§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to expand the availability of training places for classroom teaching assistants in(a) Staffordshire and (b) England. [125146]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisWe are making available to local education authorities in England £350 million over three years to recruit and train an additional 20,000 teaching assistants by 2002. In addition, we are providing Standards Funds to support the training of more experienced teaching assistants, so that they may develop their skills and further their careers. Staffordshire has received £2.109 million for this purpose in 2000–01.