Question marks over level of funding for Powys schools
A SENIOR councillor says work needs to be done to look into schools' funding needs as Powys council looks to recover from a scathing Estyn inspection report and improve exam results.
At a meeting of Powys County Council's Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, June 24, councillors received a received a report on the council's school standards improvement plan.
This is partly a response to the scathing Estyn inspection report published in March into the education service.
The document includes an integrated business plan (IBP) which explains the steps the council will try and take to improve education in the county over the next five years.
The plan had been discussed by council's Learning and Skills scrutiny committee earlier this month and its chairman, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative) who presented their views to Cabinet.
Cllr Thomas said that the relationship of schools standards and funding needed to be thoroughly researched.
Cllr Thomas said: 'I really do think a piece of work needs to be done on whether they have enough resource or are schools running too thin to provide a breadth of curriculum.
'We need to understand that.'
Council leader, Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat) said that the Cabinet had agreed to 'fully fund' the schools funding formula this year.
Cllr Berriman reminded councillors of the need to provide a 'fair distribution' of resources to 'all areas' of the council.
Finance portfolio holder Cllr David Thomas (Labour) said that the 'concern that funding is not meeting education needs' is a theme brought up by the committee 'constantly.'
Cllr Thomas said: 'At the end of the day it's the responsibility of the funding formula working group.
'They should be working with scrutiny and the schools budget forum to put recommendations forward.
'If the formula is not fit for purpose, I would like to see some recommendations brought forward so it can be amended.'
'It's a bit unfair really to be saying we're not funding the needs of the curriculum as that's not something that is the responsibility of the finance department.'
Earlier on, head of schools improvement and learning Anwen Orrells explained that the report compared how Powys schools perform against similar schools across Wales.
This is done in 'families' of up to 10 schools.
Mrs Orrells said: 'We've provided detailed data of the performance of Powys secondary and all age schools and highlighted areas that have declined over time.
'Based on Powys' level of free school meals and low level of deprivation it is an expectation that our schools should perform well above the national average, and this is not the case.'
She explained that education chiefs have outlined what they intend to do to turn this around in the integrated business plan.
Mrs Orrells said: 'These actions are designed to address the underlying factors that have led to the current situation and lay the ground for consistent and sustainable improvement across Powys.'
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