7. Will the Minister make a statement on the implications of delaying the publication of the Welsh Government's 2020-21 budget on school funding? OAQ54747

We recognise the implications deferring the publication of our budget will have for setting local authority budgets for 2020-21. The provisional local government settlement, through which the majority of Welsh Government funding for schools is provided, is due to be published on the same day as the draft budget.

You will of course be aware that many governing bodies are currently making very difficult decisions on their budgets for next year, including the dismissal of teachers and classroom assistants and so on and so forth. But they do that without knowing what their budgets will actually be for next year, and if you listen to some of the political parties in the general election, then money might not be an issue at all in the next financial year, but I will believe that when I see it.

But what I'm asking, of course, is: what are you doing to give earlier assurances to schools as to what they can expect for next year, and also longer term assurances, because working on a year-to-year basis is problematic, isn't it? You can have better strategic planning from providing longer term assurances in terms of funding, which, at the end of the day, would give you better value for money for the money that you give them in the first instance.

Like you, Llyr, I'll believe it when I see it too. It would make a welcome change.

The issues that you talk about are real and are recognised within the Government. We have been able to give as much reassurance to local authorities as possible without subverting the processes that are required by us, by this Chamber, that the Government has to go through. We have been trying to give a level of assurance to our local government partners.

I couldn't agree with you more: the ability to provide longer term funding forecasts would indeed allow for better planning and better decision making. The reality is, Llyr, I am not in a position to do that because the finance Minister is not in a position to do it either, given that the Welsh Government has only given us an indicative budget for one year as opposed to the Department for Education in England, which has been given an indicative budget for three years.