Departmental Policies (Manchester, Gorton) (Hansard, 26 March 2001)

§ Mr. Wills

Outlined are details of the effects of a range of the Department's policies on the Manchester, Gorton constituency and the Manchester LEA.

Excellence In Cities (EIC)

This paragraph updates the information on EIC which was provided in November 2000.

Manchester was designated an Excellence in Cities area in Phase 1 of the programme. The Partnership covers all 23 secondary schools in the city. The partnership now has: 21 Learning Support Units; Three Beacon schools and one specialist school approved under the Excellence in Cities programme; Six clusters of secondary schools working together to support gifted and talented pupils; 65 Learning Mentors all of whom have had local and national training; Three City Learning Centres operating with a fourth to open later this year; One small Education Action Zone operating from September 2000 and a further two are to start in September.

The Manchester partnership also has an approved plan for primary EIC with 54 primary schools involved. The Learning Mentor strand and programmes for Gifted and Talented pupils are already under way with three Primary Learning Support Units planned to open this academic year.

Manchester is also included in the Excellence Challenge programme with planning to be completed by June 2001 for implementation in September 2001.

Performance Indicators

As per PQ 136171.

505W

Funding per pupil

In Manchester LEA, funding per pupil has increased by £610 in real terms between 1997–98 and 2000–01.

Capital funding
£000
	2001–02
ACG	9,946
VA grant	4,002
Science labs	221
Access at 85 per cent.	465
Security	100
Seed challenge	297
NDS condition funding	1,157
NDS devolved formula capital	1,630

Further Education

Student numbers at all FEFC funded institutions where home postcode is in the local authority district of Manchester.

	1999–2000
	Full-time	Part-time
FEFC funded
16–18	5,393	1,800
Adult	3,643	24,838
Non-FEFC funded
16–18	163	723
Adult	642	1,722

Modern Apprenticeships

Since 22 November 2000, we know of 13 starts on Modern Apprenticeships (seven on Foundation Modern Apprenticeships and six on Advanced Modern Apprenticeships) in the Gorton constituency (as at 31 December 2000).

For comparison, known starts on Modern Apprenticeships for the period 2 May 1997 to 21 November 2000, broken down by financial year, are:

Financial year	Foundation Modern Apprenticeships¹	Advanced Modern Apprenticeships²	Total
1997–98	0	85	85
1998–99	42	111	153
1999–2000	112	144	256
	117	107	224
2000–01³	—	—	—
Total	271	447	718
¹ Foundation Modern Apprenticeships, formerly known as National Traineeships, were introduced nationally in September 1997.
² Advanced Modern Apprenticeships. formerly known as Modern Apprenticeships, were introduced nationally in September 1995.
³ To 21 November 2000.

Notes:

1. The Trainee Database System (TDS), from which these data are taken, is less complete than Management Information supplied by the Department by Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) (around 95 per cent.).
2. In addition, the postcode information on the TDS, from which parliamentary constituency data are compiled, are 95 per cent. complete.
3. TEC Management Information does not provide information at parliamentary constituency level.
4. Data for the period 21 November to 31 December 2000 may be less than 95 per cent. complete due to some notifications of training starts not yet being received from TECs.

Source:

WBTYP trainee database

New Deal for Young People

In the Gorton constituency, 1,968 young people have joined the New Deal to end December 2000. 843 have found jobs, 604 of which are sustained.

Labour market statistics

The working age employment rate in Manchester in autumn 2000 was 60.4 per cent., below the UK rate of 74.7 per cent. The rite in autumn 1997 was 55.8 per cent.

The claimant unemployment rate has fallen from 25.0 per cent. in February 1997 to 13.0 per cent. in February 2001 in the Gorton constituency.