Children: Protection

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many notifications of significant incidents were provided to Ofsted in December 2012; what the date of each such incident was; whether a serious case review was performed of each such incident; what the age range of the child concerned in each such incident was; and on what date Ofsted was notified of the serious case review of each such incident. [178237]

Mr Laws: This question is a matter for Ofsted. I have asked Her Majesty's chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, to write to my hon. Friend. A copy of his response has been placed in the House Library.

Board Membership

Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many of his Department's (a) executive and (b) non-executive board members are (i) men and (ii) women. [178113]

Elizabeth Truss: The executive board has six male executive board members and two female executive board members. The board also has four male non-executive board members and one female non-executive board member. All of the Department's Ministers sit on the departmental board.

Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many of his Department's (a) executive and (b) non-executive board members are identified as (i) white British and (ii) of black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups. [178133]

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education does not monitor the composition of its boards separately from its general monitoring of the representation of different ethnic groups in ethnic composition. In his

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most recent annual report (2012-13) the Government's lead non-executive, the noble Lord Browne, accepted that

“the numbers of non-executives with minority ethnic backgrounds remains disappointingly low”

but reiterated his commitment to improving their representation on departmental boards. This is a commitment I share.

Foster Care

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he plans to take to (a) recruit and (b) retain foster carers. [178643]

Mr Timpson: The Government are undertaking a wide range of activities to support local recruitment and retention of foster carers, including:

1. providing £250,000 over two years to the Fostering Network to raise the national profile of fostering; spread good practice; develop recruitment and retention materials; and provide bespoke support to 25 local authorities to develop their recruitment and retention strategies;

2. providing £525,000 over two years to three consortia partnerships of local authorities and independent fostering agencies to develop innovative solutions to recruiting and retaining a broader range of foster carers. Their plans include developing targeted marketing; improving the ‘customer journey’ for foster carer applicants; and improving the way in which foster carers are trained and supported; and

3. encouraging employers to support their staff who foster. The Department for Education is in the process of developing a human resources policy for staff who foster or are kinship carers. We will be encouraging other Whitehall Departments to adopt the policy.

In addition, the Government's wider programme of reform for fostering supports recruitment and retention of foster carers by improving the assessment and approval process for new foster carers; facilitating more effective delegation of parenting decisions to foster carers; and awarding £90,000 to Research in Practice to develop training on foster care for social workers.

Internet

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether access to any websites or domains is blocked from computers in his Department; and if he will publish a list of all such websites and domains to which access is prohibited. [178501]

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education uses a CESG¹ approved commercial service to manage access to the internet for employees. The content of this is updated constantly as new websites are scanned or created; therefore, it is not possible to produce a precise list of sites and domains to which access is prohibited.

¹ Previously Communications-Electronics Security Group. Communications-Electronics Security no longer adequately describes the full extent of the organisations work, so in 2002 it was decided to drop the expanded name.

Kings Science Academy

George Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what reasons Action Fraud gave his Department in September 2013 for the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau's decision not to take the case of Kings Science Academy further; [178621]

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(2) what requests his Department received in September 2013 from the police for the provision of information relating to Kings Science Academy, Bradford; and what response was given to those requests. [178622]

Mr Timpson: The Department did not receive any requests from the police for information relating to Kings Science Academy in September 2013. Communication in September was with Action Fraud and was by e-mail. Copies of the e-mails, which include an explanation of why this case was not taken further, have been placed in the House Library.

Schools: Sports

Margaret Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what funding for school sports his Department allocated in each local authority area in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13. [178241]

Mr Timpson: Allocated funding for school sports in the years 2009/10 and 2010/11 totalled £160 million and £162 million respectively. The majority of this was given to 450 school sport partnerships around the country. The total funding allocated to the partnership networks was £115 million in 2009/10 and £118 million in 2010/11. The remaining funding included a number of smaller grants for activities such as swimming improvement, general coaching development and competition management. The Department for Education does not hold this funding information broken down by each local authority area.

From 2011, general funding for school sport became part of the overall Dedicated Schools Grant for schools and is not broken down by subject area. In 2011/12 and 2012/13 the Department also provided funding to each state-funded secondary school to allow it to release a physical education (PE) teacher from timetabled lessons for one day a week to provide specialist PE and sport support to other local schools. This funding is broken down by local authority area in the supplementary table.

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Schools: Transport

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools have completed the School Travel Survey; and if he will publish the results of that survey. [178701]

Mr Laws: The Department for Education has only ever collected home to school travel information from schools as part of the School Census. However, changes to the School Census have meant that such information is no longer collected. The last collection was undertaken in 2011 and was published in June 2011.

Special Educational Needs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to expand Parent Partnerships in schools; and if he will make a statement. [178723]

Mr Timpson: Parent Partnership services exist in every local authority area and provide impartial information, advice and support to parents of children with special educational needs (SEN). There are no plans to extend them in schools. However, the Children and Families Bill currently in the House of Lords will, when enacted, require local authorities to build on existing services to provide impartial information, advice and support to parents, and young people up to 25 years old with SEN, about education, health and social care.

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Teachers: Trade Unions

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, column 653W, on teachers: trades unions, when the meeting between his officials and the NASUWT and the NUT on their trade disputes took place; and how long it lasted. [178727]

Mr Laws: The meeting took place on 14 October 2013 and lasted for two hours.

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, column 653W, on teachers: trades unions, when he met the representatives in relation to the trade dispute after 14 October 2013; and for how long. [178734]

Mr Laws: There have been no further meetings following the meeting with Department for Education officials on 14 October 2013. A programme of talks about the implementation of education policy, including in those areas covered by the NUT and NASUWTs trade disputes, will begin this month.

Vocational Guidance

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the quality and provision of advice on vocational qualifications. [178413]

Matthew Hancock: The Government want young people to have access to advice on a wide range of options including apprenticeships, entrepreneurialism or other vocational routes alongside A-levels and university. We have placed schools under a duty to secure independent careers guidance for pupils in years 8-13, which is an important step towards this. Guidance secured under the duty must include information on the full range of education and training options.

Ofsted's thematic review of careers guidance reported on 10 September. This found that, while some schools have responded well to the new duty, the extent to which schools promoted opportunities available at other providers, including vocational training and apprenticeships, varied considerably.

To better equip schools to meet their duty, we will revise the statutory guidance for schools. This will be much clearer about what schools should do to ensure that pupils have information about all the types of education and training they could pursue.

More details of the Government's response to Ofsted's report can be found in the inspiration vision statement and action plan. Both documents are available in the House Library.