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Volunteering
Mr. Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how he plans to promote volunteering and remove barriers to volunteering from the benefits system. [149508]
Ms Jowell: The Policy Action Team on Community Self-help recommended a relaxation in the current rule in Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), which requires volunteers to be available to take up employment at 48-hours' notice. It also recommended that small advance payments made by voluntary organisations to cover volunteers' costs such as travel expenses be disregarded. I am pleased to announce that, subject to Parliament's approval of the amending regulations, we intend to implement these recommendations.
Firstly, we will extend the 48 hour rule in JSA to one week. This will enable volunteers to give a greater commitment to volunteering by allowing them to give a
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week's notice before having to start a job. We will, however, retain the requirement that volunteers must be available at 48 hours' notice to attend an interview in connection with employment to ensure that they do not miss out on job opportunities. The change is intended to encourage more unemployed people to consider volunteering as a way of developing skills to improve employability. It should also enable voluntary organisations to plan the activities of unemployed volunteers with more certainty. The relaxation will initially be for a year so that we can evaluate its impact on both unemployed people and voluntary organisations. We shall work in partnership with the voluntary sector to agree the best approach to this evaluation.
Secondly, I am also pleased that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security has agreed to disregard small advance payments by voluntary organisations made to cover volunteers' costs such as travel expenses. Payments made in arrears to reimburse such expenses are disregarded already. This change will mean that all volunteers receiving income-related benefits, not only those who are unemployed, need not be out of pocket as a result of their volunteering. It will strengthen not only our joint aim of developing employability through volunteering but the Government's aim of encouraging volunteering more widely.
Performance Pay
Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many and what percentage of teachers in each of the four parliamentary constituencies of Wirral (a) have successfully applied for the teachers' performance pay threshold, (b) have unsuccessfully applied for the teachers' performance pay threshold and (c) are awaiting the outcome of their application for the teachers' performance pay threshold. [146891]
Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 23 January 2001]: It is estimated that there are about 250,000 teachers in England who are eligible for the post-threshold pay scale, of whom 81 per cent. have applied. There are no reliable data held centrally about the number of teachers eligible for the post-threshold pay scale in each local authority.
The number of teachers in the Wirral, whether or nor they are eligible for the post-threshold pay scale, and the number of applications to date for the Wirral and its four parliamentary constituencies are as follows:
| Parliamentary constituency | Number of teachers(29) whether or not eligible for the post threshold pay scale | Number of applicants to date(30) | Percentage of all teachers, whether or not eligible for the post threshold pay scale, that have applied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wirral | 3,130 | 1,786 | 57 |
| Birkenhead | -- | 394 | -- |
| Wallasey | -- | 517 | -- |
| Wirral, South | -- | 320 | -- |
| Wirral, West | -- | 516 | -- |
(29) Headcount of headteachers, deputy headteachers and qualified classroom teachers in the maintained schools sector at January 2000. It is not possible to provide an appropriate number of teachers by constituency because teachers can teach in more than one school and this would lead to double counting.
(30) There are 39 candidates from the Wirral that have applied through the local authority so the parliamentary constituencies cannot be identified.
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At present only two schools in the Wirral have received assessor visits. We hope that the majority of teachers will have been assessed by Easter.
Leeds LEA
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what considerations he has given to Leeds local education authority entering into partnership with a public sector organisation to run its proposed joint venture company. [147272]
Ms Estelle Morris: Leeds city council invited bids from the list approved by the DfEE. That list includes several consortiums involving public sector organisations.
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what evaluation he has made of the performance of Leeds local education authority over the period following the publication of the Ofsted and PricewaterhouseCoopers reports on it. [147273]
Ms Estelle Morris: There has been no further review.
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the costs of implementing the proposed joint venture company to run Leeds local education authority. [147274]
Ms Estelle Morris: Leeds local education authority will transfer to the company sufficient funds to provide education services to schools. In addition, there will be some transitional costs. We are still discussing these with Leeds city council and prospective partners.
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment by what means the costs of establishing and running the proposed Leeds local education authority joint venture company will be met. [147275]
Ms Estelle Morris: The Department for Education and Employment will contribute to transitional costs.
Slough Schools
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much additional funding has been made available to schools in Slough (a) as a result of the Chancellor's pre-Budget statement and (b) since 1997. [147748]
Ms Estelle Morris: Most funding for schools is distributed via local education authorities. £388,000 additional funding was made available to schools as a result of the Chancellor's pre-Budget statement. Shown in the table are the allocations for education in Slough borough council since 1998. In 1997-98 Slough was part of Berkshire and did not exist in its own right.
| Education SSA | Funding allocations | |
|---|---|---|
| 1998-99 | 55,957 | 1,478 |
| 1999-2000 | 59,000 | 3,199 |
| 2000-01 | 62,400 | 8,487 |
The main elements of funding in 2000-01 are Schools Capital, Standards Fund and School Standards Grant. In
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addition, Slough will receive in 2000-01 Special Grant funding to support elements of the teachers' pay reform packages. These are demand-led and will depend on the claims that Slough borough council make for each grant.
Under this Government, funding per pupil has already increased by over £300 in real terms, and it will increase by a further £150 per pupil for 2001-02. Under the last Government, funding per pupil fell by £60 in real terms between 1994-95 and 1997-98. There will be further increases in funding following the year 2000 spending review: a further £370 per pupil over the three year period, taking the total increase to nearly £700 between 1997-98 and 2003-04.
School Grants (Harrow)
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the Standards Fund grants to schools in the Harrow, West constituency in each year since May 1997. [148322]
Ms Estelle Morris: This information cannot be provided for an individual constituency, but the following table shows the Standards Fund grants made to Harrow local education authority for 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01. The figures include all grants paid through the Standards Fund payment system excluding New Deal for Schools capital, which is not part of the Standards Fund programme. All figures include both Government and local authority contributions. The amount actually paid to schools will depend on local expenditure decisions by schools and the local authority.
Notes:
1. The expenditure figures are based for the first three years on audited outturn statements from Harrow.
2. The figures for 2000-01 are the total grant expected to be paid to Harrow this financial year.
3. All figures include both Government and local authority contributions.
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Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the direct grants for schools in the Harrow, West constituency in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02 and (d) 2002-03. [148323]
Ms Estelle Morris: The following table shows the School Standards Grant payable for each school in the 2000-01 financial year. No grant was paid in 1999-2000. In 2001-02 the amounts per school will be substantially increased so that they range from £6,000 to £70,000 per school, but it is not yet possible to say what individual school entitlements will be. In 2002-03, the amounts payable will be further increased by 2.75 per cent.
| Name of school | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| Pinner Wood First School | 9,000 |
| Pinner Wood Middle School | 9,000 |
| Roxeth Nursery, First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| Grimsdyke First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| Cannon Lane Middle School | 9,000 |
| Pinner Park Middle School | 9,000 |
| Roxbourne Middle School | 9,000 |
| Longfield Middle School | 9,000 |
| West Lodge Middle School | 9,000 |
| Grant Middle School | 9,000 |
| Roxeth Manor Middle School | 9,000 |
| Cannon Lane First School | 9,000 |
| Longfield First School | 9,000 |
| Pinner Park First School | 9,000 |
| Roxbourne First School | 9,000 |
| West Lodge First School | 9,000 |
| Grange First School | 9,000 |
| Roxeth Manor First School | 9,000 |
| Earlsmead First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| Welldon Park First School | 9,000 |
| Welldon Park Middle School | 9,000 |
| Vaughan First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| St. Teresa's RC First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| St. John Fisher RC First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| St. George's First and Middle School | 9,000 |
| The Moriah Jewish Day School | 9,000 |
| Hatch End High School | 50,000 |
| Nower Hill High School | 40,000 |
| Whitmore High School | 40,000 |
| Rooks Heath High School | 40,000 |
| Shaftesbury High School | 15,000 |
| Alexandra School | 15,000 |
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