§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate she has made of the percentage of four-year-olds expected to take up a pre-school place in the first year of the national voucher scheme. [9765]
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe percentage of four-year-olds expected to take up a pre-school place in the first year of the national nursery education voucher scheme will depend upon a number of factors, including the number of pre-school places that satisfy parents' choice, bearing in mind their needs and those of their children.
§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the number of four-year-olds whose parents do not speak English as a first language in each local education authority area; and how many leaflets she plans to make available for distribution to parents of70W four-year-olds in each local education authority, in languages other than English, to inform them about the nursery voucher scheme. [10148]
§ Mr. SquireIt is Departmental policy to make education leaflets for parents available in the nine most widely spoken languages other than English; 130,000 copies of the guide for parents on the nursery education voucher scheme have been printed in these nine languages. All parents have been given the opportunity to request this and future information on the scheme in one of the nine languages via a special multi-language order form sent with their initial mailing of the guide. The size of the print run was informed by the take-up of translated versions of leaflets in previous Departmental campaigns and it is expected that the supply will meet the demand over the first year of the scheme.