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?method=news.detail&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=http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/press_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

[mikeingham]

Does anyone know how or if this will affect the ICT Mark Accreditation?

[sparkeh]

Bye Bye BECTA

 

Bye Bye BSF

 

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

 

Not true, there are plenty of schools already up in arms over the future of BSF and angry they won't be getting the money they were promised.

[Homer]

When do we actually get an official word from the govt on this?

[mwnci]

I'm interested in how this will affect the ICT mark as well. We have been working hard towards getting this. It won't be work wasted as the process has been very productive, but it will be a shame not to get the accreditation all the same.

[uk101man]

When do we actually get an official word from the govt on this?

 

Here : http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/press_04_10.pdf

 

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

 

And BECTA do not sound to happy : http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=42305

Edited May 24, 2010 by uk101man

[DrCheese]

If BECTA is going, I assume that means the Home access scheme is also going?

[Disease]

Not true, there are plenty of schools already up in arms over the future of BSF and angry they won't be getting the money they were promised.

 

BSF was a flawed policy from the start, there is more fundemental things wrong with education other than shiny artsy buildings and spangly new computers. Putting crap in a new box may look good at first and may feel like you have somethng other than crap, but when you open the box it still just contains crap.

[Mr.Ben]

Same here, What's going to happen to the ICT Mark, as I'm in the process of renewing ours!

[JJonas]

Has BSF definitely been axed?

[DrCheese]

Has BSF definitely been axed?

 

Nope, they've not mentioned anything at all about it today. In the past they have said that any projects that haven't reached financial close will be reviewed and any projects that have been approved recently will also be reviewed.

 

They want to redirect the money to the tory's "free schools" idea, which as far as I can tell is just another way of privatising education by the back door.