The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) intends to cut the fund by 15 per cent in the next financial year, reducing it to 140m. The fund will again be reduced in the 2005/06 financial year, to 110m, amounting to a cut of about a third from 2003/04 budgets.
Education secretary Charles Clarke gave the plan the green light after a meeting between department officials and Children's Fund stakeholders.
DfES officials at the meeting said the cutbacks were necessary because the fund had been supporting specific initiatives, such as the identification, referral and tracking scheme, so had become overcommitted.
The cuts follow a spending freeze on the fund after it overshot its 2003/04 budget (YPN, 14-20 January, p2).
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