§ Mr. Brothertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what consultations will be made with community relations councils concerning the Easter recreation projects which are to receive grants from public funds;
(2) what curriculum is to be followed by Easter recreation projects which are to receive grants from public funds;
(3) who has been appointed to supervise the organisation of Easter recreation 131W projects which are to receive grants from public funds;
(4) if he will list in the Official Report the names and locations of the projects which are to receive grants for Easter recreation projects;
(5) what attention will be given to literacy and numeracy in the curriculum to be followed by those Easter recreation projects which are to receive grants from public funds;
(6) what public funds were made available to Easter recreation projects in 1977.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettI have written to the hon. Member today listing the names and locations of holiday recreation projects approved under the urban programme for Easter 1978. The value of holiday projects approved for Easter 1977 was £44,922 compared with £92,794 for this year. As the urban programme is a programme of local authority expenditure, responsibility for the organisation and supervision of individual projects rests with the local authority concerned. Local authorities are advised to consult local community relations councils when considering the funding of projects of special help to ethnic minorities or the appointment of officers who will be working closely with minority communities.
Although many of the projects have an educational bias, this is not generally concerned with formal teaching but with providing disadvantaged children with a variety of rewarding experiences which might otherwise be denied them. Specific attention to such matters as language skills features in some projects catering primarily for ethnic minority groups.