Council leader criticises Senedd for ‘playing games’ with funding

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

A council’s leader has criticised the Welsh Government for ‘playing games’ with funding for additional learning needs after it made an improved offer to allow its supplementary budget to pass.

The deal – £60 million for the whole of Wales this year – is still significantly less than local authorities were expecting.

The Leader of Wrexham Council Cllr Mark Pritchard welcomed the improved offer but criticised both the current and previous administration for their handling of the financial relief Wales had been given for ALN.

“The Welsh Government decided to spend the ALN funding somewhere else and they have to own that,” he said.

“I think they realised that they got it wrong. They’re never going to say that, no government says that, but they have tried to make it right and put some more money in.

“That original consequential money in my opinion was for additional learning needs. I think things will change now they’ve had their fingers burnt.

“They have to realise that once an announcement comes from Westminster on any funding, it should come to us. If it’s announced in Westminster, that money should come across, they shouldn’t be playing games.

“Can I say this – and this is important – Mark Drakeford (the previous Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance) should have signed it off.

“If he would have signed it off before the election, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and all the money would be in education now.”

Prior to the election the authority had been working on a package worth £12 million to Wrexham County Borough Council this year – money which would have paid off the additional costs already born by schools in the area to meet the escalating demand for ALN support.

That was due to come from a £344 million pot of consequential funding provided to Welsh Government by UK Government after Westminster agreed to pay off the debts its schools had run up providing ALN support.

But when the new Welsh Government presented its financial plan in July it was rejected – including just £40m for ALN this year across the whole of Wales.

Now a deal has been struck between Plaid Cymru and Labour to let the budget pass with £60 million given to local authorities to address ALN costs.

As the Senedd passed the supplementary budget earlier this week current Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance Elin Jones MS said: “While there have been differing views on how best to respond there has been a broad recognition that these pressures are real and require action. That shared understanding has enabled agreement to be reached.”

The agreement to pass the budget did not just deliver promises on ALN funding. It also included £100m to bring down NHS waiting times across Wales, £55m for childcare and £40m for school repairs. That spending can all now go ahead.

But despite welcoming the investment in other areas of education, school leaders union the National Association of Headteachers warned that the single biggest financial pressure facing Welsh schools remained ALN.

“The failure to provide schools with the funding they need to properly support the growing numbers of pupils with ALN unfortunately casts a long shadow over some more welcome investments in building maintenance, secondary free school meals, and supporting swimming lessons,” said Dr Graham Gault, national secretary of the NAHT.

“Our members have now been left with no choice but to ballot for industrial action over a combination of factors, including the continued underfunding of ALN provision and the impact that is having on our members’ workload.

“School leaders have spent years absorbing pressures that should never have fallen to schools in the first place. The system is being stretched beyond its limits and the consequences are increasingly being felt by the children and communities that schools serve.

“Let us be clear – while £60m in additional ALN funding is an improvement, schools are being denied the full finance they should be entitled to under the Barnett Formula as a result of extra special educational needs funding in England.

“That’s why we have written to the Auditor General to ask them to investigate what has happened to this missing money.”