The Effect of Inflation on Budgets

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 21 September 2022.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 3:00, 21 September 2022

I thank the Minister for that response. Can I correct something that's been said earlier? School budgets are not the responsibility of the headteacher; they're the responsibility of the governing body in law. That's an important point to remember.

Yes, maybe the average amount of money in school governing bodies is relatively high, but that doesn't mean that some schools aren't running with very little money in reserves, and some school reserves are more down to good luck and things that have happened than anything else. I mean, these budgets were set at a very different time than we're in now. We've got teachers' pay and energy costs—I don't know what the teachers' pay increase is going to be, but I would guess it's going to be a lot higher than school governors set it back in March and April when things were in an entirely different situation. How does the Minister think schools are going to be able to meet those additional costs, and what additional support is going to be given either by local authorities or by the Welsh Government?