No cash cuts for Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire social services department will not face cuts
despite a council agreement to pump more money into education
following talks with the Department for Education and Skills.

The council had wanted to hold back £4.5m of the £11m
local education authority budget increase for next year to
subsidise other services, including social care.

It was feared that social services could face huge cuts if
education secretary Charles Clarke forced the council to spend its
entire education budget on schools (news, 22 January, page
11).

But the government is giving Cambridgeshire an advance of
£1.75m and a further £2.25m will be raised through
increasing council tax by 6.9 per cent, instead of by 9 per cent
which it would have otherwise needed.

A spokesperson for the council insisted that social services would
not be affected as the department would still have the money it was
entitled to.