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8 Feb 2010 : Column 741W—continued
Children's Rights Director of England
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the salary is of the Children's Rights Director of England; how many people are employed in his office; and what the total annual cost to the public purse is of running his office. [309187]
Mr. Coaker: 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 Libraries.
Family Proceedings
Hilary Armstrong: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the likely effects on children of the changes to the rules on reporting sensitive personal information in family courts under the proposals in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. [312806]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 25 January 2010]: Protecting the welfare of children is our paramount concern. The proposals in the Bill are carefully drafted to ensure that sensitive personal information remains confidential. In addition, the measures in the Bill propose to strengthen the current position and give indefinite anonymity to children involved in family proceedings.
The current proposals before Parliament make clear that treatment of sensitive personal information can be altered only once the Lord Chancellor has carried out a full and comprehensive review of the operation of the provisions including their impact on children.
Independent Safeguarding Authority Partnership Network
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 7 January 2010, Official Report, column 598W, on the Independent Safeguarding Authority, who the members of the Partnership Network are; what the remit of the Partnership Network is; who chairs the network; what its budget is for 2009-10; from which funding stream its expenditure is met; and on what dates the network has met since its creation. [310610]
Dawn Primarolo: Membership of the Partnership Network is set out in the Interim Progress Report and Work Programme 2009-10 of the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit, published 18 December 2009. This can be found at:
http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction =productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductID=DCSF- 01181-2009&
The network was created to help ensure that the work of the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit is firmly rooted in what is happening at the front line, and to act as a conduit between the unit and individual partners to feed back on and pursue specific issues impacting on effective frontline safeguarding practice. It is not intended that the total Partnership Network consisting of nearly a 100 members would meet frequently.
From time to time, small groups of network members are asked to work with the unit on specific pieces of work or join workshops to consider specific outputs the unit is developing. It is also intended that the NSDU will consult network members routinely on particular issues related to the improvement of safeguarding practice. To date, members have been invited to attend the launch of the final report of Social Work Taskforce on 1 December 2009, and selected members to attend a workshop on 4 November looking at three of the early NSDU projects.
The Partnership Network does not have a dedicated budget.
Local Child Curfew Schemes: Suffolk
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many child curfew orders have been (a) issued and (b) breached in Suffolk in each year since 1997. [314881]
Mr. Alan Campbell: I have been asked to reply.
Information on the number of local child curfew orders is not collected centrally. The provisions creating local child curfew orders were repealed by the Police and Crime Act 2009.
Pre-school Education: Torbay
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children aged (a) three and (b) four years old in Torbay constituency are in free nursery places. [314615]
Dawn Primarolo: The available figures are shown in the table.
| Part-time equivalent number of free early education places( 1, 2 ) filled by three and four-year-olds( 3) . Parliamentary constituency: Torbay. Position in January | |
| 2009 | Number |
| (1) A place is equal to 12.5 hours (five sessions) and can be filled by more than one child. (2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if over 1,000, and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Age of all children taken at 31 December 2008. Source: Early Years Census and School Census | |
The Department publishes information on the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds. 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.
Schools: Mental Health Services
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many professional school counsellors there are in (a) secondary and (b) primary schools. [313872]
Dawn Primarolo: The school funding system provides a sum per pupil in a local authority for it to distribute for all its education responsibilities including schools. Once delegated to a school, it is for the school governors to decide upon the use of the delegated budget to meet the school's priorities, which may include purchasing the services of a counsellor. We do not collect information on the use of school funding in sufficient detail to capture information about which schools employ professional counsellors.
However, we are committed to improving the emotional and mental health of children and young people and to help them develop social and emotional skills, improve self-esteem and self-control, enabling them to develop good relationships and to promote their resilience, so they can adapt to change and cope with difficult circumstances. We have developed a number of school-based approaches to support this, some of which may include the use of services such as counselling.
Supporting the psychological well-being and mental health of pupils is a key component of whole school programmes such as the Healthy Schools programme and the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme. Such programmes are intended for pupils generally and may need to be supplemented by more specialist support for certain pupils.
The Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme, funded by £60 million between 2008-11, builds on the successful social and emotional aspects of learning programme (SEAL) for those pupils who need additional support. Some of the schools involved in the programme have chosen to offer counselling-based approaches as part of their package therapeutic interventions to children at risk of developing mental health problems.
In addition, the White Paper "Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future", published in June 2009, stated as a pupil and parent guarantee that from September 2010 every young person in secondary school will have a personal tutor who knows them well, has an overview of their progress and ensures any learning needs or issues are quickly addressed.
Social Work Task-Force
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 13 January 2010, Official Report, columns 1063-64W, on the Social Work Task Force, if he will place in the Library a copy of the draft of the final report provided on (a) 13 October, (b) 20 November and (c) 27 November 2009. [311869]
Dawn Primarolo: It is not general practice for the Department for Children, Schools and Families to release draft versions of published reports. The final report of the Social Work Task Force was launched on the 1 December and is available here:
http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction =productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF- 01114-2009
Sports: Finance
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has spent on sports coaching in each of the last three years; and through which bodies such coaching was delivered. [316343]
Mr. Iain Wright: As part of the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People, the Department's spend on coaching over the last three years has been as follows:
| £ | |
This funding was paid to School Sport Partnerships who used it to employ sports coaches at a local level to help deliver high quality coaching provision in schools.
Sure Start Programme: Leeds
Mr. Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many Sure Start places have been established in Leeds North East constituency since 1997. [314656]
Dawn Primarolo: There are six designated Sure Start Children's Centres in the Leeds, North-East constituency, reaching over 5,560 children under five and their families. There are no more centres planned for the constituency. Reach defines those children and families with the opportunity to access children's centres. Figures for the number of people actually using children's centres are not collected centrally.
Vetting
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to page 5 of Sir Roger Singleton's report, "Drawing the line", published in December 2009, when the Government's review of the continuing need for controlled activity will be complete. [309670]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, written ministerial statement of 14 December 2009, Official Report, columns 50-53WS, about the publication of Sir Roger Singleton's report, "Drawing the Line", on the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), and the Government's response to Sir Roger's report, both of which are in the House Libraries.
The Government's response to recommendation 9 of the report makes clear that the DCSF and the Department of Health will take forward the review of the continuing need for controlled activity together, in collaboration with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Government will launch this review shortly.
Home Department
Alcohol: Under-age Sales
4. Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many retailers were convicted of an offence of selling alcohol to under-age people in the last 12 months. [315832]
Mr. Alan Campbell: In 2008 there were 459 prosecutions leading to 366 convictions. During the same period 2,824 penalty notices for disorder were issued by the police.
Police: Local Authority Funding
19. Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether local authorities have discretion to fund police officers in addition to those funded by police authorities. [315849]
Mr. Hanson: Under the Police Act 1996 local authorities may make grants to any police authority whose police area falls geographically within the local authority area. Grants may be made unconditionally or, with the agreement of the chief officer, subject to conditions.
Conditions could include that funding be spent on police officers.
UK Border Agency
20. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the merits of allowing regional offices of the UK Border Agency to accept further representations from asylum applicants who claimed asylum before March 2007. [315850]
Mr. Woolas: In October we made important improvements to the security and efficiency of the asylum system by requiring applicants wishing to put in further submissions relating to their asylum claim to do so in person. Regional asylum teams were set up in 2007 to deal with newer asylum claims. Those teams are receiving further submissions in those newer cases but do not have the operational capacity to receive further submissions from all cases in the "legacy" caseload.
However, we have established exceptional criteria for those unable to travel.
Stop and Search Powers
21. Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of stop and search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. [315851]
Mr. Hanson: The Home Office and police keep the effectiveness of section 44 under constant review. Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, also reviews the operation of section 44 and reports his findings to Parliament.
We believe section 44 remains an important tool in countering the threat from terrorism.
Front-line Policing
22. Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment his Department has made of the effects on front-line policing of reduced police numbers in certain forces. [315852]
Mr. Hanson: The pre-Budget report announced that sufficient funding will be provided to allow police authorities to maintain numbers of police officers, police community support officers and other staff exercising police powers in the years to 2012-13.
Our priority is to protect the front-line and maintain a focus on increasing public confidence in the police service and achieving improvements in value for money.
Immigration: Hub and Spoke System
23. Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's use of the hub and spoke system for processing immigration applications. [315853]
Mr. Woolas: The hub and spoke system has been rolled out gradually since June 2007. This model has enabled the UK Border Agency to improve the efficiency and consistency of its visa operation, building on its network of visa application centres, as well as increasing the security and integrity of our staff and improving customer service.
Antisocial Behaviour
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received on the regulation of the use of Mosquito devices; and if he will make a statement. [315848]
Mr. Alan Campbell: My Department has recently received two representations on the use of Mosquito devices. Our position on antisocial behaviour is that it should be tackled, not tolerated. We encourage local agencies to consider the full range of innovations and schemes and practices intended to reduce crime, the fear of crime and antisocial behaviour.
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