Sector primed for cuts as speculation grows over where the axe will fall

It has been reported that the government is preparing to scale back or scrap education maintenance support for Britain's poorest teenagers, as the coalition prepares to set out its plans to cut £83bn from government spending by 2015.

Introduced in 2004, the education maintenance allowance is available to 17, 18 and 19-year-olds who continue studying or training after they leave compulsory education. The students can receive up to £30 a week as an incentive, if their family's income is below £30,000 a year.

The Guardian says the Treasury is keen to make changes to education maintenance support because it would save £2bn, on top of the £1bn to be saved by withdrawing child benefit from all higher-rate taxpayers from 2013.

Asked in the Commons whether education maintenance allowance would remain unchanged, the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said: "We will be reforming the way in which money is available to those over the age of 16 in order to ensure that we can meet our shared goal of maximising participation."

Major cuts in school sports programmes are also expected, after reports that the government is planning to withdraw some of its £150m funding from the Youth Sports Trust.

Meanwhile a report by Antidote, a charity and social enterprise that aims to help schools improve teaching, learning and behaviour, says giving schools the tools and freedom to stimulate change from within can be the "cheapest and most effective way of bringing about a step change in academic achievement and behaviour".

Published on the eve of the spending review, the report urges policymakers to explore ways of assessing how much money is wasted on implementing strategies that are ineffectual because they don’t address the needs of staff and students.

It also questions whether the measures currently proposed for giving freedom to schools can work on their own. Antidote’s director, James Park, said: "Policymakers often look to parents as the drivers of improvement in schools. In reality, children and young people are the ultimate ‘consumers’ of their learning, and school staff are often best placed to pick up the messages they give out."