HC Deb 11 May 2004 vol 421 cc289-92W
Mr. Kaufman

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many(a) Sure Start centres and (b) early excellence centres have been created in Manchester, Gorton; [167451]

(2) how many new nurseries have been established in Manchester, Gorton since 1997. [167452]

Margaret Hodge

Sure Start Hyde Road Local Programme covers the majority of the Gorton constituency and is currently under development. It was approved by the Sure Start Unit with indicative capital funding of £1,250,000 in May 2003 and the programme is expected to submit their capital plan for this money in the summer. No Early Excellence Centres have been created in Gorton since 1997.

Manchester City Council is responsible for determining local need for nursery provision in Gorton and holding information on current provision. Under the Neighbourhood Nurseries scheme 534 new nursery places have been opened in Manchester, although none of these fall within Gorton constituency.

Mr. Simmonds

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of childcare for(a) children from minority ethnic groups, (b) children with special needs and (c) children with disabilities. [171366]

Margaret Hodge

The Government are committed to inclusive practice and this principle underpins our strategic guidance to local authorities. Local authorities are required to have policies for equality in developing Early Years and childcare services.

My Department funded four pilot programmes in local authorities during 2003–04 to develop practical ways of ensuring equal access to Early Years and childcare settings for ethnic minority families and recently held a conference to disseminate the findings.

All settings in receipt of nursery education funding are required to appoint one of their staff as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and local authorities have received specific funding for this purpose over 2004–05 and 2005–06. Every authority is expected to appoint a network of Area Special Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) with a ratio of one Area SENCO to every 20 non-maintained settings delivering funded early education. These coordinators are responsible for training and supporting setting-based SENCOs and other childcare staff to meet the needs of disabled children.

Removing Barriers to Achievement, the Government's strategy for SEN, outlines further actions that Government and our partners will take to improve childcare provision for children with special needs or disabilities. We are taking a range of actions on improving information for the parents of disabled children, improving the co-ordination and responsiveness of childcare services and training the childcare workforce so that children's needs are met.

Mr. Willetts

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the funding streams and grants which are available to providers of childcare in respect of children over eight years; and for each one, what the expenditure was in each year for which the scheme has been in existence. [171602]

Margaret Hodge

There is no grant funding available or statistics collated exclusively for providers of childcare in respect of children over eight years. What providers can access is resources available to provide childcare for children from three to 14, and up to 16 for children with special needs. The key funder of out of school childcare has been the Lottery through the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) Out of School Programme since its inception in 1999.

While figures cannot be broken down year on year, from April 1999 to March 2003, NOF grant awards totalled over £270,857,247 million in England. This is because the process of NOF grant funding was based on a rolling allocation of set periods of time rather than an annual award.

From August 2003, local authorities bid direct to the Department as part of the new Sure Start Out of School Programme launched in 2003. In 2003/04, grants allocated from Sure Start provided £19 million for out of school care. For 2004/06, £1.2 billion has been allocated to local authorities to support the growth of childcare and Early Years services. This includes funding to create 250,000 new childcare places, some of which will be out of school places.

In 2003/04, £2.73 million has been made available to support the childcare element of the main extended schools programme. For 2004/05, this figure has grown to £7.6 million.

Mr. Benton

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many child care places have been created in Bootle since 1997. [171298]

Margaret Hodge

The Department is unable to provide details of child care places, for Bootle. However, from April 1999 to March 2004 Sefton Local Authority created 3,590 new child care places helping some 6,440 children. This shows an increase in the stock of child care places, taking into account turnover, of 2,009 helping some 3,700 children.

Mr. Borrow

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the number of children in South Ribble who have gained from the National Childcare Strategy. [171666]

Margaret Hodge

The Department is unable to provide details of childcare places for South Ribble. However, from April 1999 to March 2004, Lancashire local authority created 22,581 new childcare places helping some 39,808 children. This shows an increase in the stock of childcare places. taking into account turnover, of 9,826, helping some 17,631 children.

Mr. Borrow

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many new nurseries have been established in South Ribble since 1997. [171667]

Margaret Hodge

Lancashire county council is responsible for determining local need for nursery places in South Ribble and hold information on current provision. Under the Neighbourhood Nurseries scheme, 799 new nursery places have been created in 22 nurseries in Lancashire, and a further two nurseries providing 106 places are planned. None of these nurseries are within South Ribble constituency.

Mr. Simmonds

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the effectiveness of ChildcareLink. [171306]

Margaret Hodge

The ChildcareLink programme consists of two separate parts—The ChildcareLink Phoneline and the ChildcareLink website:

ChildcareLink Telephone Help Line

Set up in 1999, the ChildcareLink phoneline provides a signposting service for callers looking for information on child care and early years. The majority of callers are directed to their local Children's Information Service (CIS).

The phoneline covers England and Scotland and is available from 8 am—8 pm Monday to Friday and from 9 am—12 pm on Saturday. These hours offer a service that is accessible to people who do not have the time to look for child care in the 9 am—5 pm working day. Being national, the service also provides a useful service for those looking for child care outside their local area.

The phoneline has a high level of usage and received approx 33,170 calls in 2003.

ChildcareLink website

Set up in 1999, the ChildcareLink website provides details of registered childcare provision across England and Scotland. The service enables users to look for details of registered child care in their local area as well as giving them access to supporting information that would assist them in their search, such as advice on how to pay for child care, and a description of the different types of child care on offer.

The website is available 24 hours a day and, being national, the user is not limited to look only for child care in their local area but can search across the whole of England and Scotland.

The website has a high level of usage and received approx 1.1 million visits during 2003 encompassing over 70 million hits.