HC Deb 28 April 2004 vol 420 cc1033-6W
Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much funding each school in Heywood and Middleton has received from the New Deal for Schools; [168499]

(2) how much public money was spent on repairing schools in Heywood and Middleton in each year since 1997. [168497]

Mr. Miliband

[holding answer 23 April 2004]: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in Heywood and Middleton have benefited from the Excellence in Cities programme; and what the per pupil spending was in each year since the programme's inception. [168500]

Mr. Miliband

The table as follows shows the number of children in Heywood and Middleton benefiting from EiC, and the annual spend per pupil for the years in question.

Number of children Total EiC expenditure1 (£) Spend per pupil (£)
2000–01 5,856 410,307 70.07
2001–02 7,640 688,572 90.13
2002–03 7,753 1,074,454 138.59
2003–04 7,679 2,074,823 270.19
1Funding figures were supplied by the Senior Finance Officer for Rochdale

The large increase in the rate of EiC funding in 2002–03 is due to the extra funding provided through the Behaviour Improvement Programme and the increase in 2003–04 is due to the extra funding provided through the Leadership Incentive Grant.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools in Heywood and Middleton deemed to be failing since 1997 have since reached satisfactory standards. [168501]

Mr. Miliband

Two schools in Heywood and Middleton, one primary and one secondary, have been deemed to require special measures since 1997 and have since recovered and reached satisfactory standards.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of 15 and 16-year-olds in Heywood and Middleton achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C or GNVQ equivalent in each of the last seven years. [168504]

Mr. Miliband

The information requested is as follows:

Percentage of 15-year-old pupils1 achieving five or more grades A*-C
Percentage
Academic year Heywood and Middleton parliamentary constituency England
1997 33.1 45.1
1998 35.9 46.3
1999 38.2 47.9
2000 37.3 49.2
2001 40.9 50.0
2002 39.5 51.6
2003 43.5 52.9
1GCSE/GNVQ results are reported as standard as the results of pupils aged 15 at the start of the academic year ie 31 August and therefore reaching the end of compulsory education at the end of the school year.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many women in Heywood and Middleton have visited an information and communications technology training centre in order to learn skills to return to work. [168510]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

In the period October 20031—March 2004, 3,030 people visited a UK online centre in the Heywood and Middleton constituency. 1697(56 per cent.) of these people were women.

Since learndirect was launched in 1999, 1,411 people from the Heywood and Middleton Constituency have enrolled on a learndirect course. 769 (55 per cent.) of these people were women. Of the total number of women who enrolled on a course, 2 per cent. did so in order to learn skills to return to work.

1 Please note the complete statistics are not available for UK online prior to September 2003 as the DfES did not collect this data on a centre by centre basis.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many residents of Heywood and Middleton have undertaken apprenticeships in each of the last five years. [168514]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

The information requested is not available at parliamentary constituency level. Nor is the information available on a consistent geographical basis over the last five years. However, the following table shows the number of starts on modern apprenticeships in the Greater Manchester Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area between April 2001 and the end of July 2003, as well as the number of starts from April 1996 to March 2001 in the six Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) that amalgamated into Greater Manchester LSC— Bolton and Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and High Peak and Wigan.

Time period and TEC/LSC Advanced MAs Foundation MAs
April 1998 to March 1999
Bolton and Bury CCTE 800 600
Manchester 2,400 700
Oldham CCTE 400 300
Rochdale CCTE 500 100
Stockport and High Peak1 800 100
Wigan CCTE 700 300
April 1999 to March 2000
Bolton and Bury CCTE 900 1,000
Manchester 2,800 1,800
Oldham CCTE 500 500
Rochdale CCTE 500 600
Stockport and High Peak1 700 700
Wigan CCTE 700 600
April 2000 to March 2001
Bolton and Bury CCTE 700 1,200
Manchester 3,200 2,600
Oldham CCTE 500 700
Rochdale CCTE 400 700
Stockport and High Peak1 800 1,000
Wigan CCTE 900 800
April 2001 to July 2002
Greater Manchester LSC 4,800 9,800
March 2001 to July 2002
Greater Manchester LSC 2,900 6,800
1TEC also became part of Derbyshire LSC.
Note:
TECs reported the figures in financial years. LSC reports figures in academic years. The first LSC 'year' was 16 months in order to bring the financial year figures into line with academic years.
Sources:
TEC management information.
LSC Individualised Learner Record.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult(a) literacy and (b) numeracy in Heywood and Middleton in each of the last five years. [168577]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

The estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Greater Manchester Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the table:

£000
Basic skills Key skills
April 2001 to July 20011 8,925 2,598
August 2001 to July 2002 15,369 3,586
August 2002 to July 2003 27,258 4,210
Note:
1The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001.

From the information available to the LSC it has not been feasible to obtain estimates at constituency level or separate figures by subject without incurring disproportionate cost. Likewise it has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in Heywood and Middleton on the latest date for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to reduce them. [168578]

Mr. Miliband

Information on teacher vacancies is not available by constituency as it is collected at local education authority level. In January 2003, the latest information available, there were 13 full-time teacher vacancies in Rochdale local education authority.

Like other areas, since 1997 Rochdale has benefited from the initiatives that the Government have put in place to recruit and retain teachers and to increase the number of staff supporting them in schools. Since 1997, the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained schools in the former Lancashire LEA area has risen by 60, from 1,830 to 1,890 in 2003. Over the same period, the number of full-time equivalent school support staff in the area has grown by 610 from 510 to 1,120 in 2003.

Jim Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teaching assistants there were in schools in Heywood and Middleton(a) in each of the last seven years and (b) on the latest date for which figures are available. [168579]

Mr. Miliband

The following table gives the numbers of full time equivalent teaching assistants in maintained schools in Heywood and Middleton constituency for each year between 1997 and 2003, the latest year for which data are available.

Number
1997 110
1998 120
1999 130
2000 150
2001 240
2002 300
2003 320
Source:
Annual Schools' Census.