Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 13 March 2019.
Again, thank you for that answer. Well, obviously, I'm hoping, like me, you're interested in the life chances of pupils from all backgrounds, and, at the moment, it's those in more affluent areas who seem to be taking the brunt of the way that local authorities are making decisions about how they distribute moneys—core funding. It's all well and good to speak about some of the other grants you mentioned, but of course, there have been cuts to the education improvement grant, as we've heard, in Gwynedd, which has resulted in children who don't speak Welsh as a first language not having access to the instruction that they need to help them access education through the medium of Welsh in that county.
Now, again, on the subject of unintended consequences of a good idea, teachers and local authorities are now very worried about how they're going to be able to meet the cost of compliance with the additional learning needs Act and the code, with some very serious questions being raised about the support currently offered to pupils on school action, in particular. I've been told by a teacher that it can take up to 20 hours of admin time to support a child, let alone the actual in-classroom time, and that staffing implications at a time when some schools are having to let staff go, in some cases, when the number of special education needs pupils is already rising and SEN funding from councils is falling. Now, there've always been concerns about the way this legislation is costed—I'm sure you remember that bruising period. I'm just wondering whether you will commit to reviewing not just what it costs to implement the Act and through the code, but ensuring that any additional money that you do manage to identify in due course cannot be diverted to meet other pressures that councils claim they have.