Education budget under scrutiny

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

The previously unthinkable prospect of slashing the county’s education budget is set to become a reality due to the state of the regional authority’s finances, it has been confirmed.

Parents and pupils will have to expect less choice of subject and bigger class sizes as drastic cuts have to be made to the Powys County Council Budget which includes schools.

At a discussion to outline the new “fairer” school funding formula, education chiefs told members of the Learning, Skills and Economy scrutiny committee that the cabinet will have to decide what cuts schools will have to make.

They also revealed that the current funding formula was illegal and that there was no choice but change.

Director of Education, Ian Budd, said: “I think I have been frank throughout this review, our present school funding formula is not compliant with regulation. It needs to be replaced.

“The new funding formula is designed to be transparent, consistent and equitable which is different to its predecessor. Under the new distribution model some schools gain and some lose.

“It’s important that no schools face a cliff edge and can’t operate safely.

“The last bit of modelling we’re working on is about dampening any negative effects.”

The formula would give schools the minimum funding needed to run a school allowing the headteacher to decide how best to use it.

Mr Budd added: “There are political choices in terms of budgeting that need to be taken as to what we can afford for schools and other services which the council is responsible for.

“If the high figure of £71 million is not affordable in 2019/20 there needs to be a rationale about which parts of the formula are not implemented in 2019/20.”

School governor Alison Davies, who has been co-opted onto the committee, asked if the changes meant that the expectations of parents and pupils would have to be lowered.

Mr Budd, replied: “The cabinet will be asked to make a decision on what is the core offer that we are going to be able to pay for through the budget.”

Another school governor, Graham Taylor, who has been part of the review group, said: “If there are not the resources for the core provision the decision will then be what is going to be cut back. One example could be classes will have to be bigger.”

The committee will meet again on January 4 to look at a final drafting of the formula.