Will the Welsh Government be providing support to local authorities to help schools maintain school equipment standards, given that 71 percent of NAHT Cymru members reported to the union that they will have to reduce investment in school equipment to help fund the 2023-24 teacher pay awards?
We recognise that schools and local authorities are under significant financial pressure, and that there are no easy answers to resolving the issues being faced.
We have re-prioritised funding within the Education budget so we can protect school funding as much as possible, spending more in areas under the greatest pressure and increasing the Welsh Government grants going directly to schools.
We know there are significant pressures on local authorities which is why we provided a 7.9% increase on the Local Government Settlement for 2023-24 and have protected the indicative rise of 3.1% in the 2024-25 draft budget.