§ Mr. ReedTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations she has received from Leicestershire about early years development funding in this financial year; and if she will make a statement. [9077]
§ Mr. TimmsWe have received a number of representations from MPs and members of the public with regard to the provision of free early education for three-year-olds in Leicestershire. In 2001–02 Leicestershire has been allocated £3.1 million of Government funding to create around 2,600 free early education places for this group. Additional Government funding is being progressively allocated to all local authorities so that, by September 2004, all three-year-olds will have access to a free place. This is on top of any funding made available by local authorities themselves.
In the first term of this financial year, Leicestershire has committed more funds than it had agreed with the Department that the Government would supply for that term. This is an issue for the local authority itself to resolve but we are working with it to provide what assistance we can within the existing budget.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many places were provided in early years settings for(a) three-year-olds and (b) four-year-olds; how many were taken up; and how many children were identified by the local early years plan as in need of early years education, broken down by local education authority, in the last 12 months. [9905]
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 24 October 2001]: Not all the data requested are available centrally.
Since September 1998, all four-year-olds have had access to a free early education place. The table shows, by local education authority area, the number of free early education places for three-year-olds that the Government will fund during the financial year 2001–02. These places are in addition to those already made available by local authorities from their own resources. Information on the number of places taken up will be collected in the spring term 2002.
454W
Number of free early education places for three-year-olds that the Government will fund during the financial year 2001–02 by local education authority area LEA Places allocation Barking and Dagenham 446 Barnet 250 Barnsley 885 Bath and North East Somerset 413 455W
Number of free early education places for three-year-olds that the Government will fund during the financial year 2001–02 by local education authority area LEA Places allocation Bedfordshire 689 Bexley 1,000 Birmingham 6,800 Blackburn with Darwen 887 Blackpool 1,091 Bolton 923 Bournemouth 1,033 Bracknell Forest 661 Bradford 1,410 Brent 1,017 Brighton and Hove 1,503 Bristol, City of 1,017 Bromley 1,189 Buckinghamshire 1,670 Bury 504 Calderdale 806 Cambridgeshire 1,529 Camden 831 Cheshire 963 City of London 12 Cornwall 2,104 Coventry 1,575 Croydon 990 Cumbria 808 Darlington 197 Derby 687 Derbyshire 3,155 Devon 1,811 Doncaster 731 Dorset 1,274 Dudley 699 Durham 1,181 Ealing 743 East Riding of Yorkshire 244 East Sussex 1,656 Enfield 1,362 Essex 4,410 Gateshead 640 Gloucestershire 3,486 Greenwich 890 Hackney 1,489 Halton 611 Hammersmith and Fulham 595 Hampshire 5,119 Haringey 807 Harrow 434 Hartlepool 115 Havering 1,253 Herefordshire 384 Hertfordshire 610 Hillingdon 704 Hounslow 688 Isle of Wight 556 Isles of Scilly 19 Islington 979 Kensington and Chelsea 695 Kent 5,267 Kingston upon Hull, City of 627 Kingston upon Thames 85 Kirklees 1,605 Knowsley 45 Lambeth 1,646 Lancashire 5,008 Leeds 1,815 Leicester 1,762 Leicestershire 2,638 Lewisham 1,566 Lincolnshire 1,071 Liverpool 1,430 Luton 1,237 Manchester 867 456W
Number of free early education places for three-year-olds that the Government will fund during the financial year 2001–02 by local education authority area LEA Places allocation Medway 2,266 Merton 151 Middlesbrough 166 Milton Keynes 834 Newcastle upon Tyne 1,052 Newham 1,116 Norfolk 1,885 North East Lincolnshire 629 North Lincolnshire 729 North Somerset 688 North Tyneside 394 North Yorkshire 2,392 Northamptonshire 957 Northumberland 591 Nottingham 956 Nottinghamshire 1,210 Oldham 1,086 Oxfordshire 1,977 Peterborough 695 Plymouth 1,318 Poole 1,039 Portsmouth 1,229 Reading 250 Redbridge 956 Redcar and Cleveland 30 Richmond upon Thames 304 Rochdale 1,076 Rotherham 1,186 Rutland 40 Salford 394 Sandwell 591 Sefton 750 Sheffield 2,565 Shropshire 748 Slough 378 Solihull 197 Somerset 1,704 South Gloucestershire 953 South Tyneside 382 Southampton 2,042 Southend-on-Sea 633 Southwark 995 St. Helens 725 Staffordshire 1,132 Stockport 197 Stockton-on-Tees 336 Stoke-on-Trent 563 Suffolk 2,693 Sunderland 796 Surrey 3,264 Sutton 657 Swindon 646 Tameside 608 Telford and Wrekin 1,444 Thurrock 547 Torbay 426 Tower Hamlets 591 Trafford 197 Wakefield 658 Walsall 394 Waltham Forest 1,562 Wandsworth 1,726 Warrington 1,350 Warwickshire 1,575 West Berkshire 421 West Sussex 2,534 Westminster 918 Wigan 1,583 Wiltshire 1,762 Windsor and Maidenhead 318 Wirral 1,487
Number of free early education places for three-year-olds that the Government will fund during the financial year 2001–02 by local education authority area LEA Places allocation Wokingham 572 Wolverhampton 394 Worcestershire 1,166 York 1,073