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Question from: County Councillor Aled Davies Subject: Education issues
Question:
Following the press comments made by the Cabinet member for Education, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63464742 could he explain how many teachers post will be left vacant, how many days of face to face teaching will be lost and what is the minimum acceptable temperature that children of all ages should have to endure?
What level of savings will these measures achieve?
What will the impact on our children education?
Minutes: Response by the Cabinet Member:
It is not possible to predict at this stage how many posts may be left vacant nor for how long as vacancies can arise at any time for any number of reasons. Schools were advised to consider each vacancy and whether they need to be filled immediately or whether the work connected to that post could be covered by other staff in the short term, for example senior leaders increasing their teaching load or other teachers under capacity on teaching allocation could take on extra teaching – these are considerations that schools might want to consider as a way of making a temporary saving.Schools and the authority are mindful of class sizes, ratios and the quality of teaching and learning when considering these options.
Leaving a teaching post vacant for 1 month is estimated to save approximately £3,500 to £5,000 including employer NI and pension payments (based on mid-point of the main scale and upper pay scale for teachers). The exact savings a school could achieve would depend on the grade at which the post would be filled and the length of time the post remained vacant.
The possibility of a four-day in-school week, with the fifth day being taught virtually was also mentioned as a potential for consideration. If this were to be put in place from 1 December to the end of the Spring term,15 or 16 in-school teaching days would be replaced by virtual learning, depending on which days of the week the school buildings were closed.
If all schools were to not open their buildings to staff and pupils for 15 days, it is estimated that the saving would be approximately £200,000 - £250,000, or between £140 - £190 per day per school on average. In addition to the utilities savings, there is potential to save approximately £30,000 to £40,000 per day on transporting learners to school on those days. There may also be potential savings on consumables for catering, although this is expected to be relatively minor. It should be noted that hubs would be required for vulnerable learners which would reduce these estimated savings.
The minimum temperature for classrooms in Wales is 18 degrees celsius as set out in the regulation 20 of the School Premises Regulations.
We note and are already aware of the need to undertake full impact assessments on the effect on children’s learning before any proposal put forward by an individual school is approved.
Due to the very different characteristics of schools within the portfolio a single impact assessment would not necessarily capture the diversity of impact that any proposition might have.
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