Is BECTA Facing The Axe?

[AngryITGuy]

Just heard this on the BBC News during some routine channel surfing.

Anyone know if this is true?

Google wasn't much help at the moment, only thing I could find apart from something on TES was this George Osborne unveils £500m bonfire of the quango.

[GrumbleDook]

Becta had already been identified as one of the educational QANGOs to be cut or downsized by all parties in teh run up to the election, it has just been a case of whether it would be a complete cut or just chopped to hell. This year Becta had a £112m budget, but a large chunk of that (approx £55m) was for the Home Access program as capital. This has already been in and out of Becta's book (from what I could tell) so when they talk about Becta cuts, they say it is about £65m. Some of that money is for recurring projects which will be scrapped, but it is likely that some of the money will be recycled elsewhere, either back into DofE or to one of the surviving QANGOs. There are others that will go too ... but until the announcements this week (likely to be tomorrow by the Treasury) it is still speculation about what the exact details are.

PfS is likely to stay where it is since academies will continue, Primary Capital Program is also around and someone will have to pick up the IT infrastructure bits from Becta. It all depends on whether the Govt wants to continue to make a big thing abotu transformation of education or simply make these things a building program.

[amvc]

I heard this on the news this morning, but cant find the story on thier website. This is interesting though, seems becta wont be alone in education cuts...

Where the cuts are likely to fall in education | Education | guardian.co.uk

[ict_support]

Yes its bye bye to BECTA and the QCA

[localzuk]

Yes its bye bye to BECTA and the QCA

Do you KNOW this or are you just reading this into the articles currently guessing what's going to be announced?

I think it'll be a shame if Becta disappears - they do far more than people think, and save education more money than they cost to run.

[ict_support]

It was on the BBC news this morning

[AskTheDoc]

Heard on the grapevine that maybe BSF projects will be scrapped too and a refocus on regeneration of inner city schools!

If I hear anything concrete I will let you know.

[tech_guy]

I've heard mumblings that another casualty of the cutbacks might be SSAT as well.

[AskTheDoc]

Check this link


http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?...etail&id=88939


Glad I'm not a distributor wih a new BSF education team!

[broc]

I think if(when) BSF is to be cut back, it will take time before the real picture emerges as each LA will need investigating. There will be penalty clauses for contracts already in place; there may be legal, financial & technical issues arising from any programs part way through.

[Face-Man]

Becta has been cut -

£80m from closing the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency
(BECTA) and other savings in Department for Education quangos.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=h...ress_04_10.pdf

[SpuffMonkey]

£80 million down just another £156.92 trillion to go!

[localzuk]

Ha, they're even demanding £27m in savings from the Olympic Delivery Authority! That'll work... The world's first 'bring your own balls' Olympics.

[Disease]

Bye Bye BECTA

Bye Bye BSF

You will both be missed.......not.

[zippo]

From the horses mouth ..... Announcement on the future of Becta - Becta