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.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
7 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Concerns over tourism tax impact on Welsh businesses
Already dwindling tourist numbers The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), which represents businesses and organisations across Wales, has voiced concerns that an additional tax would dissuade tourists from coming into Wales and supporting local businesses. 'The tourism industry as a whole is against levies, full stop,' says Rowland Rees-Evans, WTA chair. 'North Wales, Gwynedd, have been driving [the tax] because they've got certain issues at certain times of the year where they just can't move up there. If you've got too many people, you can charge them all. But the rest of the year and the rest of Wales, we could take more people,' says Mr Rees-Evans, emphasising the need for more tourists to be welcomed into South and East Wales. The same position has been taken by the Welsh Conservative party. 'We need to scrap it' says Gareth Davies, Conservative shadow minister for culture and tourism. Interviewed on-site at a popular South Wales visitor attraction, he explained how the levy will 'eat into profit margins' for businesses, as well as the budgets of those visiting the region. 'It's really going to put people off coming into Wales, where we need to boost tourism numbers which have dropped since covid and haven't been restored.' The number of overnight trips to Wales by domestic tourists in 2019 was 10.7million. By 2022, this number had fallen to 8.7million. Last year, there were 7.6million. Monmouthshire, a popular destination for UK domestic tourists, has felt this impact on a local scale. In 2023, total visitor numbers were down -1.8 per cent from 2022. Popular tourist attractions in Monmouthshire include Chepstow castle, Tintern Abbey and the Old Station at Tintern. The area also welcomes tourists for annual festivals such as the Abergavenny food festival, the Green Man festival and Castell Roc music festival. Despite many Monmouthshire attractions having a daytime-focus, the country relies on overnight visitors far more, with 25 per cent of visitors who stay overnight generating 77 per cent of visitor spend, according to the 2023 tourism performance report. This reliance on overnight visitors makes the area more vulnerable to the proposed accommodation levy, as the additional cost may convince visitors to stay fewer nights, or across the border in England. Hopes of better funding for local services The tax was proposed on the basis that any funds raised can help respond to the costs of tourism and improve facilities for both locals and visitors, such as toilets, footpaths and visitor centres. The bill was informed by Dr Linda Osti's research, which demonstrates how a levy has been successful in other countries including Italy and the US. 'In the destinations we analysed, we couldn't see any decline in overnight stays,' says Dr Osti. 'With a levy, Wales can focus more on improving the services for both the local people and the tourists.'
South Wales Argus
8 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Survey ‘suggests political system poised for potential transformation'
The findings of a new survey also show there is a clear appetite for electoral reform, with a record number backing changes to allow smaller political parties 'to get a fairer share of MPs', the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) said. NatCen, which published the latest chapter of the British Social Attitudes (BSA) report on Wednesday, said that before the recent rise in the popularity of Reform UK, significant questions about the future of two-party politics were raised by the outcome of the 2024 general election. The election did not improve low levels of trust and confidence in how the country is governed, researchers found, with a record low of 19% of the public saying the system needs little or no improvement before the election repeated in the latest survey. In addition, just 12% of those surveyed said they trust governments to put the country's interest before their party's interests 'just about always' or 'most of the time'. This is a smaller percentage than the previous record lowest level of 14% registered in 2023, while NatCen said high levels of dissatisfaction with the NHS, the economy and Brexit continue to undermine public trust and confidence. Meanwhile, amid diminishing class-based support for the two main parties, age and education are now viewed as more important factors. Labour failed to reconnect with its traditional working class base during the election campaign, continuing a trend that emerged in 2019, the survey suggests. Just 30% of those in what NatCen describes as 'semi-routine and routine occupations' voted Labour, compared with 42% of people in professional and managerial jobs. The survey showed age and education are now the 'principal dividing line in British politics', demonstrated by only 6% of 18 to 24-year-olds of those surveyed voting Conservative, compared with 36% of voters aged 65 or over. Only 5% of graduates voted for Reform UK, compared with 25% of those with less than one A-level. While a record 60% of those surveyed said the electoral system should be changed to allow smaller political parties to get their 'fair share' of MPs, just 36% said the status quo should be maintained 'to produce effective government'. For the first time a majority of supporters of all political parties said they backed electoral reform, with as much as 90% of Green supporters and 78% of Reform voters confirming this position. In another first, more than half of respondents said they would prefer a coalition government, compared with 41% who opted for a single party in power. Commenting on the findings, Alex Scholes, research director at NatCen, said: 'The 2024 election highlighted significant challenges to Britain's traditional two-party system and the result has yet to restore public trust and confidence. 'With voter trust at an all-time low and a growing support for electoral reform, the political landscape is poised for potential transformation. 'Whether this will lead to substantive changes in how the country is governed remains to be seen.' The survey also found a record 26% of participants said they are struggling to live on their current income, up from 16% before the pandemic. The proportion who said they are living comfortably has also fallen over the same period from 50% to a record low of 35%. With Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer facing a backlash from some Labour MPs over proposals to reform the welfare system which are expected to save up to £5 billion a year, support for more spending on disability benefits fell to a record low of 45%, down 22 points since 2017. Just over a quarter of respondents (29%) said it is too easy for people to claim and receive disability benefits, while the same proportion said it is too difficult. However, just 11% said spending on disability benefits should be cut. The survey also found 69% believe the economy is worse off as a result of leaving the European Union. Within the backdrop of Labour pledging a significant uplift in the delivery of new homes as a key element of its bid to boost economic growth, the proportion of people who support more homes in their local area has fallen from 57% in 2018 to 41% now. Meanwhile, a third are opposed, up from 23% in 2018. Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at NatCen, said voters are aware of the challenges but not 'necessarily ready to back the various remedies that Labour have been offering to overcome the country's difficulties'. He added: 'They are not necessarily prepared to embrace a dash for more infrastructure building, including perhaps not least anything that appears in their own backyard. 'Tightening up on disability benefits is potentially controversial too, as the Government has already discovered. 'The political difficulty with these policies is there are potentially identifiable winners and losers, and it is often the losers who shout the loudest. 'Pursuing economic growth rather than tax rises as the route out of fiscal constraint will not necessarily be the easier path for Labour to tread.' The British Social Attitudes survey has been conducted annually since 1983. The latest survey consisted of 4,120 interviews with a 'representative, random sample' of adults in the UK and was conducted between September 16 and October 27 2024.
North Wales Chronicle
8 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Starmer must meet Tory conditions if he wants us to back Welfare Bill
The Tory leader said the Bill does not cut down welfare spending enough or go far enough to get people back to work and called for the Prime Minister to promise no new taxes would be announced in the autumn. Ministers have said the reforms could save up to £5 billion a year. Sir Keir has said he will 'press on' with the legislation despite the prospect of a major revolt when the welfare Bill comes before the Commons in a vote set for July 1. More than 100 backbenchers – enough to threaten the Prime Minister's majority – have signed an amendment designed to halt the changes. The Tory leader said Labour's MPs are in 'open rebellion' and set out conditions for her party's MPs to back the bill. 'The Government is in a mess, their MPs are in open rebellion. If Keir Starmer wants our support, he needs to meet three conditions that align with our core Conservative principles,' she said. 'The first condition is that the welfare budget is too high, it needs to come down. This Bill does not do that. 'The second condition is that we need to get people back into work. Unemployment is rising, jobs are disappearing, and even the Government's own impact assessments say that the package in this Bill will not get people back to work. 'The third is that we want to see no new tax rises in the autumn. We can't have new tax rises to pay for the increases in welfare and other Government spending. 'We are acting in the national interest to make the changes the country needs. 'And if Keir Starmer wants us to help him get this Bill through, then he must commit to these three conditions at the dispatch box.' A Labour spokesperson said that they are 'prepared to take on the challenges holding the UK back'. 'We're fixing the abysmal mess the Tories left behind, and MPs can either vote to keep a broken failed welfare system that writes people off, or they can vote to start fixing it,' the spokesperson said.
