EDUCATION bosses could lose more than £1 million in “reward” money for failing to raise academic achievement among some groups of children.

Bolton Council’s children’s services department admits it is likely to miss its goals in reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), as well as reducing the achievement gap between looked after children and those who are not in care.

Missing those targets will cost the authority just over £1 million.

But the authority’s director of children’s services, Margaret Asquith said the department was on track to meet 56 per cent of the targets it had set, earning it around £940,000 from the Government.

The “reward” money is part of a scheme Bolton Council has signed up to where authorities are encouraged to set themselves challenging targets and success is rewarded by extra Government cash.

Mrs Asquith said: “These targets are known as stretch targets — and the reward money is welcome but the main purpose is to set challenging goals and these targets are an excellent way of assessing and reviewing different areas.

The target is to reduce the number of children not in education, employment or training to 10.1 per cent, or by 1,000 young people. The figure currently stands at 12 per cent.

Other areas of concern include raising the attainment of looked after children, especially increasing the number achieving five or more good GCSE grades.

Mrs Asquith stressed work was being done in schools to target children who needed support via the NEET intervention strategy and she said some of the targets classed as “off-track” could still be met by next year and net more money for her department.

Mrs Asquith said: “We are making progress in tackling these areas but we are not going to meet the target for NEETs and in the achievements of looked after children.”

“On the whole this has been an excellent year for children’s services. Schools celebrated record GCSE results and we have made great progress in reducing truancy. We are on track to meet more than half of our stretch targets.”

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