incidents involving children. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) developed a new database to hold information on such incidents, and data on the numbers of Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) following the notification of a death or serious injury of a child are available from 1 April 2007.
A previous parliamentary answer-23 February 2009, Official Report, column 442W-indicated that, of all notifications received between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 of serious child care incidents, 89 SCRs had been initiated where a child died and abuse or neglect was known or suspected to be a factor.
Data currently held by the Department as at 8 October 2009 indicate that, of all notifications received between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009 of serious child care incidents, 75 SCRs had been initiated where a child died and abuse or neglect was known or suspected to be a factor.
A further three incidents are awaiting a decision. These figures are broken down by local authority in the following table along with the data from the previous parliamentary answer.
The decision about whether to undertake an SCR can change as more information about the case becomes available, for example, through inquests in to the cause of death. Therefore, the data given in this and the previous answer are likely to change slightly over time.
It is not possible to give information broken down by the date of death (by month) because this would significantly increase the risk that individual children and their families might be identified and could prejudice the interests and safety of children and their families.
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