76 and 78. Mr. Slaterasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the number of boys at the Aycliffe Approved School; what is the number assigned to each master; what definite number is fixed as a national maximum; and how this figure compares with the present position at the Aycliffe School;
(2) what is the accommodation for boys at the Aycliffe Approved School; how this is apportioned to the different age groups; and if this school has yet reached its establishment of teachers.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe classifying Department at Aycliffe School has accommodation in three separate houses (junior, intermediate and senior), for seventy-two boys aged eight and under seventeen on admission, and the training department has accommodation for one hundred and twenty boys aged between thirteen and fifteen on admission. There are at present thirty-six boys in the classifying department and seventy-four in the training department; both have their full establishment of teachers.
There is no fixed maximum proportion of boys to teaching and supervisory staff in approved schools generally.
77. Mr. Slaterasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of escapes for 1958 from the Aycliffe Approved School; how such figure compares with the rest of the country for such type of school; and what is being done for the rehabilitation of such young people.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerNinety-two; the rate of absconding was rather higher at Aycliffe than at the two other schools of this type. Some absconding from approved schools is inevitable and there are a few persistent absconders whose training presents great difficulty. One school is experimenting with special measures for dealing with them.