§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the funding allocation for the educational psychology service for each year since 1985.
§ Mr. ForthThe information requested is not held centrally. Each local education authority is responsible for securing educational psychology services in the light of local needs and priorities. Central Government, through 405W the grants and education support and training programme, provide financial support to authorities to assist them with the costs of the initial training of educational psychologists. Funds to support LEA expenditure of £3.5 million on the training of educational psychologists have been allocated in 1993–94.
§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking(a) to protect the educational psychology service and (b) to ensure a common standard service throughout the country; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ForthEach local education authority is responsible for securing educational psychology services in its area. The Education Bill contains power to enable authorities to provide support services, such as educational psychology, to all pupils with special educational needs, including those without statements.
Under the Bill, all authorities in England and Wales will be placed under a duty to have regard to the provisions of a code of practice, issued by the Secretary of State, giving them practical guidance in discharging their duty towards children with special educational needs. One of the objectives of the code is to secure greater consistency in local education authority practice, to the benefit of children with SEN and their parents.
§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education how many educational psychologists were employed by each local education authority in each year since 1985.
§ Mr. ForthInformation on the number of educational psychologists employed by individual local education authorities is collected annually by the Department. However, pre-1992 returns were not compiled in a standard format and are not readily available for every year. Figures are shown in the table for 1985 and 1992.
406W
Numbers of full-lime equivalent educational psychologists in post by local education authority LEA 1985 1992 Inner London 87.7 City 0.0 Camden 7.8 Greenwich 11.0 Hackney 8.5 Hammersmith and Fulham 8.0 Islington 10.0 Kensington and Chelsea 6.0 Lambeth 7.8 Lewisham 10.0 Southwark 15.0 Tower Hamlets 10.0 Wandsworth 11.0 Westminster 7.0 Barking and Dagenham 7.0 7.5 Barnet 8.5 13.6 Bexley 5.0 6.5 Brent 9.6 11.2 Bromley 8.0 10.0 Croydon 9.0 10.8 Ealing 5.4 9.8 Enfield 9.0 12.5 Haringey 7.0 9.8 Harrow 6.0 6.0 Havering 8.0 8.0 Hillingdon 5.0 8.2 Hounslow 5.9 5.8 Kingston upon Thames 2.0 3.0 Merton 5.0 5.7 Newham 11.0 11.0
407W
LEA 1985 1992 Redbridge 6.0 7.4 Richmond upon Thames 4.0 5.5 Sutton 4.0 6.0 Waltham Forest 8.0 7.0 Birmingham 37.2 37.5 Coventry 12.3 14.0 Dudley 7.5 8.5 Sandwell 8.0 14.0 Solihull 7.3 8.0 Walsall 7.0 10.0 Wolverhampton 6.0 10.0 Knowsley 7.0 6.8 Liverpool 15.5 18.0 St. Helens 4.0 6.5 Sefton 9.0 11.0 Wirral 8.0 13.5 Bolton 4.0 7.4 Bury 3.5 4.5 Manchester 14.0 19.3 Oldham 5.0 4.0 Rochdale 9.0 7.5 Salford 6.0 7.0 Stockport 6.7 9.5 Tameside 7.0 11.0 Trafford 3.0 4.0 Wigan 8.0 6.5 Barnsley 4.0 4.5 Doncaster 9.0 9.0 Rotherham 9.0 10.3 Sheffield 13.6 16.2 Bradford 14.0 19.0 Calderdale 2.0 6.8 Kirkless 12.0 15.0 Leeds 13.5 19.0 Wakefield 6.0 12.0 Gateshead 8.0 10.0 Newcastle upon Tyne 12.0 11.0 North Tyneside 8.0 8.0 South Tyneside 6.0 8.0 Sunderland 9.0 10.1 Isles of Scilly 0.0 0.0 Avon 28.6 28.8 Bedfordshire 12.0 17.0 Berkshire 17.3 17.0 Buckinghamshire 16.0 21.9 Cambridgeshire 12.0 14.0 Cheshire 17.0 25.1 Cleveland 18.0 18.3 Cornwall 8.0 12.0 Cumbria 9.0 18.0 Derbyshire 21.5 33.1 Devon 20.4 22.1 Dorset 14.5 17.5 Durham 17.4 20.4 East Sussex 11.8 19.6 Essex 31.4 42.7 Gloucestershire 11.0 17.0 Hampshire 31.5 44.0 Hereford and Worcester 11.0 16.5 Hertfordshire 21.5 28.4 Humberside 21.0 24.0 Isle of Wight 3.0 3.0 Kent 19.0 30.0 Lancashire 34.0 42.0 Leicestershire 19.0 33.6 Lincolnshire 10.0 13.0 Norfolk 14.0 18.5 North Yorkshire 15.2 20.0 Northamptonshire 15.0 17.5 Northumberland 4.1 9.5 Nottinghamshire 30.0 28.5 Oxfordshire 12.5 14.5 Shropshire 8.0 12.0 Somerset 9.0 11.0 Staffordshire 17.7 29.4 Suffolk 13.0 14.0 Surrey 22.0 28.4 Warwickshire 9.8 12.3
LEA 1985 1992 West Sussex 12.0 17.4 Wiltshire 13.0 14.8 Total: All LEAs 1,173.4 1,501.6