To consider a report by County Councillor Myfanwy Alexander, Portfolio Holder for Learning and Welsh Language and County Councillor Aled Davies Portfolio Holder for Finance.
Minutes:
The Portfolio Holder for Learning and the Welsh Language outlined the reasons for the review which had been undertaken by the Formula Review Group. The formula aimed to address concerns about the level of deficit occurring in some schools and the need to ensure all schools were funded sufficiently to be able to deliver an appropriate curriculum.
The Director of Education advised that Powys had the highest gross expenditure per pupil in Wales in 2018/19 and that gross funding had increased by 4.9% between 2017/18 and 2018/19. The 2.2% net increase in funding per pupil compared favourably to the 1.6% Welsh average. He also noted that the Council spent above the Welsh Government Indicator Based Assessment and he refuted a press report that Welsh medium education was not being properly funded. He explained that the majority of schools were in deficit because some governing bodies were not managing resources effectively and the Council hadn’t been allocating funds effectively. Implementing the new formula would mean that the Authority would be allocating funds effectively to individual schools in future, based on a clear rationale/ operating model, and that there would be transparency wherever Governing Bodies spend above the notional operational model on leadership or any other heading.
County Councillor Pete Roberts responded on behalf of Scrutiny. He noted that the version of the report before Cabinet differed from that considered by Scrutiny and that it was difficult to see which of the Scrutiny recommendations had been accepted because the report had not been completed properly. The Director of Education confirmed that there would be a formal response to the Scrutiny report and that there would be a review of the impact of the changes in the first year of implementation followed by annual reviews. Clarification was provided on the Individual School Range (ISR) set by governing bodies for leadership posts. The ISR dictates the maximum funding the formula would attribute for leadership posts and not necessarily reflect what the schools were currently paying. The old and new formula both cap the funding based on the ISR and the impact of this change was circa £20k.
County Councillor Bryn Davies argued that there should be more support for Welsh medium education to address the decline in the number of Welsh speakers and that the core funding formula should fund opportunities for immersive learning whenever a pupil came into the system. Cabinet was advised that this would not be possible as an immersive stream could not be put in every school, but that funding followed pupils, so that where there was a need this was resourced. The Director acknowledged that the Welsh in Education Strategic Forum needed to be more active and he advised that it would be meeting more frequently in future.
The Director also outlined the support offered to school governing bodies and the Leader advised that a seminar to brief members on the new Funding Formula would be held in February.
RESOLVED: |
Reason for Decision: |
To implement the new school funding formula as set out in Appendix A1 and A2 from April 2019. |
To demonstrate the fair and transparent resourcing of agreed educational policy. |
To phase implementation over two financial years. |
To ease the impact of the changes on individual schools. |
To maintain the link between educational policy and budget in circumstances where policy, budget or cost change through annual review. |
To ensure the integrity of the funding formula is maintained. |
Supporting documents: