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4 Mar 2010 : Column 1386W—continued
Children: Day Care
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department and its predecessors have taken to reduce the cost of child care to parents and carers in London since 2005. [319663]
Dawn Primarolo: As a result of changes introduced since 2004, all families in London (as elsewhere in England) with three and four-year-olds are entitled to 12.5 hours of free early learning and child care per week, and this will rise to 15 hours per week from September 2010. Since September 2009, all local authorities in London have also received funding of 10 hours of free early learning and child care per week to their 15 per cent. most disadvantaged two-year-olds.
Parents in London can also receive support for child care costs through the tax credits system. In 2006, the threshold of costs that were available to parents was increased from 70 per cent. to 80 per cent. In London the number of families benefiting increased by over 12,000 between 2004-05 and 2007-08 (the latest year for which figures are available).
From 2005 to 2009, a joint initiative by the Government and the London Development Agency, the London Childcare Affordability Pilots 2005, offered parents more affordable and flexible child care places. At its peak the pilot provided over 6,000 subsidised flexible day care places.
Since 2009 the Childcare Affordability Pilots have been trialling with London families two possible improvements to the support for child care costs that they receive through the child care element of working tax credit. The pilots are assessing the impact on child care take up of offering families 100 per cent. of their child care costs up to £215 per week for one child rather than the usual £140; and, for families with a disabled
child, paying 80 per cent. of their child care costs up £300 per week for one child. Both strands offer up to £350 per week if parents have more than one child.
Children's Centres: South West
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children's centres are (a) open and (b) planned to be opened in the next 12 months at each location in each local authority area in the south west. [316055]
Dawn Primarolo: The table setting out the number of Sure Start Children's Centres that have (a) opened and (b) planned to be opened in the next 12 months at each location in each local authority area in the south west as at 31 December 2009, has been placed in the Libraries.
Class Sizes: Salford
Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average class size in schools in Salford was in (a) 1997 and (b) 2009. [317388]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The average class size in maintained primary schools in Salford constituency was 26.0 in 1997 and 24.6 in 2009; the figures for state funded secondary schools were 21.4 and 18.4 respectively.
Figures include middle schools as deemed. City technology colleges and academies are included under secondary.
Pre-school Education: Leeds
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) free nursery and (b) pre-school places were available for children aged (i) three and (ii) four years old in Leeds North West constituency in each year since 1997. [319508]
Dawn Primarolo: Table 1 shows the number of part-time equivalent places filled by three and four-year-olds in Leeds North West constituency from 2004 to 2009.
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. Information on the number
of pre-school places is not separately available. Part-time equivalent places are 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. Data at parliamentary constituency level are not available prior to 2004.
| Table 2: Part-time equivalent number of free early education places( 1,)( )( 2,)( )( 3) filled by three and four-year-olds( 4) , p arliamentary constituency: Leeds North West, position in January each year | ||
| Three-year-olds | Four-year-olds | |
| (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 10. (3) Prior to 2004, information on early education places was derived from returns made by local authorities as part of the nursery education grant (NEG) data collection exercise. These data were collected at local authority level, therefore data for this parliamentary constituency is not available prior to 2004. (4) Age of all children taken at 31 December in the previous calendar year. Source: Early Years Census and School Census. | ||
The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 11/2009 "Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2009", available on the Department's website:
Pupil Exclusions
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 22 February 2010, Official Report, column 312W, on National Safeguarding Delivery Unit: standards, how many pupils received more than (a) 15 and (b) 20 fixed period exclusions in each local authority area in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08. [319165]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The requested information is shown in the following table.
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