Department for Education outlines cuts

A department spokesman confirmed that scaling back quangos would account for £80m cuts, while reducing waste, bureaucracy and "doing things more cheaply" would make up the remainder of the savings.

Becta (the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) is being scrapped completely, which will save £10m this year.

The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services budget is to be cut back by £16m, and £15m is to be slashed from the Children's Workforce Development Council, which equates to about 10 per cent of its annual budget.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools is being asked to make £30m savings and The School Food Trust must slash £1m from its communications budget.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency will also have to find efficiency savings, but it is not yet clear how much.

Local authorities have been instructed to find £1.165bn savings, as their share of the overall £6.2bn cuts across government. Of this, £311m will be cut from the Department for Education's overall area based grant that is given to councils every year.

The department spokesman confirmed that reducing bureaucracy in 14 to 19 curriculum and qualifications, by scaling back activities such as marketing, would save a further £60m.

Up to £40m will be saved by cutting red tape on the City Challenge scheme to raise attainment in schools and the administrative functions associated with Education Maintenance Allowances (EMA).

The Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA), budget will be cut by £20m, £13m of which come from getting rid of a development fund, the remainder of which is a surplus of cash that is yet to be allocated to schools and colleges.

The department confirmed that the YPLA would be left with a contingency budget despite the cuts.

More savings will be achieved by ending the centralised monitoring and evaluation of initiatives such as one-to-one tuition.

For other stories on the cuts announcements click on the following links:

Ringfencing removed around local grant funding to help deal with cuts

Education department must cut £670m but schools and Sure Start are protected

Child Trust Fund to be scrapped to reduce national debt

NCB hits out at government plans to axe Play Strategy