The local government settlement has improved from the draft to the final. Unfortunately, this change is only from disastrous to bad. I intend to quote the views of a local headteacher and then make five proposals on what can be done to help the situation in local government. The headteacher says:

'I am writing to you to highlight serious concerns I have about the school funding crisis and to enlist your support and commitment towards securing a review of arrangements which would lead to all schools in Wales being funded sufficiently, equitably and transparently. The stark choices I find myself faced with looking ahead to April 2019 are going to be a challenge. The risk to learner entitlement, particularly the most vulnerable, posed by the year-on-year real-term reduction in funding is now at crisis point.

'In recent years, it has become apparent that, despite the best management, our school budgets are not sufficient. We are increasingly unable to deliver core services to the ideal standard and in some instances, not even able to meet statutory requirements. For example, some schools no longer have a qualified teacher in their Nursery class. Neither the headteacher nor the deputy headteacher are provided with their statutory management time allocation, and spending on learning resources and school premises maintenance programmes is negligible.'

Clearly, this situation is unsustainable, and you've also got headteachers covering for absent staff to avoid supply cover.

'Furthermore, support staff levels have been drastically reduced, meaning that vulnerability risks aren’t being as keenly addressed as they need to be, with this development also inevitably impacting on the quality of provision and workload of remaining members of staff.  All of this is happening at a time when Wales’ new curriculum and the ALN provision, both of which have the potential to be world leading ventures this should be being celebrated globally.'

So, this is from a headteacher who's actually on the side of the Welsh Government in what they're attempting to achieve. 

The national mission statement for a high-quality education profession to teach our children—. In Swansea, the number of classes taught by unqualified teachers has increased, class sizes are increasing, the needs of ALN pupils are not being met, and vulnerability factors such as those resulting from poverty and deprivation are not being addressed as they should be.

Education improvement grant—it does not even provide enough funding to satisfy foundation phase recommendations. The number of schools able to meet the recommended adult-pupil ratio in foundation phase, 1:8 in nursery and reception and 1:15 in years 1 and 2, has decreased. 

The National Assembly’s research briefing entitled ‘School Funding in Wales’ highlights the following facts. Between the academic year 2010-11 and the current academic year 2018-19, local authority gross expenditure on schools has decreased in real terms by just under 8 per cent. The average amount local authorities spent per pupil in 2018-19—whilst being £266 higher than that spent in 2010-11—is a real-term decrease of 7.5 per cent. This is further illustrated in a recent review of the funding experiences of school leaders.  The National Association of Head Teachers found that seven out of 10 school leaders think that their budgets will be unsustainable by the 2019 academic year. This is an alarming situation that has reached crisis point. 

Further pressures facing schools include significant cost pressure as a result of the teachers pension scheme increasing in 2019-20 from 16.48 per cent to an estimated 23 per cent.  This represents an unfunded £3 million cost pressure on the delegated schools budget in Swansea alone. It rises to £5 million in 2020-21. The Treasury select committee has called upon the UK Treasury to resolve this issue and release the funding required to Wales from the UK fund that has been established to address pension pressures.

The cost of teachers' pay as well as other cost pressures facing schools, such as from the additional responsibilities under the ALN Act, must be fully funded in the final local government finance settlement, ensuring that the core funding required for a future sustainable statutory education provision is appropriately funded as a priority, such as class size reduction, and that local government in future receives a fairer share of the resources available to the Welsh Government.

The cost to schools in reduced delegated budget levels in Wales's third-tier governance—with confidence in regional consortia at an all-time low, the impact on learner outcomes of this expensive additional layer of governance really must start to be held up to scrutiny. As a nation, we need to be assured that this additional activity is securing at least the same if not better levels of impact as the extra teachers would have, were this funding being directly allocated to schools. 

I have suggestions: one, that the Welsh Government continues to put pressure on Westminster for the increase in teacher employer pension contributions to be met; two, I believe that regional consortia are a waste of scarce resources. I accept I could be wrong. Test it—delegate the money for the regional consortia through the schools, and if they value the regional consortia that much, they'll pay into it. If they don't, they'll keep the money for the schools. That the transport grant given out to projects that are bid for during the year is distributed to councils to support current activity via the transport grant. That the additional money put into education allocated for training is given to local authorities to pass on to schools to use at they believe best. That additional funding for implementing ALN is provided from the health and social services budget.

I don't expect most, if any, of those—apart from the one about the pensions—to be accepted, but I hope people will look at those because they are a means of not asking for extra money just asking how the current money can be used better.