§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action she has taken to reduce the administrative burdens on(a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools; and if she will make a statement. [11482]
§ Mr. TimmsMy Department keeps administrative requirements on all schools under continuous review. We have taken a number of actions to reduce the burdens on schools—for example, we have simplified the standards fund by replacing all bidding, claiming and reporting paperwork with a single expenditure returns sheet; and by allowing schools to switch funds between grant headings and carry them over to the end of the school year.
From April 2001, £240 million over three years is being made available in a single small schools fund to provide extra funding for small schools to meet proportionately higher administrative costs; and also to encourage the development of collaborative approaches to reducing burdens, such as shared ICT technicians.
In the school year 2000–01, we exceeded our target of reducing by half the number of pages sent to schools by the Department. We continue actively to screen all mailings to schools.
We recognise that there is more to be done. The White Paper commits the Government to making teaching a more manageable profession. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study of teacher workload, expected at the end of November, will put forward further practical ways of addressing workload issues.