HC Deb 08 September 2003 vol 410 cc142-9W
Mrs. Browning

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what criteria are to be applied in September 2004 for teachers to move from upper pay scale 2 to upper pay scale 3; and if he will make a statement. [126843]

Mr. Miliband

For Upper Pay Scale 3, we have proposed to the School Teachers Review Body STRB) that there should be a series of changes including a simple new application requirement for progression, as well as a clear role for the governing body in deciding well in advance how many teachers should progress. We also plan rigorous new excellence criteria for progression, and to cash-limit resources to a level that will find progression at about a third of those eligible in September 2004. We have asked the STRB to make recommendations in November so that schools can better plan their budgets for 2004–05.

Mr. Syms

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher redundancies have been made in(a) Dorset, (b) Poole and (c) Bournemouth local education authorities in each year since 1997. [125034]

Mr. Miliband

Definitive information on redundancies of teachers is not collected centrally. Provisional statistics on teacher and support staff numbers and teacher vacancies at January 2003 were published in April in Statistical First Release 10/2003.

Statistics due to be released on 9 September will provide regional and LEA level breakdowns of these figures; provisional national figures for January 2004 are due to be published next April. In May this year, in response to concerns about the difficulties some schools are facing as a result of changes to the funding arrangements, my Department liaised with local education authorities (LEAs) to make a broad assessment of the extent to which schools were making changes in their teaching staff complements. This included whether teachers were being made compulsorily redundant, and the possible reasons for changes in staffing, including falling rolls. LEAs' assessments were based on the best information available to them at that time; many told us that definitive information was not available and that the situation was changing rapidly as schools finalised their budgets and their staffing. In addition they advised that a significant number of the redundancy notices were `protective' and were likely to be withdrawn as the situation within schools and the LEA became clearer. My Department will continue to work closely with our national partners, including representatives of teachers, and have regular contact with LEAs.

Mr. Heald

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 7 July 2003,Official Report, column 633W, on teacher redundancies, what the reasons were for the delay in answering the question; at what level information on redundancies is collected centrally; if he will place that information in the Library; and if he will make a statement. [125772]

Mr. Miliband

The answer to the hon. Member's earlier question was being processed in the usual way and was answered at the earliest opportunity. Provisional statistics on teacher and support staff numbers and teacher vacancies at January 2003 were published in April in Statistical First Release 10/2003. Statistics due to be released on 9 September will provide regional and LEA level breakdowns of these figures; provisional national figures for January 2004 are due to be published next April. In May this year, in response to concerns about the difficulties some schools are facing as a result of changes to the funding arrangements, my

Numbers of applicants and participants to date
By September New applications

to join Fast Track

New offers made

to join Fast Track

New entrants to

Fast Track ITT1

Newly Completed

ITT and gained

QTS1

In Fast Track

teaching posts

On Fast Track teaching

programme

2001 1,574 136 110 n/a n/a 120 (incl. 10 deferring)
2002 1,010 161 117 100 110 249 (incl. 22 deferring)
2003 2185 378 2310 110 239 2549
1 Not applicable to those already holding QTS when selected for Fast Track.
2 Provisional.

Fast Track teachers in post in September 2003: detailed breakdown
Type of school Total
Primary 69
Secondary 168
Special 2
Total 239

Department liaised with local education authorities (LEA)s to make a broad assessment of the extent to which schools were making changes in their teaching staff complements. This included whether teaches were being made compulsorily redundant, and the possible reasons for changes in staffing, including falling rolls. LEAs' assessments were based on the best information available to them at that time; many told us that definitive information was not available and that the situation was changing rapidly as schools finalised their budges and their staffing. In addition they advised that a significant number of the redundancy notices were `protective' and were likely to be withdrawn as the situation within schools and the LEA became clearer. My Department will continue to work closely with our national partners, including representatives of teachers, and have regular contact with LEAs.

Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much his Department has spent on the fast track teacher training programme in each year, broken down by category of expenditure since the scheme commenced; how many applications there were for each year; how many were allocated a place each year; how many obtained qualified teacher status; how many entered teaching, broken down by(a) primary, (b) special secondary, (c) community, (d) foundation, (e) voluntary aided, (f) voluntary controlled and (g) independent school; and how many have subsequently left teaching. [126936]

Mr. Miliband

The Fast Track teaching programme is a long-term investment in developing effective leadership in schools. This year has seen a record number of appointments to the programme, more than double the totals in previous years.

Investment in the Fast Track teaching programme
£ million
2000–01 2001–02 2002–03
Information and Publicity 1.83 1.99 1.75
Application materials, assessment and

selection

2.38 3.78 2.38
ITT and CPD 0.00 0.65 1.87
Pay, mentoring, career guidance and

miscellaneous costs

0.40 1.85 2.08
Total 4.60 8.27 8.07

Fast Track teachers in post in September 2003: detailed breakdown
Type of school Total
of which:
Community 168
Foundation 31
Voluntary aided 27
Voluntary controlled 12
City Academies 1

Six individuals accepted onto the Fast Track programme since its inception have subsequently left the programme to enter teaching in the independent sector; four from the first year's intake and two from the second.

No-one who has taken up a Fast Track teaching post has subsequently left teaching. One individual has left her Fast Track teaching post to take up promotion as an Assistant Head.

Mr. Best

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there are within the Leeds education authority. [127297]

Mr. Miliband

Teacher vacancies at local authority level for January 2003 will be published in a Statistical First Release on 9 September 2003. Data for 1997 to 2002 were published in table 14 of the Teachers in Service and Teacher Vacancies Statistical First Release (SFR18/2002) in August 2002. A copy has been placed in the Library. The table is also available on the statistics section of the DfES website at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SFR/s0346/index.html.

Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in special schools in each of the last five years, broken down by local education authority. [127919]

Mr. Miliband

The table shows the number of teacher vacancies in maintained special schools in England at January of each year. Data for 2002 are the most recent available at local authority level. Provisional figures for January 2003 show that the number of vacancies in maintained special in England schools fell to 240.

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Gateshead 3 0 0 1 1
Newcastle upon Tyne 4 2 1 0 2
North Tyneside 0 0 1 0 2
South Tyneside 0 0 0 0 0
Sunderland 1 0 0 0 0
Hartlepool 0 2 1 0 1
Middlesbrough 3 1 0 0 2
Redcar and Cleveland 2 1 0 0 0
Stockton on Tees 0 0 2 0 2
Darlington 0 0 0 0 0
Durham 2 0 0 0 1
Northumberland 0 0 0 0 0
North East 15 6 5 1 11
Cumbria 0 0 0 0 0
Former Cheshire 7
Cheshire (post 1.4.98) 1 2 2 2
Halton 0 0 0 0
Warrington 0 1 1 0
Bolton 0 0 0 0 0
Bury 0 0 0 0 0
Manchester 0 0 0 0 0
Oldham 2 0 3 1 6
Rochdale 1 0 0 0 1
Salford 0 0 0 0 0
Stockport 2 0 1 1 1
Tameside 1 0 1 0 1
Trafford 0 0 0 0 0
Wigan 3 2 0 1 0
Former Lancashire 6
Lancashire (post 1.4.98) 4 6 4 4
Blackburn with Darwen 0 2 0 3
Blackpool 1 0 0 0
Knowsley 1 3 5 1 0
Liverpool 0 7 0 0 0
St. Helens 0 0 1 0 2

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Sefton 1 1 0 4 0
Wirral 0 0 0 4 1
North West 24 19 22 19 21
Kingston upon Hull, City of 0 0 0 0 3
East Riding of Yorkshire 0 0 0 0 1
North East Lincolnshire 0 0 0 0 0
North Lincolnshire 0 0 0 0 8
North Yorkshire 2 0 1 1 1
York 0 1 0 1 2
Barnsley 0 0 0 0 0
Doncaster 0 0 0 1 0
Rotherham 0 0 0 0 0
Sheffield 1 0 2 0 1
Bradford 4 2 0 0 0
Calderdale 0 0 0 0 0
Kirklees 0 0 0 0 1
Leeds 3 3 3 1 0
Wakefield 0 0 0 3 0
Yorkshire and the Humber 10 6 6 7 17
Derbyshire 3 0 3 2 3
Derby 1 0 1 0 5
Leicestershire 0 0 3 0 1
Leicester 1 3 1 6 3
Rutland 0 0 0 0 0
Lincolnshire 3 3 3 2 5
Northamptonshire 0 0 1 4 0
Former Nottinghamshire 0
Nottinghamshire (post 1.4.98) 0 0 0 0
Nottingham 0 1 5 2
East Midlands 8 6 13 19 19
Former Hereford & Worcester 0
Herefordshire 0 1 0 0
Worcestershire 0 1 0 0
Former Shropshire 0
Shropshire (post 1.4.98) 0 0 0 0
Telford and Wrekin 0 6 0 0
Staffordshire 0 4 7 3 1
Stoke on Trent 0 0 1 2 0
Warwickshire 1 2 1 3 3
Birmingham 0 2 3 2 11
Coventry 0 1 0 0 2
Dudley 3 2 2 2 1
Sandwell 0 1 0 6 6
Solihull 1 1 3 2 6
Walsall 1 1 0 0 1
Wolverhampton 1 3 5 3 0
West Midlands 7 18 29 25 33
Former Cambridgeshire 1
Cambridgeshire (post 1.4.98) 0 0 0 3
Peterborough 0 0 0 1
Norfolk 1 1 1 4 3
Suffolk 3 7 4 1 3
Bedfordshire 3 2 6 5 4
Luton 2 0 0 0 2
Former Essex 4
Essex (post 1.4.98) 7 10 5 7
Southend on Sea 2 0 0 1
Thurrock 0 0 1 1
Hertfordshire 6 7 0 5 2
East of England 20 26 21 21 27
City of London 0 0 0 0 0
Camden 5 8 1 2 4
Greenwich 5 1 5 2 2
Hackney 3 6 5 5 3
Hammersmith and Fulham 6 1 3 6 1
Islington 2 0 0 5 2
Kensington and Chelsea 0 0 0 1 0
Lambeth 0 2 8 6 11
Lewisham 3 2 4 3 0
Southwark 0 4 1 5 1
Tower Hamlets 1 5 3 6 6
Wandsworth 15 12 8 6 13
Westminster 4 4 5 2 4
Barking and Dagenham 2 4 0 1 0
Barnet 0 4 4 4 1
Bexley 2 0 4 3 1
Brent 7 1 2 0 4
Bromley 0 1 2 2 1
Croydon 7 1 4 2 0
Ealing 5 5 5 0 1
Enfield 3 2 2 3 7

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Haringey 0 3 3 2 0
Harrow 1 2 8 2 5
Havering 0 0 0 0 0
Hillingdon 1 1 1 6 4
Hounslow 1 3 2 0 1
Kingston upon Thames 0 0 0 2 0
Merton 1 1 2 5 0
Newham 1 0 3 2 3
Redbridge 6 6 2 0 2
Richmond upon Thames 1 1 0 3 1
Sutton 1 2 0 0 3
Waltham Forest 1 0 0 0 4
London 84 82 887 86 85
Former Berkshire 0
Bracknell Forest 0 1 1 1
Windsor and Maidenhead 0 6 4 3
West Berkshire 0 1 1 0
Reading 0 5 4 4
Slough 1 1 3 0
Wokingham 3 1 3 1
Buckinghamshire 11 7 3 5 5
Milton Keynes 4 3 0 2 5
East Sussex 3 1 4 1 2
Brighton and Hove 0 0 0 2 3
Hampshire 8 3 7 8 9
Portsmouth 0 3 0 3 4
Southampton 1 0 1 1 1
Isle of Wight 0 1 0 0 1
Former Kent 18
Kent (post 1.4.98) 9 13 23 9
Medway 1 3 5 3
Oxfordshire 0 0 0 0 4
Surrey 6 3 2 17 12
West Sussex 2 4 2 6 3
South East 53 39 50 89 70
Isles of Scilly 0 0 0 0 0
Bath and North East Somerset 0 1 0 1 2
City of Bristol 2 7 6 0 2
North Somerset 2 0 0 0 0
South Gloucestershire 2 1 0 0 0
Cornwall 0 3 0 0 0
Former Devon 2
Devon (post 1.4.98) 0 1 2 0
Plymouth 0 0 0 2
Torbay 0 0 1 0
Dorset 0 0 2 2 0
Poole 2 0 0 2 1
Bournemouth 0 1 0 0 0
Gloucestershire 1 0 1 3 0
Somerset 0 0 0 0 2
Wiltshire 1 0 0 0 0
Swindon 0 1 1 2 0
South West 12 14 11 13 9
England 233 216 244 280 292

Mr. Brady

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 7 May 2003,Official Report, column 695W, whether he has set a date for the launch of the Teachernet emergency planning website; and what the cost has been of developing the website. [121562]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

[holding answer 24 June 2003]Following the trialling we hope to be able to launch the website by the end of October, assuming that all the further development work and testing are satisfactorily completed and clearances obtained. The cost of developing the site, approximately £60,000, remains unchanged from my previous reply of 7 May.

The website will bring together a range of information already publicly available to schools. It will cover: planning, including health and safety, evacuation procedures and emergency services; types of incidents, which includes fire, flooding, terrorism and threats by post; and resources, such as forms to help schools with risk assessments.

Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what statistics his Department collects on assaults on teachers; and how many teachers have been the subject of(a) physical assaults, (b) verbal assaults and (c) other threatening behaviour from (i) children and (ii) parents in each year since 1988. [127896]

Mr. Miliband

The Department does not collect information on assaults on teachers. However, serious injuries to primary and secondary school teachers in Great Britain caused by physical violence reported to the Health and Safety Executive under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 have been as follows:

Year Number
1996/97 83
1997/98 119
1998/99 124
1999/2000 135
2000/01 135
2001/02 110

The figures include major injuries and also injuries resulting in more than three days' absence from work as a result of assault. Information is not available on whether the assaults were carried out by children, parents or others.

Mr. Dorrell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers were employed in Leicestershire schools expressed as full-time equivalents on 1st April in each year from 1997 to 2002. [127266]

Mr. Miliband

Teacher numbers as at January in each of these years were published in table 13 of the Teachers in Service and Teacher Vacancies Statistical First Release (SFR 18/2002) in August 2002. A copy has been placed in the Library. The table is also available on the statistics section of the DfES website at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SFR/s0346/index.html

Linda Perham

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent research his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on salaries of teachers in the Greater London area. [127833]

Mr. Miliband

Teachers' salaries are regularly monitored using the Department's Database of Teachers' Records. Regional salary data from this source are published each year in the Department's evidence to the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB), a copy of which is in the library. The evidence is also available on the DfES website at http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/payandperformance/pay/strb2003/. The STRB also carries out a sample survey of about 3,000 schools in England and Wales each year to inform its annual teachers' pay review. The results of this survey can be found on the STRB website at: http://www.ome.uk.com/stp review.cfm.

Mr. Flook

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many(a) teachers and (b) classroom assistants there were in schools in (i) the Taunton constituency and (ii) Somerset in each year since 1997. [127776]

Mr. Miliband

The number of full time equivalent (FTE) teachers and teaching assistants in the maintained sector in Taunton constituency and Somerset LEA since 1997 are shown in the following table.

Teachers and teaching assistants in Taunton constituency and Somerset: 1997–2002
Taunton constituency Somerset LEA
FTE

number of

teachers1

FTE number

of teaching

assistants1,2

FTE

number of

teachers3

FTE number

of teaching

assistants1,2

1997 680 140 3,480 610
1998 650 150 3,480 660
1999 650 160 3,380 680
2000 670 170 3,530 710
2001 690 210 3,770 830
2002 720 230 3,770 920
1 Source: Annual School Census.
2 Includes nursery assistants, special needs support staff, minority ethnic pupil support staff and other teaching assistants.
3 Source: 618G survey of teacher numbers and vacancies.

Annual school census and 618G have a survey date of the third Thursday in January.

Local education authority level data for 2003 will be published in a statistical first release on 9 September.