T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. (81745)

The Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), recently announced that we will spend more money to ensure that all disadvantaged two-year-olds have access to 15 hours of pre-school learning. Consultation is now taking place to ensure that the most deserving children get the best possible start in life, and I encourage all Members to contribute.

Over the past year there has been a 10% increase in the number of children in reception classes in the London borough of Croydon, with further increases predicted in September 2012 and September 2013. I warmly welcome the almost £8 million that my right hon. Friend announced last week, but at the risk of sounding like Oliver Twist I also hope that there will be further such tranches of money in future.

My hon. Friend not only sounds like Oliver Twist, but displays a sense of “Great Expectations” about what I can get out of the Chancellor—[Hon. Members: “‘Hard Times’!”] Well, really it is a “Tale of Two Cities”: the City of London under Labour, under-regulated and, sadly, not paying the taxes that it should have; and the City of London under the Conservatives—at last getting the resources into the Exchequer which, I hope, on a serious point we can give to the children in Croydon, who do need more school places.

T4. Has the Secretary of State yet woken up to the depth of anger among teachers, illustrated by a head teacher in my constituency, just coming up to retirement, who tells me that she feels cheated by a Government who want her to work longer for less, when she has already delivered her half of the bargain? (81749)

First, I say to the right hon. Gentleman that if the head teacher in his constituency is coming up for retirement, she will be pleased to know that, under the coalition Government’s proposals, she will be not be affected by any change to her pension whatsoever.

T2. Leicestershire county council is currently reviewing the availability of school walking routes, including the one to Humphrey Perkins high school from Sileby to Barrow in my constituency. The county council considers that route to be reasonably safe, but the head teacher, the parents, the pupils and I do not. Will the Minister tell me the Government’s view on when safety becomes more important than the simple availability of a route? (81746)

I am aware of my hon. Friend’s interest in this issue. I recently met the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), with another hon. Member and one of his councillors who were raising the same point. I simply point out to my hon. Friend—I am very sympathetic to this point—that local authorities are under a duty to make travel arrangements where the nature of the route to school is such that the child cannot be reasonably expected to walk in reasonable safety. Councils should not be re-designating roads without having done a safety check, and we should be asking some questions.

T5. Research suggests that continuous teacher training offers the surest route for school improvements. What steps is the Secretary of State’s Department taking in conjunction with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ensure that university departments are opening up to local schools, so that teachers are up to speed with the latest scholarship and can inspire their pupils? (81750)

That is a typically acute point from the hon. Gentleman. One of the things we are doing is to invite the new group of 100 teaching schools that we have designated to play a closer role in collaboration with universities. Just last week, I was talking to the Royal Society about how important it is that universities and learned societies ensure that the best teachers can become accredited as masters in their field so that they remain up to speed with developments in their subject.

T3. The Minister has made great headway in ensuring that looked-after children are not sent beyond their local authority boundary. However, 30 children from Greenwich have been placed in South Thanet in addition to the number it has placed before, and the number from Lewisham has increased by 15 in the past six months. I wonder what more we can do. (81748)

I am well aware of my hon. Friend’s genuine interest in that matter and she has been to see me with other colleagues. When we brought in the new guidance earlier this year, I wrote to every director of children’s services to remind them of their obligations to house looked-after children as close to home as possible. I have taken the matter up again with the office of the Mayor of London and will be making further representations to those London boroughs that particularly impact on south-eastern seaside resorts such as her own. They should not have to take such large pressure.

T8. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Wolverhampton will be one of the biggest losers from the Government’s new national funding formula. Schools in my constituency stand to lose 10% of their funding, whereas schools in Buckinghamshire will gain 10%. Why is the Secretary of State so determined to take from the poor to give to the rich? (81753)

The Institute for Fiscal Studies projections were based on its guesses. However, something it has said about reality rather than the future is that, at the moment, this Government are ensuring that schools educating the poorest receive the most, because our pupil premium will be worth £2.5 billion by the end of this Parliament. That is something the Government the hon. Lady supported last time round never did.

T7. Is the Secretary of State aware that many, many parents of children with special needs who were struggling to find a suitable school will be very pleased that he has decided to extend the free schools programme to special schools? How many special schools does he estimate will be free schools within the next few years and how many children does he estimate that will help? (81752)

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for her point. We need to ensure that all children who have special needs are better educated and we particularly need to ensure that the energy and enthusiasm of people in the third sector are galvanised. At this stage, I cannot give her a firm figure on how many students and schools are involved; all I know is that a small bridgehead will expand over the course of this Parliament.

The Secretary of State will no doubt be delighted to hear that, on Friday, I visited the university technical college in Walsall and, credit where it is due, it was fantastic. He will also be pleased to hear that tomorrow I am meeting Lord Baker to discuss my campaign to bring a UTC to Dudley. Sadly, only one of the 70-odd UTCs that will open nationally is currently in the black country. Will the Secretary of State meet me too, so we can discuss how we can open a UTC in Dudley and deal with the urgent need to drive up vocational standards and bring new jobs and industries to the area?

It would be a joy.

So many members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, owe their start in life to private education. Many other European countries have many more bridges between private and state education, with, for instance, the state paying the salaries of teachers in private schools. Will the Secretary of State confirm that he has not ruled out new, imaginative ways of helping ordinary people to access private education?

I try never to rule anything out; life is too short. To return to the Oliver Twist metaphor that we had earlier, I want to ensure that we do not just save Oliver and leave the Artful Dodger and the rest of Fagin’s gang to the wolves, but ensure that every child in poverty is helped. It is therefore important that we all put pressure on independent schools to live up to their charitable foundation by sponsoring academies and doing more for all children in need.

The findings of the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Rotherham metropolitan borough indicate that secondary school education will take a spending cut of between 11.8% and 13.4%. Given that Rotherham is still in the highest 20% of deprived areas in this country, what has happened to the concept of “We’re all in it together”?

As a deprived area, Rotherham will, over the lifetime of this Parliament, benefit increasingly from the pupil premium. The report to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is a projection—a guess. The IFS is a fantastic think-tank, but it is speculating, not stating.

Let me point out that every single question from Opposition Front Benchers during the course of this Question Time was a plea for more money; not a single question was about the case for reform. In a nutshell, there we have the problem with today’s Labour party: an outstretched hand demanding more cash but not a single thing to say about raising standards.

Here is a question about reform, not extra cash. With early adopter schools that are well equipped to convert to academies already on the pace in becoming free-standing academies, what extra support, advice and guidance can my right hon. Friend give to the middle area of schools that are considering moving to being an academy but have not yet got up the nerve to make that change?

All I would say is this, “Come on in. The water’s lovely.” In Bedford and Bedfordshire, schools that have converted to academy status have already seen their standards increase, and their head teachers have been able to ensure that money is spent on the pupils’ priorities, not the bureaucracies’ priorities. I am looking forward to working with my hon. Friend and all Bedfordshire MPs to ensure that more schools convert to academy status and, in so doing, raise standards for all children.

On academies and capital expenditure, the Secretary of State will recall that I was recently in touch with him, yet again, about Woodlands school in Coventry, which, having narrowly missed out on Building Schools for the Future, has turned into an academy in its desperation for some support from the Government and now finds that it is still not eligible for any further capital expenditure. Will he look at that and do something about it?

The Priority School building programme exists specifically to help schools like Woodlands. At the moment, we are inviting bids from schools across the country and assessing those bids against each other. In due course, there will be an announcement about additional capital support for the schools in the worst condition.

Now that the Education Act 2011 has Royal Assent, the Minister will be looking at criteria for determining whether a school causing concern should be taken over by the governing body of another school. Can he assure me that these decisions will be made on the basis of the most up-to-date assessment of a school’s progress?

That is a very fair point. We want to make sure that we target our attention on schools in the greatest need. If a school has had a historically poor record but, for example, a new head teacher or a new chair of governors has turned it round in the past 12 months, of course we will interpret the criteria flexibly.

The Secretary of State did not answer the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron), which was about the distribution of funding under the Secretary of State’s direct funding plans. Rotherham secondary schools are set to lose out by £12 million in an area where we already have high and rising deprivation. This is simply wrong. Will he give a guarantee to local parents, students and teachers that they will not lose out like this?

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, but I should say that this matter is under consultation at the moment. I should also say that the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers and every representative of head teacher opinion says that the current funding system needs to be reformed. Once again I say to him—now that he is, sadly, no longer in the shadow Cabinet—that it is not enough for Labour Members simply to ask for more; they have to push for reform as well as demanding more cash.

On that note, school children in my constituency of Bromsgrove will receive £1,000 less per head this year than those in neighbouring Birmingham. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is because under the previous Government school funding was allocated on the basis of party politics and not need?

As we say in Scotland, “Facts are chiels that winna ding.” The truth is that the current system of school funding is inequitable. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has made that case most powerfully recently.

In an earlier answer, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) again deferred to Magic Breakfast, an excellent charity, to plug the massive funding gap that has been left by the Government taking away extended schools money. Magic Breakfast provides 200 schools with free breakfast, yet 3,000 breakfast clubs have been closed across the country and thousands more are under threat. What are the Government going to do about that?

Let me have another go. Just a few weeks ago, I met the former chairman of Greggs who set up the breakfast club. That company did so not on the basis of how much money the Government were or were not putting into it or because of Government policy, but because it thought that it was the right thing to do, it was in a position to do it and it was good corporate social responsibility. The company did it and it did not take Government money to ensure that companies could step up to the mark and do their bit.

As the Secretary of State knows, support in the community of Brandon for the Breckland free school is extremely strong. Will he assure me that all expressions of interest from parents, both on official forms and on the forms from the free school, will be taken into account when he makes a decision on whether that free school should go ahead?

I had the great pleasure of meeting the parents behind that free school application. They were a fantastic model of citizen action. The Department will do everything possible to ensure that their bravery, courage and energy in ensuring that their children get the best possible education are supported to the full.

A few minutes ago, the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning talked about the increase in the number of apprentices in various parts of Britain. In Bolsover, that started three years ago when the working neighbourhoods fund was used to increase the number of apprentices in our area. Now, with the 28% cut for the local authority and the working neighbourhoods fund due to finish next spring, there will be a loss of apprenticeships in that part of Britain. Will he have a word with his colleagues to sort that out?

As the hon. Gentleman knows, this Government have produced the largest number of apprenticeships in modern history. I am very happy to look at his constituency, but I have to tell him that according the latest statistics—not my statistics, but the official figures—apprenticeship numbers in Bolsover are up by 65%.

Will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to praise those teachers and head teachers who are going to put their pupils first and refuse to go on strike a week on Wednesday?

Once again, I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I stress that it is an important civil right to be able to withdraw one’s labour. I also stress that this Government understand the widespread anxiety and anguish of hard-working public sector professionals, who deserve a decent pension. However, let me also make it clear that it is wrong for teachers and head teachers to withdraw their labour, to deprive children of a day’s education and to make life more difficult for working parents—wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is reported that youth services are taking a 25% cut on average and we know that some youth services are disappearing altogether. Will the Minister tell us how many youth projects have closed, how many youth workers have been made redundant and what he will do to ensure that local authorities fulfil their statutory responsibilities?

I cannot tell the hon. Lady how many but I will tell her that this Government are funding 63 myplace centres, the latest of which I opened in Bognor Regis just last Friday. In the next few weeks, the Government will produce their “Positive for Youth” policy, which will point to the future of new partnerships, new forms of funding and new ways of working together to ensure that our young people get decent youth services and a decent offer up and down the country. Reform needs to come to youth services in this country because the model under the previous Government was not sustainable.

To make a statement, I call the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Mark Hoban.