HC Deb 10 November 1998 vol 319 cc133-6W
Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each local education authority the percentage of children in that local authority with statements of special educational needs. [58989]

Mr. Charles Clarke

[holding answer 9 November 1998]The latest available data are drawn from schools' Annual Census returns to the Department and relate to January 1998. The table indicates, for each local education authority as at January 1998, the proportion of pupils attending schools in the authority's area who had statements expressed as a percentage of the total number of pupils in such schools.

Percentage of pupils with statements, January 1998
LEA Percentage
Hartlepool 2.41
Middlesbrough 3.21
Redcar and Cleveland 2.14
Stockton-on-Tees 3.10
Darlington 3.38
Durham 3.56
Northumberland 2.92
Gateshead 2.31
Newcastle upon Tyne 2.58
North Tyneside 2.80
South Tyneside 2.97
Sunderland 3.55
Cheshire 3.34
Cumbria 3.92
Bolton 2.82
Bury 2.60
Manchester 2.47
Oldham 1.53
Rochdale 2.31
Salford 2.14
Stockport 2.68
Tameside 2.90
Trafford 1.73
Wigan 4.12
Lancashire 3.89
Knowsley 3.69
Liverpool 2.80
St. Helens 5.01
Sefton 2.92
Wirral 3.41
East Riding of Yorkshire 2.38
City of Kingston-Upon-Hull 2.37
North East Lincolnshire 2.14
North Lincolnshire 2.39
York 2.54
North Yorkshire 2.41
Barnsley 3.06
Doncaster 5.34
Rotherham 3.41
Sheffield 2.89
Bradford 2.44
Calderdale 2.43
Kirklees 4.03
Leeds 3.22
Wakefield 2.90
Derby 3.08
Derbyshire 3.34
Leicester City 3.81
Rutland 1.66
Leicestershire 2.73
Lincolnshire 3.27
Northamptonshire 2.59
Nottinghamshire 1.20
Hereford and Worcester 2.83
Shropshire 4.01
Stoke 3.01
Staffordshire 3.35
Warwickshire 2.68
Birmingham 2.58
Coventry 2.42
Dudley 2.25
Sandwell 2.45
Solihull 1.85
Walsall 2.79
Wolverhampton 2.60
Luton 2.99
Bedfordshire 3.05
percentage of pupils with statements, January 1998
LEA Percentage
Cambridgeshire 3.19
Essex 2.25
Hertfordshire 2.77
Norfolk 3.38
Suffolk 3.08
City of London 0.11
Camden 3.16
Hackney 3.19
Hammersmith and Fulham 3.38
Haringey 2.55
Islington 3.54
Kensington and Chelsea 1.27
Lambeth 3.76
Lewisham 3.15
Newham 2.70
Southwark 2.83
Tower Hamlets 3.77
Wandsworth 3.10
Westminster 2.07
Barking and Dagenham 2.61
Barnet 1.85
Bexley 2.36
Brent 2.78
Bromley 3.28
Croydon 1.81
Ealing 2.21
Enfield 2.13
Greenwich 3.81
Harrow 2.68
Havering 2.80
Hillingdon 3.09
Hounslow 2.74
Kingston-upon-Thames 2.31
Merton 2.83
Redbridge 1.69
Richmond-upon-Thames 2.00
Sutton 2.89
Waltham Forest 3.27
Berkshire 2.92
Milton Keynes 3.83
Buckinghamshire 3.02
Brighton and Hove 4.27
East Sussex 2.98
Portsmouth 2.71
Southampton 2.89
Hampshire 2.60
Isle of Wight 3.89
Kent 3.19
Oxfordshire 2.39
Surrey 3.16
West Sussex 3.13
Bath and North East Somerset 2.72
City of Bristol 4.03
North Somerset 3.11
South Gloucestershire 3.13
Cornwall 4.30
Isles of Scilly 1.10
Devon 3.48
Bournemouth 2.31
Poole 3.10
Dorset 2.81
Gloucestershire 2.76
Somerset 2.92
Swindon 3.20
Wiltshire 2.37

Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 29 October 1998,Official Report, columns 233–34, if the research project to assess the relative costs, benefits and practical implications of educating children with moderate learning difficulties in mainstream and special schools covers children assessed as having emotional, behavioural and psychiatric problems. [58992]

Mr. Charles Clarke

[holding answer 9 November 1998]The research project recognises and allows for the fact that pupils with moderate learning difficulties may also have other special educational needs. The project, which is small-scale, does not cover those with emotional and behavioural or other difficulties who do not have moderate learning difficulties.

Mr. Hayes

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent representations he has received on special educational needs. [59291]

Mr. Charles Clarke

We received over 3,600 responses to consultation on the Green Paper,Excellence for all children: meeting special educational needs. In the light of these, and the advice of the National Advisory Group on Special Educational Needs (SEN), we published Meeting Special Educational NeedsA programme of action, earlier this month. This sets out the practical steps we will take to support and promote developments in SEN over the next few years.

Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidelines his Department has issued on staffing levels at special needs schools for children with(a) severe and (b) moderate learning difficulties. [59258]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The Department issued guidance on staffing for pupils with special educational needs in 1990, in Circular 11/90. The Circular outlines the factors which Local Education Authorities and schools ought to consider in determining staffing levels, and is not intended to be prescriptive. Local Education Authorities and schools are best placed to determine their staffing needs in the light of local circumstances.