School funding inquiry — Dawn Bowden AM
Introduction
I am currently involved with a very interesting Inquiry into school funding as a member of the Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee. The Inquiry has received much written evidence from those involved in the education and schools sector. The Committee is supplementing this written evidence with visits to primary and secondary schools in order to hear from the front line about the school budget process. Last week we started to hear oral evidence from school leaders, trade unions and other education experts. You can read more about the evidence being received by this Inquiry here.
I believe that it is in the detail of these submissions that you can find many of the debates that are clearly being contested when faced with, what appears, a relatively straightforward question about school funding.
So I thought a quick blog piece might help highlight some of the issues I feel this Inquiry will need to disentangle as we move from evidence gathering, evaluation and towards making recommendations that will, in due course, receive a response from the Welsh Government.
Factors to consider
The evidence shows there are a number of determinants in how money reaches the learners in our schools. The factors include (this list is not exhaustive):
- UK Government spending allocation to Wales,
- Welsh Government determination of its Budget priorities across the devolved public services including local government and education,
- Funding of the whole education system including national priorities for improvement, the Regional Consortia, Welsh Government grants, and the funding which goes directly to local authorities,
- the priorities set by local councils from their Rate Support Grant settlement,
- the role of a local schools forum in discussing local school spending decisions,
- the priorities of individual schools, as set by the local school leadership, and reflecting year/subject/development priorities, levels of school reserves etc.
Some initial questions
There are of course competing ideas that this Inquiry will need to consider before making recommendations to the Welsh Government:
- To what extent should the Welsh Government hypothecate spending on schools, or does that not cut across a local authority’s role in determining the priorities for its local communities?
- Without hypothecation/grants how can the Welsh Government ensure it delivers its own election mandate for the delivery of education policies?
- Does the funding of specialised education functions through Regional Consortia help or hinder performance as it may improve challenge, but removes money from local authority/school budgets?
- How far should Welsh Government funding be used to address the effects of poverty and/or rural sparsity as against a flat rate per head of learner in Wales?
- As some people refer to a ‘crisis’ how can the levels of some school reserves be justified?
- The extent to which local authorities adequately prioritise schools in their local Budget process?
- Whether the decision making processes across the 22 authorities are transparent and consistent?
- How to best deliver specialised services given the relatively small scale of some local authorities?
- How can we best use the available Budget to continue to transform the experience for learners, support a high-class workforce and deliver a new national curriculum?
Suddenly, and very quickly, what on the surface appears a simple question, quickly gets very complicated. This list of questions leaves out teachers and support staff pay and pensions debates.
How will I assess all this evidence?
The early evidence has helped me to start framing some ideas about how to evaluate the wide range of evidence that we are hearing, and will continue to hear in the weeks ahead. I will, of course, be having conversations with other members of the Committee when we eventually frame our report.
· For my part, I am proud that Wales has maintained a policy broadly in favour of comprehensive education, and resisted models like academies.
· Even in the era of austerity, we have a good record on funding new and refurbished schools. This should continue.
· It is clear to me that schools and local authorities need external support and to share the cost of some specialised services.
· To me, it seems right that the problems facing learners in disadvantaged communities receive additional funding support and,
· We must hold firm to the principle of curriculum reform if we are to meet the needs of our learners going forwards.
It is not yet the time for reaching recommendations on schools funding but hopefully sharing some of the current debate helps shed a bit of light on an issue of significant public interest.
I hope that the Inquiry will improve transparency around decision making, and help in understanding the evidence which underpins the political choices which all governments, including the Welsh Government, must make as regards education and schools.
Dawn Bowden is the Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.