As schools in Wales grapple with the biggest changes to education in decades and soaring prices the amount spent on each pupil varies by more than £1,350. How much each child gets depends on where they live and go to school.
Those in Blaenau Gwent get the most in 2022-23 at £7,397 allocated per pupil compared to the lowest in Vale of Glamorgan at £6,045.- a gap of £1,352. Rhondda Cynon Taf has allocated the largest overall percentage rise of 8.4% bringing the amount spent on each pupil there to £6,867 while Powys has made the smallest percentage increase of 3.2% more taking its per pupil spend to £7,359.
The Vale Council blamed the “inequitable” funding formula the Welsh Government uses to decide how much money to give to schools. Vale headteacher David Blackwell said the formula was putting children at a disadvantage and warned schools are having to "either increase class sizes or sacrifice staff numbers" to balance books.
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Across Wales local authorities have budgeted a combined total of £3.096 billion on total school spending from April 2022 to March 2023, figures released by the Welsh Government on July 7 show. Although that's 6.3% more than 2021-22 it is below inflation and will have to absorb staff pay increases and rocketing fuel prices.
Council with lowest per pupil spend blames Welsh Government
A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said the authority has consistently funded education above the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) calculated by Welsh Government, for the last six years years.
“The budget per pupil in the Vale of Glamorgan remains the lowest in Wales in line with the level of education funding provided by Welsh Government. Welsh Government calculates an SSA per local authority which determines the overall funding distributed to each authority.
"As a result of this formula, the education SSA per pupil in the Vale of Glamorgan is lower than other local authorities. The Council and budget forum have been challenging Welsh Government to consider reviewing the national funding formula for local authorities for a number of years.
"The Council would welcome an estimate of the basic cost to educate a pupil in Wales in order to establish whether the funding generated through the formula is sufficient to meet educational needs.
“As we look to the future, there will be considerable financial pressures facing schools and central education services over the next two years, including the continual recovery from the Covid pandemic, rising inflation, transport and energy costs and the implementation of the new curriculum and Additional Learning Needs (ALN) act.
David Blackwell, Headteacher and member of the Vale of Glamorgan Budget Forum, said: “Pupils in the Vale are significantly disadvantaged by the lack of provision schools are able to implement due to the inequity of the national funding formula.
“Schools are having to either increase class sizes or sacrifice staff numbers to ensure they can offer a broad and balanced curriculum with appropriate interventions that pupils need, otherwise they face significant budget deficits.
“Post pandemic, pupils need additional support and extra wellbeing and academic guidance to ensure they are gaining the best experiences from their education. Covid related grants in the last two years have helped to mask the gap in funding that exists in the region.
"Unless the funding formula is adapted to create greater fairness for pupils in the Vale, either standards will struggle or budgets will quickly run into deficit, a situation that no school should be put in.”
"This is not a wonderful position for schools"
Economist Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the overall 6% rise in school funding in Wales represented a real terms increase by the measure used to look at public spending - the GDP Deflator, which measures general inflation in the domestic economy and puts it at 4%.
"This is not a wonderful position for schools in Wales but it's not a terrible position either. It is in line with what's happening in England. It will all depend on teacher pay which is half a school's costs. With an overall rise of 6% there is probably dcope for a 5-6% increase in teacher salaries without affecting budgets too much.
"But the increase in pay and energy costs will certainly suck up a lot of schools' budgets. The GDP Deflator is probably not a fair reflection of school costs."
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are providing an additional £37.5m to schools this financial year through our Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme, to continue to support schools tackle the impacts of the pandemic."
In response the the Vale of Glamorgan funding formula criticism the spokesperson added: "The funding for the Vale of Glamorgan Council increased by over 10% for this financial year. The majority of funding for schools comes from the local authorities’ core budget, which includes funding from Welsh Government through the local government settlement.
"Local authorities choose how their budget is spent based on their own priorities. We also provide specific investments through grant funding. This includes an additional £37.5m to schools this financial year through our Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme, to continue to support schools to tackle the impacts of the pandemic."
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said it increased its schools budget from £163.8m to £175.0m: “This year’s increase sought to cover, in full, all pay and non-pay inflationary costs, including increased National Insurance costs associated with the Health and Social Care Levy. The increase in funding has also sought to support schools to respond to pupil number pressures and other increased costs, such as energy increases - as well as providing further support to pupils with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) in line with the new ALN reform requirements."
Where does money for maintained schools come from?
The majority of funding for pre-16 provision in maintained schools comes from local authorities, which in turn receive the majority of their funding through the annual local government settlement, set by the Welsh Government.
Local authorities, receive the majority of their funding from the Welsh Government through the Revenue Support Grant. They also raise a smaller amount of funding directly through council tax
Why is it different from area to area?
Per pupil spending on education varies between each local authority partly because every authority is different and the costs of providing education will vary accordingly. Providing education in sparsely populated rural areas is more expensive than in urban areas because of the impact of transport and other related costs. Economic factors such as social deprivation also have to be taken into account.
Other factors include the number of pupils entitled to free schools meals, the number with additional learning needs and the number of looked after children within the authority. When allocating funding to individual schools each council designs its own funding formula in consultation with schools.
All-Wales school spending
On a national level schools expenditure per pupil for 2022-23 is budgeted to be £6,773, a year-on-year increase of 6% or £386, the Welsh Government document says. That budget can be broken down into £5,617 per pupil delegated to schools and £1,156 per pupil retained for centrally funded school services.
The funding delegated to schools overall is budgeted to be £2m. The amount of funding that local authorities delegate directly to schools ranges between 76% and 89% of overall schools budgeted expenditure.
Over the last 10 years, school budgets per pupil increased in cash terms in most years but there have only been increases in real terms over the past four years, the document adds.
How Wales compares to England
The increasing differences in the schools system in England and Wales makes per pupil spend comparisons tricky. The academy system and the fact that more money is delegated directly to schools in England makes exact comparisons impossible. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the difference is less than £100 more spent per pupil in England than Wales. In England in 2020-21 secondary school spending per pupil stood at £6,600 and in primary school £5,800 at 3.6%. A further report looking at different spending patterns is due out from the IFS in the later autumn.
The Welsh Government and Vale of Glamorgan, Powys, Blaenau Gwent and Rhondda Cynon Taf councils were approached for comment.
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