Hard-pressed schools should see their financial position improved by this week's budget settlement.

Roy Smith, deputy chief education officer, said the county council's budget - set on Tuesday - was "good news for education."

Members of Oxfordshire County Council included £214.5m for education, a £5.1m increase on last year.

Although the spending on education will still be nearly £3m less than the level recommended by the Government, it will mark the first 'real term' increase on spending on schools for nine years.

Mr Smith said: "It's good news for education. The settlement is probably as good as we could expect.

"It's a growth budget. The money allocated to schools is about a two per cent increase - it's about £3m in real terms."

At December's education committee meeting it was revealed that 39 schools were expecting to go into deficit by the end of the financial year.

It was predicted that this total would rise to more than 100 schools between 1999 and 2000 under a standstill budget. Mr Smith said: "Hopefully this will prevent the worsening position that had been predicted."

Meanwhile, more details of cuts to social services in Oxfordshire will be discussed by councillors on March 16.

Mary Robertson, director of social services, said three respite centres for disabled children, an old people's home and Kidlington Family Centre were still likely to close under a £10m package of cuts over the next three years.

She said: "We may not make a formal decision on March 16 but we will be closer to giving people more information.

"We need to put alternatives in place before we announce specific closures."

Story date: Friday 19 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.