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  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the (a) Home Secretary and (b) Secretary of State for Justice on domestic abuse and its effect on children.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Issues relating to domestic abuse are discussed in meetings of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Violence Against Women and Girls, chaired by the Home Secretary. I represent the Department for Education at these meetings, and Ministry of Justice Ministers also attend.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many properties purchased or built with Sure Start Local Programme funding have been transferred into the ownership of local authorities.

    Elizabeth Truss

    Data on the ownership of assets funded by the Sure Start Local Programme is held by local authorities.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve the rate of return of Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service satisfaction surveys by children between the ages of five and eight.

    Simon Hughes

    Cafcass does not carry out satisfaction surveys with the children it works with. They have other child-friendly ways of gaining feedback from children, which does include a feedback form. They have different versions of the form for children and young people. One encourages young people to write out their feedback to Cafcass in response to various questions, while the feedback form for younger children asks them to circle the feelings and emotions they have about Cafcass. These are therefore qualitative rather than quantitative. This feedback is collected and acted on at a local level rather than a national one. Complaints are monitored at a national level but addressed at the local level.

    Cafcass does not provide a return to the UK Statistics Authority; however they have published anonymised comments from feedback forms as part of their Annual Reports to draw out their direct work with children.

    Cafcass commissioned the Family Justice Young People’s Board to review the means by which Cafcass encourages feedback from the children and young people it works with. This review resulted in four recommendations which Cafcass has taken forward including ‘feedback trees’ and changes to the feedback forms.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what advice he has received from the UK Statistics Authority on the required rate of return of Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service satisfaction surveys for younger children between the ages of five and eight before a reliable satisfaction figure may be arrived at.

    Simon Hughes

    Cafcass does not carry out satisfaction surveys with the children it works with. They have other child-friendly ways of gaining feedback from children, which does include a feedback form. They have different versions of the form for children and young people. One encourages young people to write out their feedback to Cafcass in response to various questions, while the feedback form for younger children asks them to circle the feelings and emotions they have about Cafcass. These are therefore qualitative rather than quantitative. This feedback is collected and acted on at a local level rather than a national one. Complaints are monitored at a national level but addressed at the local level.

    Cafcass does not provide a return to the UK Statistics Authority; however they have published anonymised comments from feedback forms as part of their Annual Reports to draw out their direct work with children.

    Cafcass commissioned the Family Justice Young People’s Board to review the means by which Cafcass encourages feedback from the children and young people it works with. This review resulted in four recommendations which Cafcass has taken forward including ‘feedback trees’ and changes to the feedback forms.

  • David Lammy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    David Lammy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will name each further education college in Greater London.

    Matthew Hancock

    Further Education Colleges incorporated under section 16 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 in Greater London are as follows:

    Barking and Dagenham College

    Barnet and Southgate College

    Bexley College

    Bromley College of Further and Higher Education

    Capel Manor College

    Carshalton College

    LeSoCo

    City and Islington College

    City of Westminster College

    College of North West London

    Croydon College

    Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College

    Greenwich Community College

    Hackney Community College

    Harrow College

    Havering College of Further and Higher Education

    Kensington and Chelsea College

    Kingston College

    Newham College of Further Education

    Redbridge College

    Richmond Adult and Community College

    Richmond upon Thames College

    South Thames College

    Stanmore College

    The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London

    Tower Hamlets College

    Uxbridge College

    Waltham Forest College

    West Thames College

    Westminster Kingsway College

    Further Education Colleges Designated under section 28 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 in Greater London

    Hillcroft College

    Marine Society College of the Sea

    Morley College

    Workers’ Educational Association

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers who have qualified in the last 10 years have left the teaching profession within (a) two, (b) five and (c) 10 years; and what steps he is taking to encourage greater teacher retention.

    Mr David Laws

    The following table provides the proportion of full and part-time teachers that qualified in the stated year, entered service in the publicly funded sector in England the year after and were no longer in such service two, five and ten years later. It is not known whether the teachers who are recorded as out of service have left service permanently or are teaching in another country or sector of education.

    Year qualified1

    Newly qualified entrants entering service2

    Year entered service3

    Out of service 2 years later

    Out of service 5 years later

    Out of service 10 years later4

    2000

    17,400

    2000-01

    15%

    27%

    34%

    2005

    26,000

    2005-06

    15%

    22%

    2008

    25,000

    2008-09

    14%

    Source: Database of Teacher Records (DTR)

    1 Calendar year in which the teachers qualified.

    2 Teachers in part-time service are under-recorded on the DTR by between 10% and 20% and therefore these figures may be underestimated.

    3 Financial year during which the teachers entered service.

    4 The length of service may not have been continuous; for example not all of those shown as teaching 10 years after entering service in 1997-98 may have taught continuously for 10 years, some may have taken periods of time outside of the maintained sector.

    The Government is committed to making teaching a profession which can attract and retain the very best people. We are taking every possible step to reduce the amount of central prescription and bureaucracy placed on teachers, freeing them up to act as autonomous professionals. And we are giving headteachers more flexibility to recruit, train and retain the best teachers, including through new school-based training programmes and greater pay flexibility which will allow heads to ensure that high-performing teachers are rewarded appropriately.

    Teacher vacancy rates continue to remain low and have been around 1% or below (of all teaching posts) since 2000. In November 2013 there were 750 vacancies for full-time permanent teachers in state-funded schools – a rate of 0.2%.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were training for teaching qualifications in each year since 2003.

    Mr David Laws

    The initial teacher training (ITT) census provides provisional figures on the number of new entrants who have started, or expect to start, an ITT programme in England in that academic year; for previous years the final figures are included.

    Figures from 2003 to present are publicly available.

    Statistics from May 2010 onwards are available on GOV.UK:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-teacher-training#census-data

    Archived statistics are available on the National Archives:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http:/www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics.

    “

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions Ministers in his Department have had with representatives of sixth form colleges on the effect of recent changes to sixth form funding for students who have severe or complex disabilities.

    Matthew Hancock

    Last year’s funding changes for students with severe and complex needs were introduced following extensive consultation with local authorities and all types of institutions, including sixth-form colleges.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2014, Official Report, columns 787-88W, on pupil exclusions: autism, whether his Department plans to employ further exclusion advisors.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Department for Education does not employ any exclusion advisors.

    The exclusion adviser referred to in the answer of 4 March 2014, Official Report, columns 787-88W, on pupil exclusions: autism is employed by the National Autistic Society using a grant provided by the Department under the National Prospectus Grants Programme 2013-15.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department collects on children missing education; what information schools are expected to record in the Lost Pupil Database, part of his Department’s school2school site; and how many pupils’ records were held in the Lost Pupil Database on 1 February (a) 2014, (b) 2013, (c) 2012, (d) 2011 and (e) 2010.

    Elizabeth Truss

    The Department for Education does not collect data on children missing education. Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 places a duty on local authorities to have arrangements that enable them to establish the identities of children in their area who are not registered pupils at a school, and are not receiving suitable education through a means other than at a school. Local authorities may decide as part of this duty to collect information on children who may be missing education or at risk of doing so. The Department’s statutory guidance to local authorities advises that they must have robust procedures in place to fulfil their legal duty.

    The ‘lost pupils database’ (LPD) records the transfer records of pupils whose correct destination is not known. Files are retained whenever a child leaves a school for a destination outside the maintained school sector. Examples of these destinations include ‘gone to an independent school’, ‘gone sick’, ‘moved abroad with parents’ or ‘moved on without reason’.

    The LPD is not used by Children Missing Education (CME) officers to record CME data. The primary function of the Department’s School to School (S2S) secure data transfer website is to provide schools and Local Authorities (LAs) with a mechanism for the secure and ongoing transfer of thousands of statutory child-level data files per week to new schools/LAs when children move school.

    The details required for the Lost Pupil Database are:

    File Name
    Source school
    Source LA
    UPN
    Surname
    Forename
    DOB
    Gender
    Former UPN
    Former Surname
    Middle Names
    Ethnicity
    FSM eligibility
    In Care
    Care Authority
    SEN status
    Start Date
    Postcode
    Sessions Possible
    Sessions Attended
    Sessions Unauthorised
    First Language

    LPD records are stored for a minimum of 12 months. The last ‘clear down’ took place in October 2013 which means monthly additions are only held back to October 2012. At 1 February 2014, 15,128 records were held on the system. Records are not removed from the system until the general ‘clear down’, so the figure does not represent pupils missing from education at any given time.