Popularity doesn't balance the books

IF EDUCATION thought it was put through the mill over the primary school closures, well, you ain't seen nothing yet. Laying it bare, the department has a problem – a £1.5m. deficit in its £72m. budget.

A desire still exists to press ahead with nursery education, too.

So how do you square that circle? And do the department and the States have the stomach for it?

You could go cap in hand to the Treasury Department for more money, but the answer in cash-strapped times of restraint has really got to be no.

So it has to look at cutting costs and that means looking at staffing, the £4.5m. paid out annually in grants to the colleges and the music and youth services.

Potentially, they are all emotive areas and attract vocal lobbying groups who will fight their corner.

Education minister Carol Steere backed closing both St Andrew's Primary and St Sampson's Infants and saving some £750,000 but, in the end, the States kept both open.

She admits that mistakes were made in the run-up to that debate, like not making clear the message that it was not a cut in services but simply delivering them in a different way.

'Ultimately, the board would have liked more time. Perhaps a lesson for us all in this is that it was how the message got out in the first place – an off-the-cuff comment during a States debate.'

That was by Deputy Hunter Adam last term when he was a member of the board.

'We have a deficit of about £1.5m. because we've not had the RPI increases since 2005. That is going to impact somewhere on our service.'

Deputy Steere said it would be 'very difficult' to go to Treasury asking for another £1.5m.

An argument could be made that the department got above RPI this year too.

'Ultimately we may have to go back to the States and say we're thinking about cutting this, is this acceptable to you? Is it acceptable if we cut the music service, if we cut the youth service and the valuable work it does?

'If the States doesn't have the stomach to do that, you might have to consider upping our budget.'

What one deputy has described as the nodding Churchill dog syndrome to every spending proposal – "yes, yes, yes, yes" – would have to be a thing of the past.

'I'm hopeful the fundamental spending reviews may identify where there could be savings, although I hope it shows that what we're doing is efficient and that we're making savings wherever we possibly can.'

She added that perhaps everyone was hoping for too much from the reviews, but if savings were identified in other departments they could be directed at Health and Education so front-line services did not need to be cut.

By taking school closures to the States, the department demonstrated savings could be made and Deputy Steere showed she was prepared to be unpopular.

'If we come to the States saying we have to make cuts to the music service, libraries and youth service, what would the public reaction be to that?

'Would the States have the strength to do that, with the public outcry which I think there will be?'

And would the board or the States want to take on the colleges?

A deal is in place until 2012, but already some are questioning whether in the current economic climate it is right to pump £4.5m. annually into them.

Clearly, the rug can not be pulled at the moment but it will be under review shortly.

'The department will be looking at it and I'm sure we will start those discussions with the colleges and their representatives.

'I'm sure they will wish the funding to continue.

'However, I do believe the States will have to look very carefully at whether it can continue with the level of funding.'

Her gut instinct is to say let's save that money and use it elsewhere, but it is early days and it is unlikely the States or even the department would go that far.

But a staged approached to withdrawing money from when a new agreement bites might just be the way forward.