Pupil Premium Grant for 2011-12
In 2011-12 local authorities additionally received £488 for each pupil who received free school meals or was a looked-after child in their area and £200 for each pupil who was registered as a service child in their area.
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Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will rank English local authorities by the estimated percentage change in real terms expenditure per pupil for (a) primary and (b) secondary schools between 2010-11 and 2012-13, showing the cash amount in each case. [101535]
Tim Loughton [holding answer 22 March 2012]: Since 2006-07, the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is the main source of school funding. As the DSG is distributed through a single guaranteed unit of funding per pupil and is distributed from central Government to local government, a primary/secondary split on a central to local government basis is not available.
The guaranteed unit of funding (GUF) for 2012-13 has remained cash-flat at the levels distributed in 2011-12.
| Dedicated Schools Grant—guaranteed unit of funding (GUF) for 2010-11 and 2012-13 | ||
| (£) | ||
| Total GUF baseline for 2010-11 (DSG GUF + Grants GUF) | Total GUF for 2012-13 | |
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Pupil Premium Grants for 2012-13
In 2012-13 local authorities will receive an additional £600 for each pupil who received free school meals in the last six years or is a looked-after child in their area and £250 for each pupil who was registered as a service child in their area in the last two years.
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Sustainable Development
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether he has made an assessment of the quality of the teaching of environmental sustainability in schools. [101459]
Mr Gibb: Our reforms are designed to improve standards by giving greater autonomy to schools. We want schools to make their own judgments about how sustainable development should be reflected in their ethos, day-to-day operations and curriculum. We are helping schools to do this with the Sustainable Schools Alliance, a group of voluntary organisations that are working together to provide support to schools.
We are also reviewing the national curriculum with the aim of focusing it on the body of essential knowledge in key subjects that all children need to learn. This will leave teachers free to use their professional judgment and expertise to design curricula that best meet their pupils’ needs.
Teaching Aids: Video Games
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to encourage teaching through educational video games. [102026]
Mr Gibb: The Government are committed to giving schools the freedom to use their professional judgment in implementing new technologies.
In his recent speech at BETT the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), highlighted opportunities provided by technology to improve teaching and study, both within and beyond the classroom, including the potential for the use of games and interactive software.
Over the period 2011-13 the Government will allocate a total of £3.75 million to support professional development opportunities and resources for teachers in the effective use of ICT. These are delivered by the VITAL consortium, comprising the Open University and e-Skills UK.
Youth Clubs
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will assess the merits of bringing forward proposals to encourage local authorities to maintain the provision of youth centres when implementing reductions in their budgets. [101560]
Tim Loughton: As set out in their Positive for Youth strategy, the Government recognise the valuable contribution that high-quality services and facilities can make to improving outcomes for young people, particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. They look to local authorities to work with their partners to commission services in response to local needs and will not prescribe the nature or level of services that should be provided nor ring-fence funding for this purpose.
The Government have, however, secured £141 million over 2011-13 to complete a network of 63 high-quality Myplace youth centres in disadvantaged areas across the country. These will be hubs for a wide range of services, transforming the local offer for young people.
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On 5 March 2012, the Department published for consultation revised statutory guidance on the relevant duty contained in section 507B of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The draft guidance focuses strongly on the essential principles to which local authorities
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must have regard in planning and commissioning services for young people. This guidance will be finalised and published once we have considered responses to the consultation, which closes on 25 May 2012.