Calls grow for ALN funding to be passed directly to Welsh councils

Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter

Calls have been made for consequential funding to be passed on to Welsh councils to help deal with pressures for additional learning needs (ALN) demand.

Members of Neath Port Talbot council backed a motion at full council in July, asking that an extra £340m worth of UK Government funding relating to additional special education needs spending in England be passed directly to local councils and schools in Wales.

Consequential funding is an adjustment mechanism used by the UK Government to make sure when extra money is spent on public services in England a fair share is automatically given to governments in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The call came from members of the local Labour group in Neath Port Talbot after the Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government’s first supplementary budget was voted down at the Senedd.

While the budget promised to deliver £294m of extra funding to reduce NHS waiting times, expand childcare, and extend free school meals, with none of the consequential funding allocated to respond to the pressures caused by rising ALN demand in Wales opposition members refused to back the plans.

In a bid to pass the vote in Cardiff Bay Plaid made an offer to Welsh Labour which would have see £120m allocated over the next three years to ALN pupils but Labour had been holding out for £100m to be spent immediately.

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said there were more than 2,400 pupils with additional learning needs in Neath Port Talbot ahead of the motion being put forward by local councillor Josh Tuck.

The Baglan representative’s motion noted that funding for ALN provision was an enormous budgetary pressure for councils with more than 60% of schools in some areas currently carrying negative balances.

He called for the leader of Neath Port Talbot xouncil to write to the First Minister urging Welsh Government to make sure that the “full value” of any ALN-related consequential received were allocated to local authorities and schools.

Speaking to the chamber he said the move was not an attempt to score political points but to make sure children with additional learning needs in Neath Port Talbot got the support they were entitled to.

During a lengthy back and forth debate Independent councillor Simon Knoyle said from his position as cabinet member for finance they needed to achieve as much funding as possible in to the authority.

The motion from Cllr Tuck was seconded by the Labour group leader for the area, Cllr Sonia Reynolds, with an amendment made by Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Nia Jenkins.

This asked for the chief executive of the council to include the updated pressures in local authority and school budgets as part of their budget setting process moving forward.

Additionally it agreed to work with Welsh Government to make sure a sustainable and evidence-based  funding model was developed for Wales’ most vulnerable young people.

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