HC Deb 21 June 2002 vol 387 cc611-2W
Ms Shipley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent speeches she has made on design quality within her Department's capital building programme. [59832]

Margaret Hodge

In her opening speech at the British Education and Training Technology (BETT) Show in January, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out the Government's vision of how schools would be in the future, including aspects of their design. She also announced that the Department would be publishing a design guide, "Schools for the Future", which looks at ways of designing inspiring buildings that can adapt to educational and technological change. This was published in February 2002, following the publication the previous year of "Inclusive School Design—accommodating pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream schools."

Baroness Ashton is the Department's Ministerial Design Champion. She gave a speech on achieving design quality in PFI schools at a conference organised by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) last October.

CABE helped the Department run the Neighbourhood Nurseries Design Competition. I launched this in May 2001 and its aim was to ensure that all new buildings created are of high design quality, providing imaginative and stimulating places in which young children can learn and play. The competition was successfully completed in June 2002 and the work of the winners is being used to influence design across the early years and childcare sector.