Education in austerity: options for planners

Constitutes a first attempt to explore in detail the nature of pressures on educational budgets and the impact of austerity on the quantity and quality of educational provision; proposes planning techniques to assist in identifying the policy options open and systems to monitor how sensitive educational quality is to changes in inputs; strategies are identified to resist reduction of educational resources, increase the efficiency of delivery systems and re-finance provision from sources other than public expenditure; the central theme is to devise planning methods to protect provision for the most vulnerable groups which are most at risk in the face of financial constraints.