the cuts are starting

BECTa seems to be the first to go.

lots of press (educational) press comment about it quoting savings £55m a year against costs of £65m a year so the other £10m was good value.

I don't know if that £65m is true. Certainly some numbers clearly add up to this but Becta always favoured the large company and complex bid process so arguably, the price quotes was too high anyway.

Certainly, speaking as the representative of a small company, we were never encouraged by Becta to do innovative things as these weren't "standard" and we certainly never got anywhere with tenders because we could never spend the money or time to get really good at responding to them. Indeed, my requests to heard often fell on deaf ears. It is a shame about the people as the vast majority are hard working but my understanding is that many knew the writing was on the wall.

Wonder who, or indeed, what is next?