‘Wales gets less money for A-levels’
TEENAGERS studying A-levels in Wales have £1,000 less spent on their education every year than in England, a council official has said.
A specialist officer for post-16 education at Bridgend council calculated the sum by comparing the English and Welsh models for funding schools and colleges after GCSE.
His figures show pupils in Wales studying three A-levels and the Welsh Baccalaureate would have £3,399 spent on their education every year.
In England, a pupil studying four A-levels would have £4,400 spent on their education every year.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said it was doing its best to fund councils in difficult financial circumstances.
Bridgend council’s John Fabes, specialist officer for post-16 education, said the funding inequality means his local authority is underfunded by around £1.5m compared to a similar council in England.
He says the funding gap raises questions over the provision of resources for students who are being prepared to compete with their peers across the UK for places in employment, higher apprenticeships and universities.
Highlighting the issue at a Bridgend council meeting on proposed changes in the county’s post-16 education provision, Mr Fabes said: “I did an exercise comparing the English and Welsh funding models for post-16.
“And the bottom line is if you’re in England you get £1,000 per student more [per year] than you do in Wales – and yet the English head teachers are crying out for more post-16 money.
“If you were to look at it within the context of Bridgend, I’m suggesting we are probably about £1.5m underfunded compared with a similar authority in England.”
The funding rate for each student is determined by the size of their study programme based on their planned hours.
In England the base rate of £4,000 is applied to all programmes with 540 or more hours of delivery. There are then uplifts of 10% and 20% for learners following high volume programmes of four or five A-levels.
In Wales, students studying the standard three A-levels plus the Welsh Baccalaureate have a programme of 711 hours a year but receive £3,399 funding compared to £4,400 that English students would have for four A-levels.
In a report going before cabinet members next week, Mr Fabes states: “The major cost of delivery is the salaries of teachers and these are the same in both countries but a comparison of the funding levels shows a significant difference with Wales being at a disadvantage.
“This lower level of funding places the delivery of sixth-form provision under greater pressure in Wales.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We have worked hard, across the Welsh Government, to offer local government the best settlement possible in the current financial climate and have made further allocations to mitigate most of the reduction councils had been expecting following the final budget last year.
“Although allocations have decreased for many local authorities over the last few years, this is due to lower learner numbers.”