A new inquiry is underway to look at how Welsh schools are funded
and whether it’s enough to meet their needs.
The issue of school funding has come up as a theme in a number of
recent enquiries and the National Assembly’s Children, Young
People and Education Committee feel now is the time to take a
wholesale look at this fundamental issue.
The Committee will be looking at the relationship and balance
between the various sources of funding to schools, as well as how
transparent these relationships are. This will predominantly
include schools’ core budgets but will also look at specific
funding streams such as the Pupil Development Grant (PDG), which
is used to improve outcomes for learners eligible for free school
meals (eFSM) and Looked After Children (LAC).
The inquiry will look at the sufficiency of provision for school
budgets, in the context of other public service budgets and
available resources, and amongst the inquiry’s other areas of
focus will be the weighting given to education and school budgets
specifically within the local government settlement formula and
the process which local authorities then follow to set each
school’s budget.
“Responding to concerns we have heard in other inquiries, this
Committee will be looking closely at how Welsh schools are
funded, where that funding comes from and whether it is enough to
meet the needs of our schoolchildren,” said AM, Chair of the Children,
Young People and Education Committee.
“We will be looking at whether the current level of provision for
school budgets either complements or inhibits the delivery of the
Welsh Government’s policy objectives. However, we are well aware
of the current spending climate and the need to balance the needs
of schools against the demands of other public services.
Our inquiry is therefore not just about the sufficiency of school
funding but the way in which individual schools’ budgets are
determined and allocated.”
A public consultation is open until Friday 14 December. Anyone
wishing to contribute should first visit the Children, Young
People and Education Committee web pages at www.assembly.wales/SeneddCYPE.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Children, Young People and Education Committee has recently
undertaken an inquiry into the
PDG, which highlighted the need for a closer look at
school budgets and the extent to which they are sufficient to
support delivery of the Welsh Government’s education priorities.
The Committee also raised concerns during its scrutiny of the 2018-19
budget about the way that changes in provision for
school budgets were presented following the Welsh Government’s
‘reprioritisation’ of local government funding to protect
frontline school budgets.
Terms of Reference
The Committee is conducting an inquiry into:
§ the sufficiency of
school funding in Wales; and
§ the way school
budgets are determined and allocated.
The inquiry will focus specifically on:
- the sufficiency of provision for school budgets, in the
context of other public service budgets and available resources;
- the extent to which the level of provision for school budgets
complements or inhibits delivery of the Welsh Government’s policy
objectives;
- the relationship, balance and transparency between various
sources of schools’ funding, including core budgets and
hypothecated funding;
- the local government funding formula and the weighting given
to education and school budgets specifically within the Local
Government Settlement;
- Welsh Government oversight of how Local Authorities set
individual schools’ budgets including, for example, the weighting
given to factors such as age profile of pupils, deprivation,
language of provision, number of pupils with Additional Learning
Needs and pre-compulsory age provision;
- progress and developments since previous Assembly Committees’
reviews (for example those of theEnterprise and Learning
Committee in the Third Assembly); and
- the availability and use of comparisons between education
funding and school budgets in Wales and other UK nations.
