| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Dec 2009 : Column 312W—continued
Children: Day Care
Glenda Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children attend (a) Sure Start facilities and (b) children's centres in Hampstead and Highgate constituency; and how much such facilities cost in the last 12 months for which information is available. [304128]
Dawn Primarolo: The first Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) were set up in 1999-2000. Sure Start Children's Centres were introduced from 2003-04. All former SSLPs have now become Sure Start Children's Centres.
Camden local authority has 17 Sure Start Children's Centres reaching a total of over 10,600 under fives and their families. Of these six children's centres are in the Hampstead and Highgate constituency reaching a total of around 3,500 under fives and their families.
The latest year for which we have an audited spend is 2007-08 for which Camden local authority spent a total of 6,267,295. The allocations for Sure Start Children's Centres revenue and capital are included within the wider Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant Main Revenue and Main Capital funding respectively. Funding in these blocks 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 priorities.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) Sure Start centres and (b) children's centres have been opened in North East Lincolnshire since 1997; and what funding his Department has provided for such centres in that period. [304424]
Dawn Primarolo: The first Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) were set up in 1999-2000. Sure Start children's centres were introduced from 2003-04. All former SSLPs have now become Sure Start children's centres.
North East Lincolnshire local authority has 14 designated Sure Start children's centres reaching a total of over 9,800 under-fives and their families.
The total Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant provided to North East Lincolnshire local authority since 1997, for which information is available is around £54,719,000.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to Annex A of his Department's Annual Report 2009, pages 214-15, which programmes and allocations have been aggregated under the categories (a) Support for Youth and (b) Support for Children and Families. [300707]
Dawn Primarolo: Detail on the constituent parts of expenditure, aggregated in DCSF's departmental annual report 2009, are provided as follows for the year 2010-11.
Departmental Scientists
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) scientific advisers and (b) civil servants in scientific posts there are in his Department. [301928]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: This Department has one scientific adviser, our chief scientific adviser. There are no 'hard' scientific posts in the Department, although we have a large number of social science posts. At the end of October 2009, there were 218 specialists in social scientific disciplines (economics, statistics, social research and operational research) in the DCSF, including our chief scientific adviser. In addition, there are nine specialists in social scientific disciplines in the joint DCSF/DWP Child Poverty Unit. All of these specialists are civil servants.
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on how many occasions he has met (a) the Government chief scientific adviser and (b) his Department's chief scientific adviser in the course of his official duties in the last 12 months. [303965]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Secretary of State has not had any meetings with (a) the Government chief scientific adviser in the course of his official duties in the last 12 months. And (b) the Department's chief scientific adviser has attended six meetings with the Secretary of State during this period.
Families: Advisory Services
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what criteria local authorities use to determine whether families should be referred to family group conferences. [304154]
Dawn Primarolo:
It is for local authorities to determine what services to provide for families in their area and on what basis they should be offered in line with the
relevant statutory framework. They will set their own criteria to determine whether families should be referred to a family group conference service (FGC). As part of their wider approach to supporting families to stay together, some local authorities have made it mandatory that an FGC is offered to the family before a child enters care or as soon as possible afterwards in the case of an emergency placement. Others have developed key trigger points within a local authority's involvement with a family where a decision about the child is required.
GCSE: North East
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of pupils (a) were persistent absentees and (b) obtained five GCSEs at grade A* to C including English and mathematics at each maintained secondary school in (i) Newcastle upon Tyne, (ii) the County of Northumberland and (iii) North Tyneside and Gateshead in (A) 2007 and (B) 2008. [302457]
Mr. Coaker: The main way school level information is published is in the Secondary School Achievement and Attainment Tables on the Department's website at the following links:
User-friendly Excel versions have also been placed in the House Libraries.
The 2009 Secondary School Achievement and Attainment Tables will be published in January 2010.
School level 'persistent absence' figures were first published in 2008. The 2007 tables give figures relating to 'unauthorised absence'.
Gifted Children: Milton Keynes
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of pupils in North-East Milton Keynes constituency have participated in gifted and talented programmes in each year since 2000. [300715]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department does not collect data about participation in gifted and talented programmes. Through the School Census schools are asked to confirm the number of gifted and talented pupils they have identified. The following table provides data on how many children were identified as gifted and talented in the January census between 2006, when the question was first asked, and 2009.
2006 records include Secondary G and T pupil data only. Otherwise, figures include Primary(1) and Secondary(1,)( )(2) school data broken down by the number(3) and percentage of gifted and talented pupils.
(1) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(2) Includes City Technology Colleges and Academies.
(3) Excludes dual enrolments.
| 2006 (Secondary only) | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |||||
| NE Milton Keynes | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage |
| Note: Pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. | ||||||||
Home Education
Chloe Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children under the age of 16 years were being educated at home (a) at the latest date for which information is available and (b) in each year since 1997. [301887]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: We do not collect information centrally about the number of children under the age of 16 who are electively home educated because there is no current requirement for these children to be registered with local authorities. Graham Badman's 'Review of Elective Home Education in England', published in June 2009, estimated that there were around 20,000 home educated children and young people currently known to local authorities.
KBR
Sir Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department has entered into any contracts with Kellogg, Brown and Root or its subsidiaries since January 2009. [303340]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Our financial records show that the Department has not made any payments to the company Kellogg, Brown and Root or its subsidiaries since January 2009 and we do not hold any contract information for this company on our central database.
Pupils: Emotional Intelligence
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will bring forward proposals for the measurement of emotional intelligence of school pupils. [302034]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The DCSF currently offers schools, through the National Strategies, a Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme to help children and young people to manage themselves, their own emotions, their thoughts and their behaviours and develop positive relationships with each other. In addition, we jointly fund the National Healthy Schools programme with the Department of Health which requires schools to satisfy criteria across four themes in order to become a Healthy School.
Both programmes promote a 'whole school' approach to developing the emotional health and wellbeing of
children and young people through a shared vision, creating a positive ethos, strong relationships and inclusive leadership.
The DCSF has no proposals or plans to measure the emotional intelligence of school pupils.
Schools
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the value for money of public funding for school-based learning about international development. [304431]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department has not made an assessment of the value for money of public funding for school-based learning about international development. But we know that international issues are important to young people and we are clear they should be covered in subjects such as geography, history and citizenship.
Schools: Asbestos
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) in how many schools in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point has asbestos been found in the last three years; [303790]
(2) if he will publish Essex County Council's response to his Department's survey of the (a) presence and (b) management of asbestos in schools in Essex; and if he will make a statement. [303879]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 7 December 2009]: The Department's survey asked for information on whether schools contain asbestos-containing materials. It also asked questions about asbestos management in local authorities and schools. The Department did receive a response from Essex county council but we are not in a position to publish any of the local authority responses as this information may be required for legal purposes. The Health and Safety Executive is planning follow up investigations in 2010 in a number of local authorities to clarify the information provided.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |