HC Deb 09 June 2003 vol 406 cc607-8W
Mr. Paul Marsden

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the percentage of children with special educational needs in each local education authority. [115025]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

The information requested has been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding has been received by Sefton metropolitan borough council to support educational services for children and people with learning difficulties, disabilities and other special educational needs in the current financial year. [116279]

Mr. Miliband

The calculation of Sefton MBC's Education Formula Spending Share (FSS) takes account of the estimated number of children between the ages of 3 and 16 with high levels of educational need. Sefton's overall FSS determines the general funding received through the authority through Revenue Support Grant. The authority decides how much of this funding is used to support spending on educational services for children and people with learning difficulties, disabilities and other special educational needs—it is not possible to identify a separate funding allocation for these services.

The authority also receives funding from the Learning and Skills Council for students over the age of 16 with special educational needs. In 2003–04 this totalled £890,508. There is also support for children and people with learning difficulties through the Standards Fund: the authority's grant for SEN for 2003–04 is £519,437. There is capital funding available: the authority's School Access Initiative, to help make schools more accessible for children with disabilities, is worth £650,000 in Basic Credit Approvals for 2003–04.

Jonathan Shaw

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which(a) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and (b) dyslexia projects received funding from the (i) Special Educational Needs Small Programme Fund and (ii) Training and Development Fund; and how much each project received. [116904]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

In the financial year 2003–04, three projects related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia are receiving funding under the Special Educational Needs Small Programmes Fund. These are;£45,000 to the NSPCC for their "Attention Difficulties: Developing a whole school approach" project. Among the partners involved in this project are the North East Special Educational Needs Regional Partnership and Durham University. £49,966 to The Dyslexia Institute for their "Bury Local Education Authority Dyslexia Friendly Schools initiative". This work is being done alongside the Bury Local Education Authority Special Educational Needs Support Service Team. £50,000 to The Dyslexia Institute for their "Effective Strategies to meet Specific needs of Pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties/Dyslexia in the Classroom". This is taking place at the Roebuck Primary School in Stevenage, Hertfordshire and the consortium includes the Regional Partnership and the Local Education Authority.

Funding for the Training and Development Fund was available in financial year 2002–03. £81,400 was awarded to the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, for their project 'Raising the Achievement of Dyslexia Pupils: Dyslexia Friendly Teaching'. Among its partnership organisations was the British Dyslexia Association.