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26 Feb 2008 : Column 1539W—continued
Disabled: Computers
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding his Department provided to young people with disabilities to assist them with learning to use computers in each year since 2001. [185038]
Kevin Brennan: Over £3.9 billion has been spent on technology in education since 2001. My Department does not disaggregate that figure for disability.
Employment Agencies
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department paid to recruitment agencies in relation to departmental appointments in each year since 1997. [184922]
Kevin Brennan: The Department was established on 28 June 2007. The costs paid to recruitment agencies for senior civil service (SCS) recruitment this financial year is £206,402.76. The costs for vacancies below SCS level are not recorded in the same way and figures could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Fair Trade Initiative
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department’s policy is on the use of fair trade goods (a) in staff catering facilities and (b) at official departmental functions and meetings; and if he will make a statement. [183876]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has an agreement with our catering supplier that a selection of fair trade food and drink products shall be available throughout all their catering operations.
Family Group Conferencing
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans he has to expand the use of family group conferencing. [186766]
Kevin Brennan:
The Government recognise that Family Group Conferences (FGCs) can be important and useful mechanisms to assist decision making and
planning around an individual child or children. While the use of FGCs is for local authorities or other agencies to determine in individual cases, the Government have taken steps to encourage their use where appropriate.
The Government’s statutory guidance “Working Together to Safeguard Children” explains how FGCs can be used as part of systems to plan for children in need and to help in safeguarding children. It is clear that, where there are plans to use FGCs in situations where there are concerns about possible harm to a child, they should be developed and implemented under the auspices of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.
FGCs are specifically commended in the revised Children Act 1989 Court Orders statutory guidance, published earlier this year, and included in the practice flowchart. In all applications for care proceedings, local authorities will be required to show what efforts have been made to enable the child to live with wider family and friends. An FGC would be an excellent means for a local authority to demonstrate how they have fulfilled this duty.
An FGC is a complex service to provide and requires high levels of skill and competence. We have responded to concerns from stakeholders that there is a lack of skill and knowledge available in the field to deliver effective family group conference services. For this reason, we announced in “Care Matters: Time for Change” that we would fund a programme of regional training events to equip managers and practitioners with the necessary skills to develop and sustain the family group conference model.
Foster Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many private fostering arrangements have been registered cumulatively in each of the last five years. [186699]
Kevin Brennan: Information on notification of private fostering arrangements has been collected centrally only since 2004-05. The available information can be found in the following table.
| Number of new private fostering arrangements that began during the year | |
| Notes: 1. Based on year ending 31 March. 2. Where a child has had more than one private fostering arrangement during the year, each arrangement has been counted. 3. Numbers rounded to the nearest 10. 4. These figures are based on the PF1 collection which was introduced in 2004/05; figures for earlier years are not available. | |
These figures have been taken from SFR 37/2007 ‘Private Fostering Arrangements in England, year ending 31 March 2007’, which was published on 8 November 2007 and is available on the Department’s website here:
Health Education
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made on the introduction of well-being classes in schools. [187586]
Kevin Brennan: Schools have a statutory duty to promote pupils’ well-being. An important contribution to this is developing pupils’ social and emotional skills. To help schools do this, the Department is rolling out the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme, a comprehensive whole-school approach which includes a focus on school climate, learning opportunities for whole classes, learning and teaching approaches and continuing professional development for the whole staff of a school. Since the primary SEAL programme was launched in June 2005, over 60 per cent. of primary schools have started to implement SEAL, and we expect the first 15 to 20 per cent. of secondary schools to implement SEAL by July 2008. By July 2011, all schools will have had the opportunity to be supported to implement SEAL.
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether schools that participated in the social and emotional aspects of learning programme showed an improvement on emotional well-being measures included in Ofsted TellUs surveys. [187587]
Kevin Brennan: The TellUs survey provides an indicator of the quality of children’s services at national and local authority level. It cannot be used to measure the progress of individual schools participating in the SEAL programme.
Honours
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many members of the Senior Civil Service in his Department have received an honour. [187132]
Kevin Brennan: The Department records those individuals who have been considered for state and non state honour nominations by the Department and the outcomes. Our records show that there are eight senior civil servants in the Department for Children, Schools and Families who have received an honour.
The Department does not routinely keep records on the numbers of awards held by individuals, or awards that are not related to official duties, or awards already held by staff before joining the Department, or the former Department for Education and Skills.
Institute of Education: Finance
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much was paid from public funds in each of the last five years to the Institute of Education. [186430]
Kevin Brennan: Details of the amount paid to the Institute of Education by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in each of the last five financial years are set out as follows:
| Amount (£) | |
The expenditure relates to payments recorded in the Department’s Integrated Financial Information System and credited against the Institute of Education. The expenditure recorded for financial years 2003 to 2007 covers both the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The expenditure recorded for 2007 to 31 January 2008 also includes the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was established under Machinery of Government changes on 28 June 2007. This response only relates to those areas of responsibility held by its predecessor the Department for Education and Skills. To extract details of expenditure solely relating to DIUS would incur disproportionate cost.
Learning Disability: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children entered moderate learning difficulty schools in Essex in each of the last five years. [178837]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 30 January 2008]: Data on the number of children who entered a moderate learning difficulty school in Essex in each of the last five years are not collected and could be derived only at a disproportionate cost.
Overseas Students
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will list in tabular form by each UK university the proportion of post-graduate students who are from (a) the UK, (b) the EEA and (c) the rest of the world; and what assessment he has made of trends in such figures over the last 10 years. [163680]
Bill Rammell [holding answer 13 November 2007]: I have been asked to reply.
The available information is given in the table. Figures for 2006/07 will be available in January 2008.
Over the last 10 years, there has been significant growth in the overall number of students from all domiciles undertaking post-graduate studies in the UK. The trend has been for the proportion of post-graduate students from overseas to increase in relation to UK domiciled students. There has been a smaller increase in the proportion of post-graduate students from the European economic area (EEA).
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