§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State, for Wales (1) what is his estimate of the cost of distributing details of the charter for parents to each of the headteachers of Wales;
(2) how many copies of charter for parents he has distributed; and if he will make a statement;
(3) if he proposes to make moneys available to local education authorities to enable their headteachers to inform parents of the contents of the charter for parents.
§ Mr. David HuntThe charter for parents in Wales sets out in a single document the rights of parents with respect to the education of their children, the choices they can exercise, the information they can obtain about schools' performance and the influence they can have on the way schools are run. As such it is an invaluable reference document to which all parents should have access. I therefore sought the co-operation of the chairmen of governors and headteachers of all schools in Wales to have the document delivered to parents through pupils at their schools. The cost of distributing supplies to schools for that purpose is £11,911.20 and is being met by my Department. I am also making arrangements for copies of the charter to be made available to parents whose children are not yet at school through playgroup and nursery schools associations. Copies of the charter have also been made available to others on request. So far a total of 486,761 copies of the charter have been distributed.