Summary
In its annual examination of the Department for Children, Schools and Families' (DCSF) spending, 'Public Expenditure' (HC 46), the Children, Schools and Families Committee predicts that future funding will be much tighter than at present and that the rate of spending growth will be minimal come the next Spending Review.
The Committee is pleased that the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to capital investment in education but there is concern that the review of Building Schools for the Future will lead to the programme being curtailed. To avoid doubt, the Department should make a clear statement about the programme's future.
The Committee identifies key problems with the presentation of expenditure figures in the report - including confusion about which expenditure streams or grants deliver which objectives - and calls on the Department to rectify these problems in its next Annual Report.
To ensure real accountability, staging points must be included for long-term Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets. In order to assess whether these targets have been met, it is imperative that DCSF does not revise them at every three-yearly spending review.
The Committee is disappointed that details on how DCSF achieved its efficiency savings are vague and it expects much more of the promised detail in the 2009 Departmental Annual Report.
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