Response from the Leader of Vale Council

Thank you for your email. I share your concern with regards to the financial challenges faced by our schools.

You may remember that last year I wrote to all parents in the Vale of Glamorgan to raise the issue and since then I have been working with Headteachers and Council officials to urge Welsh Government to address the huge disparity in how schools are funded in different parts of Wales.

The vast majority of funding for schools comes from the Welsh Government. Here in the Vale we receive £568 less per pupil than the Welsh average and £1,349 less than the highest funded local authority in Wales.

To put this in perspective a typical 210-place primary school in the Vale would receive an extra £119,000 per year if it was funded at the Welsh average.

The fact that Headteachers in both Barry and Penarth have now written to parents to warn of the challenges ahead shows just how dire the situation has become.

Our overall budget is also being cut year on year by Welsh Government. Over the last 9 years the Council has had to reduce its spending by £55m and a further £12m will be required over the next 2 years.

During my time as Leader of the Council I have taken the decision to prioritise education within the Council’s budget. In an attempt to make up for the low level of funding we receive the Council will put an additional £4.8million into our schools this year. This is money that would otherwise be spent on supporting other vital services.

In the past year senior officials of the Council, Headteachers and I have all written several times to Welsh Government and the Minister for Education. We have held meetings with politicians at all levels and with the Welsh Local Government Association to try and find a way forward and a fairer way of funding schools in Wales.

We are asking that Welsh Government review their funding formula and provide a rationale to justify why they believe it costs so much less to educated a child in the Vale than anywhere else in the Country.

I assure you that we will continue to work hard on this and that we are determined to see a fairer way of funding schools introduced in Wales.

We are encouraging concerned parent’s to help us achieve this by writing to Welsh Government and the Minister for Education to make their views known and I thank you for already doing this.  

Kind regards

Councillor John Thomas

Leader of the Council

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