6. Debate on the Children, Young People and Education Committee Report: School Funding in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:43 pm on 23 October 2019.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 4:43, 23 October 2019

Let me carry on, because, of course, as Lynne Neagle mentioned in her opening remarks, Westminster was mentioned in this, and I think it is worth us noting that Westminster has now responded to concerns that have only been made apparent to them in the last four or five years. Welsh Government has not responded to the per-pupil funding gap that's been presented to them since I've been here and before. So, what I want to say is that, even if Welsh Government commits the entire £355 million to schools—not education, schools—then we hit, as the committee report says, the local government funding fog, and this is what I want to concentrate on now. Because, in some ways, I really wish that the local government Minister was here responding to this debate, because I think it's at local government level that the urgent action is necessary.

Now, I accept that there are wider pressures on the revenue support grant, but what this report has exposed is what looks like the arbitrariness of how schools are funded. The huge disparity in reserves and deficits between schools is evidence of something going badly wrong. There is no consistency between local authorities on how they prioritise core spending on schools and no line of accountability to Welsh Government connecting its decisions on how much schools need, its consequent contribution to the RSG, and how much councils actually spend on schools.

I find myself asking whether local authorities should be entirely free to use money found by Government to address a particular, identified problem on something else altogether. Spending, as Lynne Neagle said, on good school experience is the epitome of preventative spend and, therefore, sufficient school funding should axiomatically be a priority for every single council. But, as Government admits, it will not influence the prioritisation, despite accepting recommendation 2.

Both Ministers, in evidence to us, reached for the importance of professional trust between Government and councils for their decisions. But what about the professional trust between school staff and councils, and schools and Government? Even in accepting all our recommendations, the Minister has avoided answering some of those questions actually captured in recommendations. There is an uncomfortable question about who she trusts most to deliver her aspirations for school age, because it seems to me that she is happy to trust school leaders with the huge responsibility of designing a new curriculum, but, when it comes to financing the school in which to deliver it, that's for someone else and it’s not clear to me who, yet it will be school leaders who'll carry the can if the curriculum fails due to lack of money for schools.

Your legacy, Minister, will depend on you solving the school funding problem set out so starkly in our report. I really hope this report helps you, and the local government Minister, get the money that you need for schools. Thank you.