The Children’s Plan was “flawed both in concept and in practice”, according to a report published last week. The study, Cutting the Children’s Plan: A #163;5 billion PR Experiment Gone Astray, comes from right-wing think-tank, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), and calls for the programme to be scaled back to save #163;1.9 billion a year. CPS director Jill Kirby said: “The Children’s Plan is a classic example of the failings of Big Government: billions of pounds wasted in pursuit of central targets, based on untested ideas and packaged in jargon and bureaucracy.”