Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 14 March 2023.
Peter Fox has asked for the facts. The facts are these: the funding that we received as a Barnett consequential from Westminster was passported fully on to local authorities, and not only that, it was increased through the education budget. So, in Wales, unlike what happens in Conservative England, where the budget for post-COVID intervention has completely disappeared, we have not only—[Interruption.] We have made choices, and I'm telling you what choices we've made. I'm proud of them. The choices are: to protect the funding that best supports our schools. So, as well as passporting on the consequential, we increased the funding to schools in my budget. So, whether that's the pupil development grant, whether it's the post-COVID funding, that funding has been protected or increased. So, those are the facts. They're inconvenient for him. But until we have a Government in Westminster that is as committed as we are to properly funding public services, the challenges to which he points in his questions, I'm afraid, are going to continue.