It seems to have taken forever but at last we know the education cuts programme. And at least for once I am not covered in egg – I more or less got them right. BSF has gone, along with a bit of the Harnessing Technology Grant, claw back is coming in big time, and there’s also a cut in the drive towards school swimming pools.
Sure Start money not spent is being reclaimed – yet another warning to schools that next April their underspend will be clawed back into central government, and in fact the school underspend reclaim is being made utterly explicit.
School buildings and services that already have contracts signed will go ahead, but those which have gone through the consultation stage involving the local populace and community services will be scrapped.
The Department for Education said it was cutting £169m worth of identified capital projects, adding that the remaining £831m would be saved by better financial controls on existing school building projects, including clawing back underspends.
£24m worth of funding for co-locating services including health and social services on schools sites has gone; £15m set aside for new swimming pools has gone; a £2.5m schools contribution to the eco-towns initiative has gone; £50m went from the “Harnessing Technology Grant” a couple of weeks back; and £13m for the Youth Capital Fund to pay for activities for teenagers has now gone.
The HT Grant replaced e-learning credits, and is generally used by LAs to pay for broadband connection. It’s removal has annoyed LAs as the money was allocated back in April, and has now been taken back again.