Reducing public debt is high on the political agenda. Here we look at the options being put forward to reduce DCSF expenditure without hurting standards in schools.

Last month's message from the Chancellor was quite straightforward: more government spending now to help stimulate the economy but in two years time the brakes will be applied, as public spending is squeezed to reduce the budget deficit. And education will not be immune from future reductions in planned spending.

Almost half of all state schools expect to cut their spending on non-ICT learning resources during the remaining four months of the school financial year to compensate for energy overspends,

The recently published 2007-2008 Resource Accounts for the DCSF contain some interesting snippets of information.