HC Deb 11 February 1991 vol 185 cc321-2W
Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the annual cost per trainee teacher of the licensed teacher scheme, disaggregated into (i) payment to licensee, (ii) payment to mentor teacher and (iii) additional expenditure incurred in paying for other teachers to cover mentors' usual teaching commitments.

Mr. Fallon

The information is not available in the form requested. Licensed teachers are employed by local education authorities and school governing bodies and are paid in accordance with the teachers' pay and conditions document 1990.

Training and associated costs for licensed teachers, including payment of incentive allowances to mentor teachers and the provision of supply cover both for the licensee and mentor, are eligible for support under the grants for education support and training programme.

A table showing the amount of local education authority expenditure to be supported in the 1990–91 and 1991–92 financial years and the number of licensed teachers expected to be supported has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what monitoring he is undertaking of the costs and effectiveness of the licensed teacher scheme; how many local authorities are operating the scheme; and how many teachers are involved.

Mr. Fallon

We have commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research to evaluate the scope, organisation and effectiveness of the first two years of the licensed teacher route to qualified teacher status. In addition to its routine inspections, Her Majesty's inspectorate is conducting a three-term examination of the licensed teacher programmes being operated by 11 local education authorities. In 1990–91, 57 LEAs applied under the local education authority training grants scheme and were allocated £2.3 million to support the training of 500 licensed teachers. For 1991–92, 67 LEAs have been allocated £5.4 million to support 1,500 licensed teachers under the grant for education support and training programme. A condition of receiving funding under this programme is that authorities monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their training schemes for licensed teachers.