Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The hon. Lady should be aware that there are 300,000 available places across the country, and that it is the role of local authorities to make sure that they are open for two-year-olds. She might want to listen to comments made by the former children’s Minister, the right hon. Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge), about the previous Labour Government’s role:

“The sensible policy direction would have been to locate more and more of our childcare offer in schools rather than build other buildings.”

This Government are doing what the previous Government did not, by enabling schools to offer those places. Very few school nurseries are currently open between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm. Why does the hon. Lady not work with local authorities to help them make that happen, rather than complaining about their failure to act?

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

15. What assessment he has made of the work in primary schools of the Numbers Count programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)]

I am in favour of any intervention that improves numeracy. Improving children’s numeracy is vital for life chances. OECD research shows that an adult with strong numeracy skills is three times more likely to earn good wages and be in good health. That is why we are raising expectations in maths right through the age range.

[Duncan Hames]

This area is vital, and I was impressed with the Numbers Count classes being provided at Staverton primary school in my constituency, which I visited recently. Those classes, it was feared, would be lost across the country under the comprehensive spending review. Is it not the case that only the pupil premium ensures that even in traditionally underfunded local authorities—areas such as Wiltshire—children are getting the dedicated, personalised interventions that they need at school?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. We are giving head teachers the power to decide which programmes are most useful for their students. That is why we are establishing 30 maths hubs across the country to provide advice and expertise and to look at top-performing places such as Shanghai and Singapore, where students are three years ahead of their British peers in maths by the age of 15.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I think that the Secretary of State was referring to the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett). I feel sure that he was.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

T3. Last week, the Secretary of State described the safety of children as central to his Department’s mission. In March, prompted by information arising from the police investigation into Jimmy Savile, he ordered investigations into 21 schools and care homes. How will he co-ordinate that work with similar investigations in the NHS and report the findings to the House?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

Clearly we remain committed to doing everything we can to learn from whatever happened in those cases. In his written ministerial statement in March, the Secretary of State set out the process for doing that. My Department will be working closely with the Department of Health, in conjunction with the work being done by Kate Lampard and the work that Lucy Scott-Moncrieff will undertake to provide independent oversight of the process. Discussions between the Departments have taken place, and we hope to be able to say more about the outcome of both the investigations in the autumn.