UK • Written Answer To

WORDS FROM WESTMINSTER Friday 26th October 2012 Contents:

Parliamentary Questions and Written Answers- UK

 Written Answer to Andrew Stephenson’s question about free school meals eligibility  Written Answer to Gloria De Piero’s question on Obesity  Written Answer to Helen Jones’ question on free school meals eligibility  Written Answer to Karen Lumley’s question on additional funding from the pupil premium  Written Answer to Andrew Stephenson’s question about allocation of pupil premium  Lords Oral Answers to Lord Hill of Oareford on the pupil premium

Parliamentary Questions and Debates – Devolved

 Written Answer to Mervyn Storey’s question on a review of free school meal criteria and extension of tax credits to post-primary pupils  Written Question tabled Helen Eadie on whether the Scottish Government will host a summit on rheumatoid arthritis

Free School Meals – House of Commons: Written Answers – 22 October

Andrew Stephenson (Conservative, Pendle): To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps his Department is taking to help identify children who are entitled to free school meals. [123170]

David Laws (Minister for State) : The Government are committed to increasing the take-up of free school meals for all pupils who are entitled to them. We want disadvantaged children to benefit from a nutritious meal, and for their schools to receive extra funding through the pupil premium in order to help them to raise the attainment of these pupils.

Identifying which children are entitled to free school meals can be difficult, and something we are seeking to address as part of our reforms to eligibility for free school meals from 2013. A child is only eligible for free school meals if his or her parent is in receipt of an eligible benefit and an application to receive a free school meal has been made. It is not possible to identify those pupils who are entitled to free school meals who have not made an application. We have therefore taken a number of steps to encourage parents to apply for free school meals.

Our funding for the School Food Trust enables it to carry out work to improve the take-up of healthy, school lunches, and specifically to increase take-up of free school meals. The School Food Trust's "Free School Meals Matter Toolkit" provides schools with information and advice to help them to encourage all eligible pupils to register for, and take, their free school meal.

We have streamlined the application process by developing an online eligibility checking service (ECS), which allows local authorities to check data held by the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Home Office to establish a family's free school meal eligibility quickly. We are encouraging local authorities to increase their use of this resource, which, as well as reducing bureaucracy and cost at a local level, encourages more parents to sign up their children for a free school lunch. For those authorities that choose to use it, the ECS allows parents to check their own eligibility and to apply online for free school meals.

In November 2011, we further encouraged take-up by sending registration messages to parents, schools and local authorities. The school census figures published on 21 June 2012 show that registration for free school meals increased by 0.1% in both primary and secondary schools nationally.

The Department will shortly be publishing a Research Report "Pupils not claiming Free School Meals", showing estimates of the numbers of pupils who are entitled to free school meals, but are not claiming them, living in each local authority.

Obesity – House of Commons: Written Answers – 22 October

Gloria De Piero (Labour, Ashfield): To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people (a) under 16, (b) aged between 18 and 24, (c) aged between 25 and 64 and (d) aged 65 years and over in (i) Ashfield, (ii) Nottinghamshire, (iii) the East Midlands and (iv) England were treated for obesity-related illnesses in each of the last five years. [123690]

Anna Soubry (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health): The information requested is not collected in the format requested. The Health and Social Care Information Centre has provided a count of finished admission episodes(1) with a primary diagnosis of obesity(2) for England, East Midlands Strategic Health Authority(3)

(SHA) and Nottinghamshire County Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT), for the years 2006- 07 to 2010-11

This information is provided in the following table. Information is not collected for Ashfield.

(1) Finished admission episodes. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of in- patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.

(2) Primary diagnosis. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006- 07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data

set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. The ICD10 code for obesity is E66.

(3) SHA/PCT of residence. The strategic health authority (SHA) or primary care trust (PCT) containing the patient's normal home address. This does not necessarily reflect where the patient was treated as they may have travelled to another SHA/PCT for treatment.

(4) Assessing growth through time (In-patients). HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in national health service practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.

Age Place of residence Under 16 to 18 to 25 to-64 65+ Unknown 16 17 24

2006-07 England 656 80 104 2,861 161 -

East Midlands SHA 21 1 5 405 13 -

Nottinghamshire County - - * 69 * - Teaching PCT

2007-08 England 747 81 147 3,829 210 4

East Midlands SHA 31 8 17 626 26 -

Nottinghamshire County - - - 119 * - Teaching PCT

2008-09 England 774 101 221 6,603 283 3

East Midlands SHA 22 4 50 1,803 37 -

Nottinghamshire County * - - 393 10 - Teaching PCT

2009-10 England 632 109 252 9,108 465 2

East Midlands SHA 22 2 25 1,950 58 -

Nottinghamshire County * - - 469 15 - Teaching PCT

2010-11 England 525 89 286 10,094 571 8

East Midlands SHA 14 2 22 1,523 62 -

Nottinghamshire County * - * 347 25 - Teaching PCT

Note: Small numbers. To protect patient confidentiality, where presented below SHA level, figures between 1 and 5 have been replaced with "*" (an asterisk). Where it was still possible to identify figures from the total, additional figures (with the smallest data loss) have also been replaced with an "*" . Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Further Education: Free School Meals – House of Commons: Written Answers – 24 October

Helen Jones (Labour, Warrington North): To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will estimate the number of students in further education colleges who would be entitled to free meals in (a) Warrington, (b) the North West and (c) England if the criteria used to determine eligibility for free meals in sixth forms were applied to such students; and if he will make a statement. [124329]

David Laws (Minister for Education): ]: It is not possible to determine whether learners in colleges would meet the current free school meals criteria. However, we can estimate how many 16-18 year olds in FE colleges and sixth form colleges were eligible for free school meals (FSM) when they were in year 11 and this is shown in the following table.

16-18 y ear olds in further education colleges and sixth form colleges in Warrington, the North West and England, 2010/11 by FSM status at age 15

Full time/ p art time status North Warrington England in post-16 study West

16-18 y ear olds in further education colleges and sixth form colleges in Warrington, the North West and England, 2010/11 by FSM status at age 15

Full time/ p art time status North Warrington England in post-16 study West Eligible for FSM at Full-time education 340 18,410 92,365 15 Part-time education 10 2,570 13,800

Total 350 20,980 106,165

Not eligible for FSM Full-time education 3,180 89,050 530,510 at 15 Part-time education 90 7,580 57,990

Total 3,270 96,630 588,500912

Unknown FSM Full-time education 115 8,470 65,720 status at 15 Part-time education 25 3,235 19,205

Total 140 11,700 84,925

All Full-time education 3,630 115,930 688,595 Part-time education 125 13,385 90,995

Total 3,755 129,315 779,590

Note: Data are rounded to the nearest five students. The components of each table may not sum to the total due to independent rounding.

Pupils: Disadvantage - House of Commons: Written Answers – 24 October

Karen Lumley (Conservative, Redditch): To ask the Secretary of State for Education what additional funding has been given to schools in Worcestershire through the pupil premium. [122407]

David Laws (Minister of State for Education): The pupil premium was introduced in April 2011. Pupil premium funding is provided to schools which have on roll pupils known to be eligible for free school meals (the deprivation premium); children in care who have been continuously looked after for at least six months (the looked after child premium); and children whose parents are serving in the armed forces (the service child premium).In the financial year 2011-12, 9,820 pupils in Worcestershire local authority area were eligible for the deprivation premium, the looked after child premium or service child premium, attracting £4.77 million. In the financial year 2012-13, 14,080 pupils in Worcestershire local authority area were eligible for the deprivation premium, the looked after child premium or service child premium, attracting £8.629 million. The deprivation and looked after premium

is set to rise to £900 per pupil in 2013-14 and the service premium is set to rise to £300 per pupil. Figures relating to the number of pupils eligible for the pupil premium in 2013-14 are not yet available. Provisional estimates will be published on the Department for Education's website when the data is available.

Pupils: Disadvantage - House of Commons: Written Answers – 24 October

Andrew Stephenson (Conservative, Pendle): To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much pupil premium will be allocated to schools in Pendle constituency in 2012-13 and 2013-14. [123244]

David Laws (Minister of State for Education): The pupil premium was introduced in April 2011. Pupil premium funding is provided to schools which have on roll pupils known to be eligible for free school meals (the deprivation premium); children in care who have been continuously looked after for at least six months (the looked after child premium); and children whose parents are serving in the armed forces (the service child premium). In the financial year 2012-13, 3,440 pupils in Pendle constituency area were eligible for either the deprivation premium or service child premium, attracting £2.057 million. It is not possible to identify, at constituency level, the number of pupils eligible for the looked after child premium or the number of pupils eligible for the deprivation premium in alternative provision settings. The deprivation and looked after premium is set to rise to £900 per pupil in 2013-14 and the service premium is set to rise to £300 per pupil. Figures relating to the number of pupils eligible for the pupil premium in 2013-14 are not yet available. Provisional estimates will be published on the Department for Education's website when the data is available.

Schools: Pupil Premium - House of Lords: Oral Answers– 24 October

Baroness Massey of Darwen: To ask Her Majesty's Government how the pupil premium will be monitored to ensure that it benefits individual children.

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): My Lords, we want to help schools to narrow attainment gaps. One way of doing that is through the pupil premium, which represents additional funding rising to £900 per pupil next year for children on free school meals. From this September, schools have to publish details of how they use their premium. My department publishes in the school performances tables information about disadvantaged pupils' achievement. Ofsted has a closer focus on how the premium is used and on how it benefits pupils.

Baroness Massey of Darwen: I thank the Minister for that reply. I am sure he is aware that a recent Ofsted report states that very few teacher leaders think that the pupil premium has changed the way in which they support disadvantaged pupils. I understand from him that Ofsted will in future be asked to comment specifically on the use of the pupil premium. What effective measures will be chosen to assess those reports?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): The principle that we are adopting generally in introducing the pupil premium is to leave discretion on how it is spent as much as possible to individual heads because they will know the circumstances of the children for whom they are responsible. However, the noble Baroness is right that those approaches that are working well-which we will discover through the publication online of details of how schools have done, through inspections by Ofsted and through spreading good practice through the education endowment fund-should be spread as widely as possible, with lessons being learnt from them.

Lord Storey: My Lords, the Minister will be aware that, according to an Ofsted survey of, I think, 300 schools, 50% were using the money effectively and were seeing real changes. How can we ensure that the other 50% are using the money, which we have heard is going up next year, in such an effective way?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): My answer makes a similar point. It is important that we learn lessons from the ones that are spending it effectively. We will do that through the work of the Education Endowment Foundation, which was set up specifically to spread good practice and help other schools learn the most effective ways of tackling disadvantage. It is early days, but as more information is published, the fact that from this September schools are having to account for how they have spent their money and what they have spent it on, and demonstrate a linkage between that money and results, will help us achieve the goal of my noble friend Lord Storey.

Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, is the Minister aware that almost all Roma children, no matter how poor they are, do not qualify for the pupil premium because their parents may not have been here long enough. What can the Government do to remedy this manifest inequality?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): I understand how dear a subject that is to the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker. The reason that we have gone for a single and simple measure of eligibility, based around free school meal status, is that we think it is important to keep the pupil premium as simple as possible so that we can learn the lessons and not make it too complex. The best proxy that we felt that we could have was economic disadvantage, because we know the difference there is between how the poorest children achieve and how better-off children achieve. That is why we went for that simple measure.

Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, given that 50% of the schools are perhaps not using the pupil premium effectively, what role does the Minister expect school governors to play in ensuring that the money does in fact go to the right pupils?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote, agrees with me on the importance of the role of governors generally in concentrating on the performance of the school and the achievement of pupils. One of the key indicators that there will be, through Ofsted and the performance tables, is how schools are doing, particularly for children on free school meals. Governors can play an extremely important part in holding the head, and the rest of the school, to account for delivering that.

Lord Avebury: Further to the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, will my noble friend confirm that, in future, Ofsted inspections will pay specific regard to the position of GRT-Gypsy, Roma and Traveller-pupils, bearing in mind that they are the most deprived group of any section of the community in terms of educational achievement and attainment?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): My Lords, as I think I said to the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, the focus of the Ofsted inspection is particularly on children suffering from economic disadvantage-those on free school meals- and those are the criteria and judgments that Ofsted will be using.

Lord Touhig: My Lords, three tries for a Welshman. Many parents, including those with autistic children, are told that schools do not have funding to support their child's special educational needs. I do not think they are helped by the fact that the Government have failed to publish guidance to schools on the use of the pupil premium. Can the noble Lord tell us whether the reforms of the SEN system will ensure that the pupil premium is now better used to help children with special needs?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): My Lords, generally the reform to the special educational needs system through the Bill that the Government will be bringing forward next year will help tackle the needs of all children with special needs more effectively than the current system. Not all those children will be suffering from economic disadvantage, so, in addition, the pupil premium will, I hope, help to tackle that issue. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, that we need to make sure that we spread good practice. The Government have a role through things like the Education Endowment Foundation, which is an independent organisation that can spread good practice. We certainly need to make sure that best practice on how money is spent on children with special educational needs is spread through the system.

Lord Lucas: My Lords, is my noble friend aware that there is a lively business among private companies in helping kids who have left school with no English or Maths to get up to Level 2 standard and that they charge rather less than a pupil premium for doing it? Does he think that schools might make use of that resource as well as employers?

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools): One of the important principles of the pupil premium is that schools can decide how to spend that money. If they are sensible they will go to a range of providers to help to narrow those gaps.

Baroness Hughes of Stretford: My Lords, it is welcome news that in the future schools will be required to report on how they spend the pupil premium but many pupils have already lost out because, according to Ofsted, the money that schools have had has been misspent. Will the Government go further now and ring-fence the pupil premium and give schools the proper guidance that my noble friend Lord Touhig referred to? That would ensure that the money really is focused on individual disadvantaged children with schools purchasing interventions that we know work.

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools: Spreading good practice, yes, ring-fence, no, my Lords.

Free School Meals Criteria – Northern Ireland Assembly : Written Answers Booklet – 25 October

Mervyn Storey (Democratic Unionist Party, North Antrim): To ask the Minister of Education when he will review the criteria for free school meals and extend the working tax credit entitlements to pupils in the post-primary sector. [AQW 15960/11-15]

Answer: I have no plans at present to extend the free school meal Working Tax Credit criterion to post-primary pupils and the pupil's eligibility will therefore cease when he/she transfers to post-primary school. The reason the criterion is not being extended to post- primary pupils is that by targeting younger children it is considered that the greatest impact will be achieved with the available budget. This is consistent with the wider strategy for child poverty that early intervention is more efficient at lifting children out of poverty. Early intervention also has more impact in encouraging healthy eating habits which are more likely to be carried on independently at post-primary school. My Department is, however, reviewing the eligibility criteria at present in light of the introduction of Universal Credit in April 2014 as part of the welfare reform proposals. Under this a number of the existing benefits which are currently used to determine eligibility for free school meals and clothing allowances, including Working Tax Credit, will be replaced. It will be necessary, therefore, to amend the criteria to take account of this change. [AQW 15960/11-15]

Rheumatoid Arthritis: Summit –Scottish Parliament : Written Questions Tabled– 25 October

Helen Eadie (Labour/Co-Operative, Cowdenbeath): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will host a summit on rheumatoid arthritis involving key stakeholders in the NHS and local authorities to highlight the importance that it gives to tackling this condition. [S4W-10470] (For answer 09/11/2012)