HC Deb 28 May 2004 vol 422 cc118-9W
Mrs. Brooke

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) pursuant to the answer of 17 May 2004,Official Report, column 712W, on special educational needs, how much funding has been made available for professional development of teachers in relation to special educational needs for (a)primary and (b)secondary schools in each of the last five years; [176054]

(2) pursuant to the answer of 17 May 2004, Official Report, column 712W, on special educational needs, how many teachers have received professional development training in relation to special educational needs in each of the past five years; and what elements this training comprised. [176055]

Margaret Hodge

Schools have the autonomy within their overall school budgets to determine how much they make available for training purposes in the light of their own priorities and needs. It is therefore not possible to disaggregate funding for professional development in relation to special educational needs.

For the last five years, the SEN component of the Department's Standard Fund, which local authorities and primary and secondary schools could use to support training and development of teachers and other staff, was:

£ million
2000–01 55
2001–02 82
2002–03 91
2003–04 81
2004–05 84
1SEN element of the new School Development Grant.

Information on actual take-up of professional development by teachers is not collected centrally.

Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what monitoring takes place of Special Education Needs Tribunal (SENDIST) panels; and what statistics are kept of judgments by individual SENDISTs of(a)findings in favour of parents and (b)dismissals of appeals. [176081]

Margaret Hodge

The President of the Tribunal observes a sample of hearings in order to monitor the performance of chairmen. She also reviews panels' decisions and pursues vigorously all complaints about the conduct of hearings. SENDIST plans in the coming year to introduce a more formal appraisal system for tribunal chairs and members.

Detailed statistics of the outcomes of appeals are published annually in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Annual Report. This sets out numbers of appeals upheld and dismissed in terms of type of appeal, type of special educational need and type of school. It also sets out the number of appeals registered for each local authority and the number of appeals per 10,000 of the school population.