§ Paddy AshdownTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if he will make a statement on his assessment of local deprivation in Somerset and the allocation of free places for three-year-olds in early years education; [131500]
1050W(2) if he will make a statement on the assessment of local social deprivation used by his Department for (a) Somerset, (b) Surrey, (c) Kensington and Chelsea, (d) Cornwall and (e) Hertfordshire; and if he will make a statement. [131501]
§ Ms Hodge[holding answer 20 July 2000]: A number of indices are used by the Department to measure social deprivation in local education authorities: the proportion of children in one parent families; the proportion of children of Income Support and Job Seeker's Allowance claimants; the numbers of conceptions per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17; and the Index of Local Deprivation. The last of these is used to distribute funding to enable the creation of new early education places for three-year-olds. As part of the Government's expansion of three-year-old provision, in 2000–01 Somerset was given an initial allocation of £130,000 to enable it to create 112 new free places. The authority has also bid for a number of further places which have been funded in full. It can now provide up to 250 new free places for each of the autumn 2000 and spring 2001 terms.