| Number of claims(1) | Amount of travel subsistence reimbursed (£) | |
| (1) Some officials will have claimed multiple times, and others not at all, so in terms of numbers of people claiming subsistence this would involve interrogating each individual expense claim or designing a bespoke report and could be done only at disproportionate cost. | ||
The monetary value of the 20 highest subsistence claims for Monitor is shown in the following table. Top 20 data for the financial years 2008-09 and 2009-10 are not included as the details are held in an archived accounting system and to retrieve the information would be at disproportionate cost.
| £ | |||||
| 2012-13 | 2011-12 | 2010-11 | 2009-10 | 2008-09 | |
CQC cannot provide the requested details without incurring a disproportionate cost as their accounting system does not differentiate between travel and subsistence.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)
The HFEA has estimated that, in order to provide the information requested, it would be at disproportionate cost as the data would not be apparent from the accounting entries alone. For senior officials and authority members, all of the HFEA data is published on:
www.data.gov.uk
Vitamin D
Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on the treatment of vitamin D deficiency in (a) Hounslow, (b) London and (c) England in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12 and (iv) 2012-13. [156412]
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Anna Soubry: NHS Prescription Services captures and holds certain data to allow reimbursement and remuneration to be made to dispensing contractors for items, supplied in primary care for England via FP10 prescription forms and to allow for those costs to be recharged to the prescribing organisation. NHS Prescription Services does not capture the reason for prescribing a particular drug therefore it is not possible to provide the spend on the treatment of vitamin D deficiency.
However, NHS Prescription Services is able to provide data for the period requested relating to the net ingredient cost (NIC) of drugs contained in the British National Forumulary paragraph 9.6.4: Vitamin D.
Although the heading of this BNF paragraph is Vitamin D, it does contain products not primarily prescribed for vitamin D deficiency, and there may be some products containing vitamin D that are not included within BNF 9.6.4.
The following table provides the NIC relating to items contained within BNF 9.6.4: Vitamin D for each financial year as requested. NIC is shown for prescribing in Hounslow Primary Care Trust (PCT), London Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and England.
| Net ingredient cost of vitamin D (BNF 9.6.4) | ||||
| £000 | ||||
| 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | |
The NIC is the basic price for drugs as described in the Drug Tariff Part II Clause 8. NIC does not include any other cost associated with the prescribing and dispensing items containing vitamin D such as payment for containers and consumables, out of pocket expenses and dispensing fees.
Source:
ePACT.net
Education
Apprentices
Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the National Apprenticeship service website as a tool for young people to find apprenticeships since its inception. [155505]
Matthew Hancock: The Apprenticeship vacancy website is excellent. It is now widely used as a free recruitment service across England by employers and training organisations to advertise apprenticeship vacancies and by individuals looking to apply for an apprenticeship.
The number of apprenticeship vacancies advertised this year has increased by 24% and almost 120,000 are expected to be advertised by the end of August. There has been an increase of 35% in the number of applications being made with 958,000 applications in the last nine months.
The majority of applications are from young people in the 16 to 24 age range, often helping them into their first job and giving them the opportunity to gain valuable skills required for their future career.
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The Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching system itself is under constant review with a programme to update and improve its functionality to make it easier for people to access and use.
The National Apprenticeship Service actively promotes Apprenticeships and Apprenticeship vacancies to young people and to schools across the country and there are a range of schools resources and literature available on the website:
http://apprenticeships.org.uk/
Since January 2011, the apprentice landing page on apprenticeships.gov.uk has had 2.1 million visits. This page provides support and advice for potential apprentices, including real life case studies and how to apply.
Children in Care: Death
Mrs Moon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children under 18 years old have
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died while in care of local authorities in the last 10 years in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement. [155195]
Mr Timpson: Information on the number of children who die while in the care of local authorities in England is shown in the following table. Figures are given for each English region for the year 2003 to 2012.
The number of children who die while in the care of local authorities in England is low, typically around 50 children per year. Due to these low numbers and to protect their identities, figures cannot be provided for each individual local authority.
| Number of looked-after children who have died while being looked after by a local authority,(1, 2, 3), year ending 31 March 2003 to 2012, England | ||||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| (1) Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. (2) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. (3) Regional figures do not add up to England total due to rounding. (4) Figures not shown in order to protect confidentiality. Source: SSDA 903. | ||||||||||
Children: Day Care
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether he has received representations from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in support of the relaxation of childcare ratios. [155127]
Elizabeth Truss: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a number of reports that compare the early years systems within member countries, including looking at the different staffing and qualification requirements. The Department for Education has engaged directly with the OECD to better understand its research findings, and to see what its evidence suggests could improve the English system. I have corresponded with Andreas Schleicher, Special Adviser on Education Policy to the Secretary-General of the OECD, who is supportive of improving staff qualifications and says the best education systems prioritise quality of staff over class sizes. He has acknowledged the importance of the proposals in ‘More great childcare’, published by the Government in January 2013, including our intention to bring England more into line with comparable countries.
“Results from PISA show that high performing education systems consistently prioritise the quality of their staff over the size of classes. OECD's work on early childhood education (Starting Strong 3) underlines the importance of having staff with proper educational qualifications and that staff qualifications are the best predictor of the quality of early childhood education and care.”
Child Poverty
Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the accuracy and effectiveness of the statistics used for measuring child poverty in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [155759]
Mr Laws: The Government are committed to tackling child poverty and to the Child Poverty Act 2010. However, we do not believe that the targets set in the Act, looked at in isolation, capture the full reality of poverty in the United Kingdom. This is why we have consulted on better measures of child poverty. The targets in the Act, which are separate from the statistics used to monitor them, can drive perverse policy decisions designed to move families above an arbitrary income line, rather than tackling the underlying root causes of poverty.
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The statistical methodology of collecting the statistics is not in question. The relative low income, absolute low income, and combined low income and material deprivation child poverty target measures are sourced from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) publication. This publication has been designated as a National Statistic by the UK Statistics Authority; this means it is fully compliant with the principles in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. These principles include that the statistics be produced using sound methods, and are quality assured, taking account of internationally agreed practices.
The statistics within the HBAI publication are largely based on data collected through the Family Resources Survey (FRS) which are considered to be robust and of good quality. Like all sample surveys of this type they are subject to both sampling error as well as bias from non-sampling error. However rigorous checks and analysis are carried out to ensure that consistent valid and reliable results are produced which are statistically fit for purpose against the targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010.
Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the likelihood of meeting the child poverty targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010; and if he will make a statement. [155760]
Mr Laws: The Government are committed to tackling child poverty and to the Child Poverty Act 2010. The targets in the Act are based on measures of median income and therefore rely on the performance of the economy, on people's behaviours and on Government policy. As the recent IFS report on poverty in Northern Ireland acknowledges, these cannot be predicted with certainty over this time scale. The Government have recently consulted on how best to measure child poverty, reflecting the ongoing commitment to tackling the root causes of poverty.
Child Protection
Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what steps he is taking to integrate child protection and child sexual exploitation awareness into the school curriculum; and if he will make a statement; [156320]
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(2) what measures he has implemented to improve understanding of child sexual exploitation in schools. [156405]
Elizabeth Truss: All schools have statutory responsibilities to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils. As part of this, we expect schools to ensure that pupils understand the risks that they may face and how to keep themselves safe.
Schools can teach pupils about these issues in sex and relationship education (SRE), which is compulsory in maintained secondary schools. When teaching SRE, schools must have regard to the Secretary of State’s SRE guidance, which makes clear that all young people should understand how to avoid exploitation and abuse, and how the law applies to sexual relationships.
To support schools to deliver high quality SRE, we have asked Ofsted to report on effective practice, as well as providing grant funding to the PSHE Association to undertake work advising schools in developing curricula, improving staff training and promoting the teaching of consent in SRE.
Children’s Centres
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what estimate he has made of the total number of children's centres; [155133]
(2) how many children's centres there were in each local authority area on (a) 6 May 2010 and (b) 6 May 2013. [155129]
Elizabeth Truss: Information supplied by local authorities on the Sure Start On database showed that at the end of April 2013, there were 3,116 Sure Start children's centres in England. Local authorities tell us that there have been only 35 outright closures since 2010. The rest of the change is a result of reorganisations and mergers of existing centres.
In many cases, there has simply been a merger of management with children's centre functions still being provided on the same number of sites. It would therefore be inaccurate and misleading to claim that these figures show how many children's centres have “closed” in each local authority.
The following table shows the breakdown of children's centre numbers by local authority at 30 April 2010 and at 30 April 2013. The Department for Education records these data at the end of each month, based on information supplied by local authorities.
| Region | Local authority | Number of designated children's centres at 30 April 2010 | Number of designated children's centres at 30 April 2013 |
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Clothing
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible have made a claim for evening dress allowance in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of such claims has been. [155446]
Elizabeth Truss: The Department does not hold the level of detail in the financial accounting system required to answer this question.
Conditions of Employment
Pamela Nash: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people in his Department are employed on zero hours contracts. [156098]
Elizabeth Truss: The Department does not employ any people on zero hours contracts.
Education: Bassetlaw
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much capital expenditure there has been in the education sector in Bassetlaw constituency in each year since 2010. [154155]
Mr Laws: The Department allocates capital funding at either a local authority level or to individual schools through Devolved Formula Capital and the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund. The Department does not hold information as to how capital is expended at a constituency level.
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether he still uses the Mrs Blurt email account to send and receive emails for the purpose of official Government business; and if he will make a statement. [155852]
Elizabeth Truss: The Secretary of State and his special advisers use equipment and systems provided by the Department and their own IT equipment as appropriate, depending on their location and circumstances. Where information is generated in the course of conducting Government business, it is stored on departmental systems.
English Language: Immigrants
Sir Alan Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to support the provision of English language tuition and other educational support for the children of migrant families prior to and during their school years. [156064]
Mr Laws: The Government’s approach is to give school leaders greater power and responsibility to drive improvement in their schools. This provides them with the freedom and flexibility to offer the right learning opportunities for their pupils for whom English is an additional language.
This approach fits within a broader legal context whereby local authorities have a duty to ensure that education is available for all children of compulsory school age that is appropriate to their age, ability, aptitudes and any special educational needs they may have. This duty applies irrespective of a child's immigration status, country of origin or rights of residence in a particular area.
The evidence suggests that effective outcomes for children learning English as an additional language (EAL) are achieved by schools promoting rapid language acquisition so that these pupils can be included in mainstream education as quickly as possible. Pupils learning EAL are generally taught in a mainstream class alongside their peers. Newly arrived pupils are usually given additional help in learning English by specialist teachers or by bilingual classroom assistants.
Advice and case studies on how to help schools address the needs of EAL learners are available on the Department's and Ofsted’s websites.
First Aid: Curriculum
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will commission research on the effectiveness of the introduction of mandatory teaching of CPR skills in the school curriculum in (a) France, (b) Denmark and (c) Norway in order to inform an assessment of the case for such skills being mandatory in England. [155648]
Elizabeth Truss:
In response to the recent consultation on the national curriculum, we have had representations from a range of organisations setting out the case for including CPR skills. The joint response from the British
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Heart Foundation and Resuscitation Council UK provided evidence to support their recommendation, including on international practice. We do not propose to commission additional research.
We are currently reviewing the consultation responses, including those from organisations and individuals supporting the inclusion of CPR skills, and will publish a final version of the new national curriculum later in the year.
Free School Meals
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will bring forward proposals to ensure that children of recipients of universal credit are automatically (a) entitled to and (b) provided with free schools meals. [155198]
Mr Laws: We estimate that extending free school meal entitlement to all families in receipt of universal credit would result in more than half of children being entitled to free school meals in England, at a cost of up to an extra £1 billion per year. In the current economic climate this is not affordable.
Universal credit will change the benefits by which children are entitled to free school meals (FSM); but it will not change the process, in education legislation, through which families become entitled. Under section 512ZB of the Education Act 1996, a child or his or her parents must first make a request for free school meals to the school or local authority to become eligible for free school meals. The Department for Education aims to ensure that, as universal credit is introduced from 2013, the new FSM entitlement criteria are easily integrated into local FSM administrative and delivery systems.
We are working to encourage all families who meet the criteria to register for free school meals. We want disadvantaged children to benefit from a nutritious meal, and their schools to be able to receive pupil premium funding to help raise disadvantaged pupils' attainment.
Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether students attending university technical colleges will be eligible for free school meals. [155504]
Mr Laws: Students attending university technical colleges are entitled to free school meals, in the same way that free school meals are available in all academies.
Free Schools
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what legislative or other powers he has to override the position of a local authority that objects to an education funding agency proposal for a new free school. [155072]
Mr Timpson: The Department for Education and the Education Funding Agency work with approved free school proposers to support the development of each school, including securing a suitable site.
In some cases, free schools are located on sites owned by local authorities, often through the agreement of a long term lease for a nominal sum. Where a site has been used for a school within the previous eight years,
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and is no longer being so used or is about to cease being so used, then under the Academies Act 2010 the Secretary of State has powers to make a scheme to transfer land held by a local authority to a person concerned with running an academy or free school.
The Department for Education does not have a role or any powers in determining the outcome of planning applications for free schools: this role falls to the Local Planning Authority.
Free Schools: Brighton
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will prevent the proposal to build a new free school site on a playing field used by Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College and Stanford Junior and Infant schools; and if he will make a statement. [155071]
Mr Timpson: No decision has yet been taken by Ministers. The plans under discussion mean just 3.6 acres will be used for a much-needed new school—out of a total site of 22 acres. The amount of open space which will still be available to the local community is equal to around 17 full-size football pitches.
Brighton and Hove is seeing heavy pressure on school places. We want to work with the council to get the right result for Brighton and Hove's children.
Inflation
Mr Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list the purposes for which his Department uses (a) the retail price index measure of inflation, (b) the consumer price index measure of inflation and (c) any alternative measure of inflation. [154979]
Mr Laws: The key purposes for which the Department uses different measures of inflation include:
(1) The Teacher's Pension Scheme (TPS):
Pensions and benefits accrued and paid under the TPS are currently uplifted in each year by the consumer prices index (CPI). Furthermore, there are provisions in the TPS relating to historical purchases of additional pension by scheme members, which are indexed by the retail prices index (RPI) in very limited circumstances.
(2) Published impact assessments:
In accordance with the guidance given in HM Treasury's Green Book, GDP deflators (a whole economy measure of inflation) are used in published impact assessments to express the costs and benefits of policy proposals in real terms.
(3) School building and maintenance contracts:
The Department uses the BIS public sector (non-housing) index (which measures the movement of tender prices for building contracts in the public sector) when setting the maximum price against which contractors may bid for ‘design and build' contracts under the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP). RPIX (RPI minus mortgage interest payments) is used to calculate part of the unitary charge that is paid to providers under long-term private finance agreements, to ensure that payments to operate premises for the life of the contract—typically 25 years—are in line with the costs of providing services like building maintenance.
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(4) Long-term contracts with service providers:
The TPS is administered under contract by Capita, whose contract fee is uplifted annually by the CPI. Payments in relation to the contract to manage the marking of key stage 2 tests are also linked to the CPI.
Pay
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidance his Department issues on the actions that would result in the suspension or removal of a bonus payment to an official in his Department; what the process is for clawing back such bonuses; and on how many occasions this has happened in each of the last five years. [154995]
Elizabeth Truss:
The Department rewards up to 25% of its highest performing staff based on their performance in the previous year. The awards are retrospective and subject to evidence based moderation. The Department's disciplinary policy allows for the recovery of money
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given in such awards but there have been no occasions in the last five years when it has been necessary to recover a performance award.
Pupil Exclusions
Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children and young people were (a) permanently excluded and (b) temporarily excluded from schools in (i) Barnsley Central constituency, (ii) Barnsley local education authority area, (iii) South Yorkshire and (iv) England in (A) 2010-11, (B) 2011-12 and (C) 2012-13. [155560]
Elizabeth Truss: The available information on the number of pupil enrolments with a permanent exclusion or with one or more fixed period exclusions in Barnsley Central constituency, Barnsley local authority, South Yorkshire and England is shown in the table.
Information for 2011/12 will be available in the summer. Information for 2012/13 has not yet been collected.
| State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools(1,2,3,4): Number of permanent exclusions 2010/11: Barnsley Central constituency, South Yorkshire and England | ||||||||
| State-funded primary schools(1,2) | State-funded secondary schools(1,3) | Special schools(4) | Total(1,2,3,4) | |||||
| No. of permanent exclusions | % of school population(5) | No. of permanent exclusions | % of school population(5) | No. of permanent exclusions | % of school population(5) | No. of permanent exclusions | % of school population(5) | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes primary academies. (3 )Includes city technology colleges and secondary academies (including all-through academies). (4) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (5) The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) of pupils (excluding dually registered pupils) each January. (6) South Yorkshire consists of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield local authorities. Note: National and total numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. ‘x’ = less than 5 pupils, or a rate based on less than 5 pupils. Source: School Census | ||||||||
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| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes primary academies. (3) Includes city technology colleges and secondary academies (including all-through academies). (4) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. (5) The number of pupil enrolments receiving fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) of pupils (excluding dually registered pupils) each January. (6) South Yorkshire consists of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield local authorities. Note: National and total numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. ‘x’ = less than 5 pupils, or a rate based on less than 5 pupils. Source: School Census | ||||||||
Pupils: Disadvantaged
Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education on what date he plans to publish his Department’s guidance note on the use of pupil premium for learning outside the classroom. [154251]
Mr Laws: The Department has not given schools guidance on how to use the pupil premium as head teachers are best placed to make decisions about how to support their disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap between them and their peers. Ultimately, head teachers are accountable for those decisions through their Ofsted inspection and school performance tables.
The Department has published a series of evidence notes which head teachers can draw on when making decisions about how to spend the pupil premium, available at:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium/how
Schools: Buildings
Mr Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what funding his Department makes available to primary schools to build eco-friendly buildings. [155749]
Mr Laws: The Government are providing over £18 billion of capital support for investment in schools in England over the current four year spending period, 2011-12 to 2014-15; including nearly £4 billion this financial year. How this is spread between primary, secondary and special schools varies according to the specific priorities in each local authority area.
All new school buildings must satisfy the building regulations, which include requirements for energy conservation and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from buildings. In addition, the Department specifies a sustainable approach to the design and construction of school buildings in its capital programmes. This covers issues such as maximising the use of natural ventilation and daylight in classrooms and minimising water use and waste, both in a building's construction and during its operation.
Schools: Inspections
Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education with reference to paragraph 18 of the Framework for the inspection of local authority arrangements for supporting school improvement, what criteria he will follow when requesting that Her Majesty's Chief Inspector inspect a local authority. [156328]
Mr Laws: We are currently considering the criteria which would be used to inform any such requests.
Schools: Transport
Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the need to update any statutory guidance given to local authorities regarding transport for 16 to 25 year olds with special educational needs following passage of the Children and Families Bill. [156327]
Mr Laws: Local authorities have a legal duty to set out transport arrangements for students aged 16 and over in a post 16 transport policy statement, which they are required to publish every year. These arrangements do not necessarily have to include free or subsidised transport, but the needs and requirements of students must be taken into account, alongside the availability of local resources. The statement should also include the specific arrangements for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities aged up to 25. The requirements are set out in statutory guidance for local authorities.
The Children and Families Bill proposes requiring local authorities to publish a local offer of overall educational provision for young people with special educational needs in its area. It includes a requirement on local authorities to include in the local offer information about the arrangements for travel to and from school and post-16 education institutions.
This will not replace the current post 16 transport duty on local authorities or place any additional requirements regarding the provision of support for transport. We therefore do not plan to update the post 16 transport guidance, which will remain in place. However, subject to passage of the Children and Families Bill,
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additional statutory guidance in the form of the SEN Code of Practice will be issued; this will make it clear that local authorities will be expected to co-ordinate their activity in support of both sets of responsibilities so that parents and young people have access to clear and current information.
Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education by what date local authorities need to produce their transport policy statement for students of sixth form age for the 2013-14 academic year. [156329]
Mr Laws: Local authorities must publish their post 16 transport policy statements for the 2013/14 academic year by the end of May 2013.
Secondary Education: Admissions
Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of children in (a) England and (b) Harlow constituency secured places at (i) their first choice and (ii) one of their top three choices of secondary school during the most recent application period. [155506]
Mr Laws: The Department collects data from local authorities on how many families received an offer of a place at one of their preferred secondary schools. The most recent data relate to the start of the 2013/14 academic year. Figures for England and the local authority of Essex, which includes Harlow parliamentary constituency, are given in the following table.
The figures are gathered at local authority level only so data for Harlow parliamentary constituency are not available.
| Applications and offers for entry to secondary schools in England and Essex local authority in academic year 2013/14 | ||
| Percentage of children: | Essex LA | England |
| Note: Data collected from local authorities on National Offers day, 1 March 2013. | ||
These figures were published on 26 March 2013 in the statistical first release “Secondary school applications and offers in England: March 2013”, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secondary-school-applications-and-offers-in-england-march-2013
Secondary Education: Kingston Upon Thames
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what timetable he has set for his Department to come to a decision on funding for a secondary free school in North Kingston. [155628]
Mr Timpson: We expect to inform all applicants to the latest round of the outcome of their free school applications very shortly.
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Special Educational Needs
Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) whether visually-impaired children with special educational needs will be entitled to (a) an education, health and care plan and (b) specialist support from birth where appropriate to their assessed needs; and if he will make a statement; [155693]
(2) whether all children and young people with severe sight loss will receive an education, health and care plan; and if he will make a statement. [155694]
Mr Timpson: The Children and Families Bill will ensure that eligibility for an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) remains the same as it is now for a statement of special educational needs (SEN) or post-16 Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA), including for children and young people with a visual impairment. Decisions about whether an individual child or young person will require an EHC plan will be made by local authorities on a case by case basis.
Many children and young people with a visual impairment currently have a statement of SEN. In 2012 there were a total of 8,900 pupils recorded as having a visual impairment as their primary need. Of these, 5,305 were receiving support through School Action Plus and 3,595 had a statement of SEN.
EHC plans will be built on a much stronger, streamlined assessment process which includes parents, children and young people, and focuses more clearly on their outcomes and aspirations. This will be underpinned by a new duty in the Children and Families Bill for local authorities and health commissioners to plan and commission services for children and young people with SEN jointly. The Bill includes a duty on the health service to bring a child under school age to the attention of the local authority, where they believe the child has (or probably has) SEN. This will enable earlier identification and provision of support, including for visual impairment.
Local authorities have duties to support disabled children under the Children Act 1989. Local authority sensory support services work with families from birth to support the child's development. In addition, the Department has awarded a contract to the National Sensory Impairment Partnership costing £1.1 million over two years. This contract includes specific work on Braille support and supporting local authorities to develop an effective local offer for children and young people with sensory impairments.
Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he plans to take to ensure that waiting times for education, health and care plans are shorter than those for the current statements of special educational needs. [155837]
Mr Timpson: In March, we published indicative regulations and a draft code of practice regarding special educational needs (SEN), to support parliamentary scrutiny of the Children and Families Bill. The indicative regulations prescribe clear time scales for the assessment and planning process for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, and reduce the maximum time a local authority can take to issue an EHC plan, following a request for assessment, from the current 26 weeks to 20 weeks.
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The indicative SEN regulations and draft code of practice make clear that the time scales are a maximum. Wherever possible, assessment and planning processes should be completed more quickly to meet the needs of children, young people and their families most effectively. The draft code of practice emphasises that there should be effective joint working between agencies to help ensure families and young people do not have to repeat the same information, and save time through avoiding duplication. The SEN pathfinders are demonstrating how to reduce time scales for assessment and planning in practice.
Staff
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education who the members of the (a) School Teachers' Review Body, (b) Office of the Children's Commissioner and (c) Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service were on 1 January 2013; and what the (i) ethnicity, (ii) term of office and (iii) remuneration is of each such member. [155844]
Mr Timpson: The names, terms of office and remuneration arrangements for the Children's Commissioner and Board Members of the School Teachers' Review Body and Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service are provided in the following tables.
The ethnicity of individual members is collected on a voluntary and self-defined basis. This information is classed as “sensitive personal data” under the Data Protection Act 1998. There is, however, information in the public domain which gives an overview of public appointees' ethnicity on an “aggregate” basis. This information can be found in the Cabinet Office document “Public Bodies 2012”, which can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/79258/public-bodies-2012_1.pdf
The relevant table from this document is replicated for ease.
| Public appointments—Ethnicity | ||
| Department | Total appointments | Appointees who have declared an ethnic minority status |
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| (1 )Represents numbers of less than five. | ||
| Table 1: Children's Commissioner | ||
| Children's Commissioner | Term of office | Remuneration (£) |