Budget questions remain despite proposed ‘opportunities’ of Welsh school split

Nicholas Thomas, Local Democracy Reporter

Proposals to split a county’s only Welsh-medium secondary school into two could improve the range of subjects offered at GCSE and A-Level, councillors have heard.

The bid to divide Ysgol Cwm Rhymni in Caerphilly, which already operates across two sites, is mainly being pursued for financial reasons, to address an ever-widening budget deficit which currently stands at £2.7 million.

The council’s education committee heard turning Cwm Rhymni’s ‘satellite’ site into its own fully-fledged school, in Caerphilly town, is “most viable and sustainable solution” to the budget pressures, aimed at “delivering financial stability while protecting educational standards”.

Cllr Teresa Heron, a cabinet member, told the committee “alternative approaches to restoring financial sustainability would have required significant reductions in staffing, curriculum provision and educational opportunities, with consequential impacts on learners and school performance”.

The proposals could come into effect in September 2027, but Caerphilly’s director of education, Paul Warren, said the plan was in its “very early days”.

“There has been a long process up to this point, working alongside school exploring potential avenues,” he said. “At the heart of everything that’s been done is what is the right thing for the children of the school and our overall commitment to Welsh-medium provision.”

Matthew Webb, the headteacher at Cwm Rhymni, said the split would offer “educational advantages” for pupils.

He said two separate Welsh-medium secondary schools were a “real opportunity” for both schools to collaborate closely and provide a curriculum which complements each other – which could actually lead to a broader range of subjects being offered at GCSE and A-Level”.

Unique layout

Analysis of Cwm Rhymni’s budget difficulties showed the school’s “unique” layout over two sites, seven miles apart, meant timetabled teaching time was instead being allocated to staff travelling between Fleur de Lis and Caerphilly town, financial services manager Jane Southcombe explained.

This spending was projected to disappear if the two new schools were self-contained and had their own workforce, although Mr Webb did raise the possibility of a “soft split” for the near future, in which a “limited” number of staff would continue to work at both schools, to maintain consistent teaching.

Cllr Colin Gordon asked how the school had built up “such a big deficit”.

“Why hasn’t there been some intervention sooner?” he asked.

Mr Webb said Cwm Rhymni’s cost pressures included providing a duplicate Key Stage 4 curriculum on both sites, “which wasn’t true for any other school in Wales”.

“Are we confident that if we go down this road, things will get better?” asked Cllr Gordon, adding: “I think we should have looked at it sooner.”

Extra funding 

Ms Southcombe said extra funding provided during the Covid-19 pandemic had “distorted quite a lot of our schools’ financial positions”.

“The last few years we have been working really hard… to try and understand what’s been driving this increase in deficit,” she said.

“It has taken us a little while to get to this point, but it is this split-site arrangement that, once we unpicked everything, is what we feel is really causing or driving this increase in deficit.”

The committee voted unanimously to recommend launching a consultation period on the proposed changes, and questions remain over how the existing £2.7 million deficit will be resolved.

Cllr Mansel Powell asked whether each of the two new proposed schools would be expected to take on half of the responsibility for the overspend.

“I can’t give you a definitive answer”, replied Ms Southcombe, adding the matter was “something we’re trying to seek guidance on” from the Welsh Government.

Cllr Kevin Etheridge added the committee should have been given more information on addressing the deficit before making a recommendation on the proposals.

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