The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) is the process by which government departments receive their allocations of money from HM Treasury. Public Service Agreements then ensure that departments undertake to spend this money to achieve certain outcomes.
CSR 2007, which reported on 9 October, set departmental spending plans and priorities for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. It is the second comprehensive review, following the first CSR in 1997. There were smaller intermittent reviews in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
The CSR represents a long-term and fundamental review of government expenditure, to identify what investments and reforms are needed to equip the UK for the challenges of the next decade.
Preparatory work for CSR 2007
An assessment of what has been achieved since the first CSR, in order to set new objectives for the decade ahead
An examination of the key long-term trends and challenges that will shape the next decade, together with an assessment of how public services will need to respond. The challenges will include demographic and socio-economic change, globalisation, climate and environmental change, global insecurity and technological change. A number of policy reviews have considered how the Government should respond
Reviews of departments' baseline expenditure, to assess the Government's effectiveness in delivering its long-term objectives
Development of the Government's efficiency programme
Timeline
July 2005
Review announced
2006-07
Policy reviews reporting – for a full list see below, but main reviews are:
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Children and Young People Review (HM Treasury and DfES) 2007
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Eddington Transport Study (Sir Rod Eddington for HM Treasury and Department for Transport) 2006
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Barker Review of Land Use Planning (Kate Barker for HM Treasury and DCLG) 2006
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Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change (Sir Nicholas Stern for HM Treasury and Cabinet Office) 2006
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Lyons Inquiry into Local Government (Sir Michael Lyons for HM Treasury and DCLG) 2007
April 2007
DfES (now DCSF and DIUS) receives an early settlement of its allocation in the Budget
Autumn 2007
CSR reports
PSAs formulated and feed into Local Area Agreements
DfES: Department for Education and Skills
DCLG: Department for Communities and Local Government
DCSF: Department for Children, Schools and Families (replaced DfES)
DIUS: Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (replaced DfES)
PSAs were introduced in the first CSR. They set out the Government's top priorities, in the form of targets detailing the outputs and outcomes departments are expected to deliver with the resources allocated to them. The Government monitors progress against PSA targets, and departments report in detail twice a year. With most existing PSAs coming to an end during the review period, a new set of PSAs in the 2007 CSR will express a smaller, more focused list of just 30 key priority outcomes, down from the original 600. These will work across government, rather than being tied to particular departments as before.
Each PSA will be underpinned by national level indicators (there are around 200 of these in total), with precise targets being attached only where this is the most effective way of driving delivery. For the first time each PSA will have a single cross-departmental Delivery Agreement: a published plan informed by consultation with the delivery chain, and setting out the role of the different partners involved and the way in which progress will be measured. The PSAs will be complemented by a wider set of strategic objectives within each department.
PSAs feed into Local Area Agreements (LAAs), which are the delivery plans that local areas agree with central government, setting out how they will achieve their strategic vision for the area.
Policy reviews
To inform the CSR the Government undertook a series of policy reviews to identify the actions and reforms necessary to make progress against its goals. These reviews were a means for the Treasury to generate policy proposals in partnership with departments, which could then be budgeted for within the CSR. These reviews come under four headings.
Fairness and social justice
• A review of support for children and young people – looking at how a stronger preventative approach can break the cycle of disadvantage across generations
• A review of mental health outcomes and employment – looking at how people with mental health problems can be supported to work, benefiting their health and the wider economy
Sustainable growth and employment
• The Leitch Review of Skills – setting out the skills profile that the UK should aim to achieve by 2020 in order to maximise productivity and growth over the long term
• The Eddington Transport Study – looking at the long-term impact of transport decisions on economic growth, productivity and stability
• Lord Sainsbury of Turville's review of science and innovation policies – looking at ensuring the UK's continued success in wealth creation and scientific policy making
• A review of the infrastructure needed to support housing and population growth
• The Barker review of planning policy – looking at delivering economic growth and prosperity alongside other sustainable development goals
• A review of subnational interventions – looking at their effectiveness on economic development and the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods
A more secure and fair world
• A review of counter-terrorism and security strategies
• The Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change
Modern, efficient and responsive local and national government and public services
• The Varney review of service transformation – looking at making public services more responsive, by making them more accountable, personalised and accessible to users
• Sir Michael Lyons' Inquiry – looking at the funding, role and function of local government
• A review of the third sector's role in social and economic regeneration – engaging in the largest ever consultation with the sector
Literacy in the lead-up to the Comprehensive Spending Review
Pre-Budget Report
The 2006 Pre-Budget Report, which indicated the priorities to be addressed by the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), placed a high priority on literacy. It contained three directly relevant announcements:
The roll-out of the Every Child a Reader programme, extending help for struggling readers to 30,000 children by 2011
A £4 million national book gifting scheme for children aged five and 11, building on the early years Bookstart scheme
Measures to improve boys' literacy, making £10 million available to the 400 secondary schools where the gap between boys' and girls' achievement is widest
Policy review of children and young people
The CSR's policy review of children and young people, Aiming high for children: supporting families, continues the literacy theme, and has four main areas of focus.
1) There is a need to build resilience in children in order to improve their outcomes. This involves three factors:
Attainment in education
Good social and emotional skills
Positive parenting
The report details the following measures (most of which were announced in the Every Parent Matters document or the Pre-Budget Report):
• Additional funding for Sure Start Children's Centres, childcare and early years of at least £340 million by 2010-11 compared with 2007-08, as well as extension of the weekly entitlement to early education for three and four year-olds to 15 hours by 2010
• Building on the Every Child a Reader programme by providing an average of 10 hours' one-to-one teacher-led tuition in English for 300,000 under-attaining pupils a year
• Funding so that by 2010-11 schools can offer two hours of free extended activities a week during term time, with two weeks a year of part-time holiday provision for children eligible for free school meals
• Rolling out to all schools the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme – building social and emotional skills and providing the foundation for higher academic attainment
• More support to help parents support their children's development: specific activities for fathers in children's centres, new investment in a universal advice and guidance service for all parents and more intensive support for up to 30,000 parents who most need parenting support, focusing particularly on fathers
Literacy is mentioned specifically in connection with the roll-out of Every Child A Reader and the need to narrow attainment gaps (between boys and girls, and between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and others). The report also recognises that children's early language development predicts their later social and emotional skills, and that parental involvement has a significant impact on children's development of literacy and numeracy skills – more so than schools.
2) The report advocates greater personalisation of services that support children and families: in particular, children's centres, health services such as midwives and health visitors, schools and youth services. Such services must be responsive to families, offering support earlier and tailoring it in accordance with need.
3) Services should provide proactive support for those who need it most. The Government will set out a Parents' Charter, stating the minimum level of support that parents should expect from local services, what is available where parents have greater need, and in return the responsibilities of parents towards their children. Existing and new support for parents will need to reach out to those most in need who may traditionally be less likely to receive it – and in particular, ensure that fathers get the support they need to play a full role in their child's development.
4) The report sets out measures to help families to break out of a cycle of low achievement. A relatively small number of families have complex needs, and their children tend to be those with the worst outcomes. The Government expects that all local areas will provide integrated 'whole-family' support for these families, through lead professionals and/or multi-agency teams, and with conditions explicitly set out where appropriate – for example through parenting contracts. The Government will provide £13 million over the CSR period to enable a number of local areas to set up pathfinder projects that will help to drive change.
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