§ Lawrie QuinnTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many higher education institutions in England submitted successful bids under the Special Educational Needs Training and Development Fund 2002–03; and if she will make a statement. [71686]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThe Special Educational Needs Training and Development Fund 2002–03 was established to provide one-off pump priming support to aid the creation of new, or extended, in-service training and development opportunities for teachers and other staff, both in mainstream and special schools, to help improve and reinforce skills in the area of special educational needs and disabilities. Under the fund, higher education institutions were invited to submit competitive bids, in the range of £50,000–100,000. There was a good response, with 41 individual bids received from 34 institutions. Within the £1 million available for allocation we have approved 16 bids from the following institutions:
- Bishop Grosseteste college, Lincoln
- Canterbury Christ Church university college
- Institute of Education University of London
- Leeds Metropolitan university
- Nottingham Trent university
- Sheffield Hallam university
- St. Martin's college of higher education, Lancaster
- Manchester Metropolitan university
- University of Birmingham
- University College Chichester
- University of Greenwich
- University of Surrey, Roehampton
- York St. John College, university of Leeds.
The training and development opportunities will, in the main, be available either in the autumn of 2002 or the spring of 2003.
In addition, a further £1 million has been also been allocated, under Strand 2 of the Department's SEN Small Programmes Fund 2002–03, in support of work by voluntary organisations, to produce a range of training resources for SEN and disabilities.