Meetings

The Committee considered further correspondence from the Minister for Education. In light of several clear responses from the Minister that funding for local authorities to provide education services in their areas is un-hypothecated, the recent review of school funding and the planned monitoring of the implementation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 the Committee agreed to close the petition at this point and thank the petitioner.

The Committee considered an update on the petition and agreed write back to the Minister for Education to ask for:

·         an outline of the next steps for Additional Learning Needs funding following the recent publication of the Review of school spending in Wales and in light of the concerns expressed by the WLGA; and,

·         the information about what funding is provided to support the diagnosis of additional learning needs.

The Committee considered the petition for the first time and agreed to:

·         await further views from the petitioner to the response provided by the Minister for Education; and

·         write to the Welsh Local Government Association to ask for information about the approach taken by local authorities when allocating funding for additional learning needs.