Literacy news
Education services face £300m of cuts
11 Mar 2010
Teacher training, extended services and IT in schools are expected to bear the brunt of a £300m cost cutting drive by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) it was revealed today.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls has disclosed details of the expected cuts, which will see education quangos' budgets cut by £135m, extended services support by £100m and funding for so-called ‘golden hellos’ to attract applicants to teaching by £50m
A further £21m of savings will cut from within the DCSF's backroom staff, with communications seeing the most severe cuts in a package of measures that involves moving Teachers TV online.
The government's IT in education body Becta will see a 40 per cent cut in its budget, amounting to £45m in cuts between 2011 and 2013. Teacher training body the Training and Development Agency is to see its non-teacher training budget cut by 30 per cent over the same period, amounting to around £55m.
Further cuts are expected within school budgets.
Ed Balls has also announced that the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services will be provided with £5m to train 250 business managers a year for the next four years.
Each business manager will work across four to five primary schools and the government estimates that access to the role can save each school up to £30,000 a year helping them make the best use of school facilities and advising on cutting costs.
Balls described the cuts as a "tough but fair settlement" saying:
"We also know that if in tough times we are to protect the frontline and ensure it can continue to deliver high-quality services to children and young people, we need to drive efficiencies and make tough choices about reducing direct spending by the DCSF and its partners."
The government has added that the buoyant recruitment market has meant that teacher training bursaries are no longer necessary for many subjects.
To read more, please visit :
Children and Young People Now:
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/bulletins/Daily-Bulletin/news/989484/?DCMP=EMC-DailyBulletin
