7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the level of school funding in Wales? OAQ(5)0137(EDU)

Thank you very much, Mark. Local authorities are responsible for school funding in Wales, and last year, gross schools expenditure was budgeted to be £2.5 billion overall. That is 0.9 per cent higher than in 2015-16. Local authorities delegated more than £2.1 billion of that funding to schools.

Thank you. In September 2010, the WLGA made a commitment to increase school delegation rates to 80 per cent in two years, working towards 85 per cent within a further two years—i.e. 2014. When I questioned your predecessor in March last year, he expressed his understanding that every local authority in Wales had surpassed the 85 per cent delegation rate and said that the Welsh Government had set an expectation for that to reach 90 per cent during this Assembly term. However, the 2016-17 figures published by the Welsh Government showed that 14 out of 22 Welsh local authorities were still below the 85 per cent figure, and that all of them were below the 90 per cent figure. Can you confirm what this Welsh Government’s goal is in this area, and how it proposes to close that gap?

Well, Mark, it is important that local authorities get as much education money, which is given to them either through the RSG or through special grants from this Government, to the front line. That’s where I expect money to be utilised—in our classrooms. I would urge local authorities again to look at ensuring that as much delegated budget is available as possible. One of the other continuing concerns that I have is that in some cases, we have high levels of reserves being held at a school level. That is usually within the primary sector, and quite often, that is held for very good reasons—if a school is looking to build up a particular reserve of money for a specific project. But, let us be clear: reserves that are held for the sake of it are not doing what that money was intended for, and that is providing opportunities for our children. So, it is incumbent upon all of us, individual schools, local authorities, consortia and, indeed, Welsh Government to get as much money to the front line as possible.