What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that the funding provided to local authorities to provide secondary school pupils with ICT equipment is being properly managed and that pupils have received the promised equipment in a timely and appropriate manner?
The Welsh Government is fully committed to maintaining support for schools through the Hwb Programme. In recent years Welsh Ministers have invested over £160million to help enable maintained schools across Wales to take advantage of the transformational benefits which digital and technology can have on education.
As part of this funding, over £107million has been provided to local authorities to future-proof education technology infrastructure and services in all maintained schools across Wales. This ensures schools can benefit from the investment in superfast connectivity and digital services, including Hwb, to underpin the Curriculum for Wales.
A core principle of the local authority change programme was to provide a central strategic delivery partner service to all their maintained schools, which ensures a consistent and sustainable approach. All investment decisions and subsequent arrangements to implement and manage the services have been strategically managed by each local authority to ensure a standardised model is in place across all maintained schools.
The Welsh Government, working with Caerphilly CBC, have developed a single procurement channel to enable local authorities to purchase EdTech products and associated services. This national service enables schools to access the technology they need effectively and efficiently, whilst benefiting from economies of scale. As part of the procurement process, all suppliers have committed that all EDTech equipment will be available for delivery within an agreed timescale and mechanisms are in place to monitor and track progress.
Recognising the challenges faced by the existing global demand for devices, my officials continue to work closely with suppliers, to ensure the delivery and deployment of equipment is completed in a timely and appropriate manner.