[holding answer 16 March 2010]: The pre-Budget report confirmed that from 2011-13 funding for Sure Start will continue to rise in line with inflation; funding for 16 to 19 learning will rise by 0.9 per cent. year on year with an extra £202 million this year to meet our September Guarantee; and funding for schools will increase by 0.7 per cent. in real terms, which at current inflation levels will mean a cash increase of 2.7 per cent.
This means that 75 per cent. of the DCSF budget has been protected. The document, ‘Investing for the Future, Protecting the Front Line: School Funding 2010’, published on 15 March, showed how the DCSF budget breaks down in 2010-11 into the front-line areas protected in the PBR and the remaining areas from which the Department is finding £500 million savings in the 2011-13 period. A further breakdown will be provided when we publish our annual report later in the year.