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Education Secretary Michael Gove has outlined plans to save £670m from his Department. In a letter to Ed Balls MP, Gove outlines plans to save £359m from cutting waste and stopping and scaling back on lower priority spending. The remaining £311 will come from reducing area based grants to local authorities.

Over recent months Make Space has called on Government to speed up the release of unclaimed assets funds earmarked for investment in young people. While no mention has made of these funds to date, the letter states that £8m savings will come from cutting the final round of the youth sector development fund and a further £3m will come from funds previously earmarked for youth sector support.

Anne Longfield OBE, Chief Executive of 4Children said: “While we recognise the need for savings in order to reduce the country’s financial deficit, there had been high hopes that investment from these funds from unclaimed assets accounts would bring about a sea change in investment in young people. It would be a tragedy if the progress that was just beginning towards giving young people positive places to go and things to do was reversed.

“Youth organisations will need to work hard to promote the value they bring to young people and the wider community and should look to form partnerships with other relevant services to ensure that they are delivering the very best value for money.”

 To read the letter click here.