We are not aware of any such incidents related to pupils' experience as cadets. Safeguarding incidents would be for the relevant local authority to follow up with the school and, where relevant, the local brigade.

The development of military ethos, such as self-discipline, resilience, teamwork and leadership, lead to positive outcomes both for individual young people and for society as a whole.

Alternative Provision providers inform us of progress and impact on a regular basis. They also undertake their own independent evaluation exercises. These include a study by Swansea University into Commando Joe's programmes in four schools serving 57 pupils, which found that 56% of pupils in the study improved their mathematics academic achievement grades, 46% of pupils in the study improved their academic reading achievement grades and 70% of pupils in the study improved their academic writing achievement grades.

In addition, research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) into Knowsley Skills Academy (KSA) found that 90% of the 30 individuals not in education, employment or training (NEETs) on the company's programme gained employment. NFER reported that:

“Feedback from young people, parents and other agencies indicates that KSA is making considerable progress at turning around the lives of young people and giving them the motivation and skills to make a successful return to mainstream education”.

Teacher assessment of the direct impact on 32 pupils involved in Challenger Troop programmes found that 77% of pupils showed improvement in self-control and behaviour after six months, with 10% showing improvement after one day. It also found that 86% showed improvement

in their social skills after six months and 73% showed improvement in their self-awareness and confidence after six months.

It is too early for us to assess the impact of Troops to Teachers on schools as the under-graduate programme does not commence until-January 2014.

It is also too early to make an assessment of the impact on new cadet units in schools set up under the programme in 2013. However, early discussions with schools indicate that the programme is already making a positive difference to children, as is evident in this recent quote from one school participating in the programme:

“it has offered a valuable and incredibly rich outlet to students who do not typically throw themselves into the life of the school”.

Last month the Department for Education awarded £4.8 million of grants to military ethos providers in addition to the £3.2 million already committed last academic year.

As part of a wider engagement between the services and schools, Troops to Teachers will develop eligible service leavers into teachers through a combination of additional financial support and the introduction of a bespoke initial teacher training course from January 2014.

The Cadet Expansion programme aims to create 100 new cadet units based in English state funded schools by 2015. The programme has been given £10.85 million by the Department for Education and Ministry of Defence so that more young people can benefit from the cadet experience, and to increase the number of state schools benefiting from having a cadet force as part of school life.

Two studies have provided evidence on the benefits of Cadet Force membership. These are: “The Societal Impact of Cadet Forces”, November 2010, by the universities of Portsmouth and Southampton and “The Impact of Combined Cadet Force Contingents in state secondary schools in Wales”, June 2009, by the university of Wales Newport, School of Education. Results from the Portsmouth and Southampton study suggest “that cadets tend to have high levels of respect for authority and others and high levels of self-esteem. They are likely to be committed citizens and have heightened aspirations.”

Self-discipline has been shown to be a greater indicator of future success than IQ. This is set out in two reports. Duckworth, A.L, and Seligman, M.E.P. (2005) Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents’ Psychological Science, 16:12 pg. 939-944 and Feinstein, L (2000) The Relative Economic Importance of Academic, Psychological and Behavioural Attributes Developed in Childhood London: Centre for Economic Performance (LSE).

Duckworth and Seligman looked at the importance of self-discipline on a group of 13 and 14 year olds from a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse school. They conducted a two-year study of the students' self-discipline levels, finding that self-discipline was a significantly better predictor of academic performance than IQ. Feinstein finds that a sense of personal agency at the age of ten is more important to future chances than reading skills. We also know that the percentage of cadets that re-offend or commit a serious offence is significantly less than the national average.

We have evidence from the US Troops to Teachers (T3) programme that troops can make outstanding teachers who are likely to have a more significant result on the achievement of children and to remain in teaching longer than teachers recruited through other routes. The US T3 programme identified that one of the benefits that Service Leavers brought to the classroom is that they provide a role model to whom disadvantaged children can relate. This benefit was also highlighted on the BBC Panorama programme about Troops to Teachers on 28 February 2011.

Military ethos is about improving educational attainment, and those things that support it such as good behaviour and attendance, through instilling positive qualities and values such as confidence, resilience, self-control, loyalty, agency, teamwork and problem solving. These qualities are of course not exclusive to the military. In the UK we have a strong tradition of youth uniformed organisations, such as Girlguiding UK. and the Scout Association, or St John's Ambulance and the Boy's and Girl's Brigades, who have an excellent track record of developing young people from a variety of backgrounds and of building their self-esteem and ability to self-manage.

Schools may also support a wide range of non-uniformed activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the National Citizen Service and other sports, adventure and volunteering schemes.

The education system in England has a diverse range of alternative provision, delivered either in school or offsite, that helps foster these values. These include provision with work-based elements such as construction, or activity-based elements such as sports. It is for schools to decide what alternative provision is most suitable for their pupils. We have removed restrictions over maintained schools' power to direct pupils to be educated offsite for the purposes of improving their behaviour.

I also refer the hon. Member to my answer to PQ 180303.

The Department's officials are working closely with the Chair of governors of Discovery New School and West Sussex county council (WSCC) to ensure that the children's move to other local schools is managed with as little disruption as possible. WSCC is committed to working with the Department for Education to ensure that there are suitable places ready in good local schools.

WSCC contacted the school and parents on the day of the announcement and has also offered to visit the school to offer advice to parents on securing a new school place for their children. The Department will continue to liaise with WSCC and offer support throughout the process.

Schools should ensure that their curriculum provision offers opportunities for all pupils and is inclusive of those with disabilities.

The position on safeguarding responsibilities is very clear and is set out in guidance from the Department for Education and from the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

The armed forces' responsibility over safeguarding in Combined Cadet Forces (CCF) is clearly set out in two MOD Joint Service Publications (JSPs). JSP 313 includes a CCF Responsibility Matrix, which states that responsibility for Disclosure and Barring Service clearance of Contingent Officers lies with the School Head/Contingent Commander. For a CCF, the school head teacher may delegate this to the Contingent Commander, but the head teacher retains ultimate responsibility. JSP 535 is the Cadet Training Safety Precautions and sets out policy and procedures on child safeguarding and provides Cadet Force Adult Volunteers with specific guidance for dealing with accidents, incidents and child safeguarding issues.

Schools' responsibilities are set out in statutory guidance from the Department for Education on safeguarding: ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013’ and ‘Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education’. The guidance covers the issue of volunteers working with children, for example in school cadet units.

The Department does not hold records of the number of school crossing patrol services in each local authority.

The provision of the school crossing patrol service is a matter for the local authority. Legislation gives 'Appropriate Authorities' the power to make arrangements for the patrolling of places where children cross roads on their way to or from school, but does not impose a duty on them to do so.

The Department collects information about current school capacity and future pupil numbers in every local authority area, and uses this to estimate the number of new places that will be needed. The most recent published survey data relates to the position at May 2012, and includes forecasts of primary pupil numbers to 2016/17, and secondary pupil numbers to 2018/19. The data is available online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2011-to-2012

and we expect to publish updated data shortly.

The Department publishes national projections about pupil numbers—these provide a longer-term estimate of population growth, but do not reflect the need for new places. The latest assessment was published on 12 December 2013 and includes projections to 2020, available at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-projections-future-trends-in-pupil-numbers-december-2013