6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on school funding in the Vale of Glamorgan? OAQ51843

Thank you very much, Jane, for the question. Local authorities are responsible for school funding in Wales. The Vale of Glamorgan Council sets their spending priorities for the services that they provide, taking consideration of local needs and all the resources available. How much an authority sets aside for school budgets is a matter for that authority.

Cabinet Secretary, you will be aware that the Vale of Glamorgan Council has written to every parent in the county about school funding. I thank you for your response to me regarding this matter. Your letter to me actually clarifies a number of points, and you've stated them again in response to me, and it does put the record straight regarding the Welsh Government's role in schools' funding budget decisions. So, I'm pleased you were able to clarify in your letter to me the key role of local government in setting budgets for their schools and for the role of local government in agreeing and reviewing the funding formula. I do want to quote briefly from your letter of 26 February. You say,

'The Welsh Government does not fund schools directly. Each Local Authority in Wales is responsible for determining how much funding is allocated to its schools' and, as you say,

'How much an Authority sets aside for school budgets is a matter for the Authority to determine.'

You also say that,

'With regards to how the Welsh Government funds Local Authorities, the core revenue funding we provide is distributed according to relative need, using a formula which takes account of a wealth of information on the demographic, physical, economic and social characteristics of authorities. This funding formula has been developed in consultation with Local Government through the Distribution Sub Group'.

Do you think it would be helpful if your letter, including this information, was sent to every parent in the Vale of Glamorgan, or, at a minimum, was put on the Vale of Glamorgan website? And also, do you welcome the Welsh Government's twenty-first century schools programme, which has resulted in a new Llantwit Major learning community with an official opening on 22 March? And, Cabinet Secretary—

I've been very tolerant, Jane Hutt. You're over two minutes now. Very quick final question.

And finally, I understand that a recent Vale of Glamorgan Council cabinet report shows an increased capital contribution from the Welsh Government, while plans for 2017 onwards show a reduction in the Vale council's—[Interruption.]

Well, Presiding Officer, there is no doubt that this is a challenging time for education budgets, and I make no bones about that. That means that being clear about the facts and information is more important that ever, and it is disappointing that the correspondence that the Vale has issued to its schools and parents have misrepresented the position on school funding. I am in the process of responding to every letter that I have received from parents from the Vale of Glamorgan, setting the record straight, and I'm happy to do that again today.

In respect of core funding under the local government settlement, the Vale of Glamorgan is not—not—the lowest funded authority in Wales as it would have parents believe. It may be the lowest spending authority per pupil, but that is a matter for the council. What is a matter for me is that resources that I have centrally can be used to support education in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The Vale of Glamorgan benefits from the pupil deprivation grant; it also benefits from our small and rural schools grant; it is also part of our school-based supply cluster pilot; and it is also a part of our school business manager pilot. It has had significant resources made available to it under band A of the capital twenty-first century schools programme. We have outlined a significant amount of resource under the band B of the programme and, as you'll be aware, only this weekend I announced £14 million extra for small school repairs, of which the Vale of Glamorgan will receive over £0.5 million.

However, I must take this opportunity to say I would also encourage them, that is, the Vale of Glamorgan, to submit revised proposals to access part of the £36 million infant class-size commitment over the term, because what they've submitted to date does not meet the criteria, and I'm very anxious that children in the Vale of Glamorgan should not lose out on this opportunity to cut class sizes. 

I think the reason, Llywydd, this double act doesn't quite work—though it's been very well staged, I know, I grant them that—is that the Vale of Glamorgan is a highly competitive authority politically; it's been run recently by Labour administrations and Conservative administrations, with other parties involved and independent groups also, and they've all had concerns about the funding formula and have raised these matters. When will you actually review the situation, because there is cross-party concern in the Vale of Glamorgan about the current situation?

Let me be absolutely clear: the core funding formula is not a matter for me; it is a matter for my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for local government and for the revenue support group that sits across that, making decisions about how the RSG revenue support grant is made available. On two separate occasions, the Welsh Government have offered Welsh local government the opportunity to change the base data, most recently in 2014-15, and on both occasions, the WLGA have refused the offer to update the data, and I have asked officials and the Cabinet Secretary for local government to look at that again. But it is a matter for the local government working collectively to agree changes to base data.

Question 7 [OAQ51833] has been withdrawn, therefore, question 8, Simon Thomas.