Schools face financial hit due to Covid
THE coronavirus pandemic “will have profound implications for school resources and spending” and an annual assessment of school costs is needed, a major report into school funding in Wales published today says.
Compiled before Covid-19 hit, the review, commissioned by the Welsh Government in response to widespread concern about the ongoing school funding crisis, warns coronavirus is an added pressure at a time when it had already calculated school costs would soar by 8% in the next three years.
Before the pandemic, school funding was the number one concern for many schools with headteachers warning budgets were at “breaking point”.
Now schools have had to create online learning, adapt buildings for social distancing and pay for more cleaning, among other measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection.
Last October unions estimated as many as eight in 10 schools in Wales were in deficit. Some headteachers said they were cleaning toilets to save money on cleaners and that children’s education was suffering because of funding cuts.
Today’s report says per pupil spend has fallen 6% in Wales in the past decade – from to £6,388 in 2009-10 to £6,000. That is in line with a corresponding 6% fall in the block grant to Wales from the UK Government. But the report warns of inconsistency and lack of transparency in how money reaches schools and is spent on the 450,000 pupils in Wales.
Author, education economist
Luke
Sibieta, highlights staff pay as a major ongoing and future cost for schools. But he said high quality teaching and extra funding for deprived schools have the biggest impact on pupils’ achievement.
His wide ranging 125-page review, commissioned by Welsh Government in response to an inquiry into school funding last year by the Senedd Children Young People and Education Committee, also notes wide variations across Wales.
While Ceredigion, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Conwy spend around £200 to £300 more than the average per pupil on education, Newport, Vale of Glamorgan and Flintshire spend lower than average, but it is not clear, even accounting for regional and school differences, why this is, said Mr Sibieta, who is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Instead of saying how much should be spent per pupil his report calls on the Welsh Government to publish annual assessments of how much it will take to run schools.
Education Minister Kirsty Williams said: “When this work was commissioned in October last year nobody could have known about the unprecedented strain the coronavirus pandemic would have on public sector budgets.
“I am fully aware of the real pressures that local authorities and schools are now facing as a consequence of the pandemic – such challenges make it even more important that a considered review of the school funding system has been undertaken to ensure it is well-placed to assist policymakers as we move forward. The Welsh Government is doing everything it can to ensure Wales’s public services have all the resources they need to respond to, and mitigate the impact of, the crisis.”