Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru | National Assembly for Wales

Y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg | Children, Young People and Education Committee

Cyllido Ysgolion yng Nghymru | School Funding in Wales

SF 07

Ymateb gan: Pwyllgor Trosolwg a Chraffu Ysgolion a Dysgu Cyngor Sir Benfro

Response from: Pembrokeshire County Council’s Schools and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Responses to each focus question are as follows;

• the sufficiency of provision for school budgets, in the context of other public service budgets and available resources;

The Committee considers that there an over-reliance on grant funding and that funding for Education and Schools should be ring fenced as part of the Revenue Support Grant.

• the extent to which the level of provision for school budgets complements or inhibits delivery of the Welsh Government’s policy objectives;

No response

• the relationship, balance and transparency between various sources of schools’ funding, including core budgets and hypothecated funding;

The Committee values current arrangements in which Education budgets are delegated to Local Authorities by Welsh Government and then by Local Authorities to Schools, and believes that it is important in terms of ensuring value for money that this process is retained.

The Committee considers, however, that current regional structures do not offer value for money and that funding for Challenge Advisors should be provided directly to Local Authorities as part of the Revenue Support Grant rather than being filtered through ERW (Education through Regional Working), to remove the duplication that currently exists.

• the local government funding formula and the weighting given to education and school budgets specifically within the Local Government Settlement;

The Committee considers that a review of the Standard Spending Assessment formula is required, due to the fact that the current formula is weighted against rural Local Authorities such as Pembrokeshire and that issues related to the ‘sparsity’ factor are not given enough weighting.  In addition to having some of the most deprived areas in Wales, Pembrokeshire is disadvantaged due to its rural nature, having smaller school sizes and a significant school transport bill. Rural deprivation and deprivation to accessible services should increasingly become a more prominent factor in how the RSG is determined. 

· 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;

No response

• progress and developments since previous Assembly Committees’ reviews (for example those of the Enterprise and Learning Committee in the Third Assembly); and

No response

• the availability and use of comparisons between education funding and school budgets in Wales and other UK nations.

No response