§ Mr. BarronTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effects of the introduction of education maintenance allowance and post-16 education on neighbouring local authorities. [100598]
§ Margaret HodgeOur assessment of the effects of introducing the education maintenance allowance compares participation by young people in post-16 education in pilot areas with participation by young people in control areas. We have not made an assessment of the effects of introducing EMA on neighbouring local authorities as we intend to introduce the scheme nationally from September 2004.
§ Mr. BarronTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the retention rates are of pupils moving into post-16 education in(a) education maintenance allowance and (b) non-education maintenance allowance authorities. [100599]
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§ Margaret HodgeAn independent evaluation of EMAs has been taking place since 1999. Evidence from the second year of the pilots, which was published last year, shows that EMAs have had a positive effect, increasing the number of eligible young people in full time education in year 12 in the pilot areas by 5.9 percentage points, compared to the local authority areas without EMA that we have used as controls.