Mr Nick Ramsey AM

Chair of Public Accounts Committee

                                                                                                           Date: 18 July 2017

Dear Nick

Response to Action Points recorded at the July 3rd PAC meeting about the AGW report on the Welsh Government oversight of Further Education institutions' finances and delivery.

There were a number of action points that were recorded at the recent PAC committee that I am now pleased to be able to share the responses with you at Annex A to this letter.

Yours Sincerely

Huw Morris

Group Director SHELL

c.c       Cabinet and Plenary Mailbox

            The PAC Chair

            WG CGU Mailbox

                                                                                                                                                Annex A

Action Point 1

Proportion of budget allocation spent on Welsh language and English language in the FE sector

Due to the manner in which we fund programmes of learning it is not possible to identify a budgetary split between Welsh language and English Language provision as in many cases the programme is contains both some Welsh and some English Language teaching.

Information, available on statswales, shows that at an activity level a total of 7.8% of all activities undertaken include Welsh and Bilingual Learning.

To support the provision of Welsh Language provision colleges are given uplift funding of £3.9m to support and encourage the development of existing and new Welsh Language provision

Action Point 2

A detailed explanation of how 21st Century Schools funding will be affected from March 2019 with the on-going UK withdrawal from the EU;

The 21^st Century Schools and Education Programme is funded by the Welsh Government, and does not receive any additional funding through ERDF / ESF.  

The impact of Brexit on the UK economy and any consequential impacts on the Welsh Government’s future budgets are, at this stage, uncertain however during the referendum voters were assured by the Leave campaigners that Wales would be not one penny worse off as a result of leaving the EU.  The Welsh Government intends to hold the UK Government to account for that. We look to the Treasury to maintain our spending at current levels.

Action Point 3

Send the allocation regarding capital funding from the draft budget, if able to.

The published budgets for 2017/18 indicate that an inflated baseline budget is retained for the Programme over the period up to 2020/21.  The budget is currently £100.813 million per annum.

Action Point 4

Details of how learners from the Travelling Community are supported in the FE sector.

Unfortunately, whilst we are aware that colleges do support learners from the Travelling Community, we do not collect information that specifically identifies these learners. We will undertake to work with ColegauCymru to identify the support mechanisms used at each institution to ensure we are supporting the Travelling Community in the best way possible.