What assessment has the Cabinet Minister made of the relative per-pupil spending in Wales compared with England for each of the last five years?
Decisions on the level of funding available to schools and to other services are made by each local authority, as part of their overall budget and council tax setting. The Welsh Government provides funding to local authorities to support their funding of pre-16 provision in schools in Wales mainly through the local government revenue settlement. The settlement is not ring-fenced; the funding allocated to each authority is available to the authority to spend as it sees fit across the range of services for which it is responsible, including schools.
There is a variation in funding levels between England and Wales when looked at on a per learner basis. However, as policy priorities in Wales and England have diverged since devolution, so too have the school funding arrangements. Direct funding comparisons have become increasingly misleading. The statistics for England and Wales are not made up in the same way because they include different elements of spend. Significant amounts of school expenditure in England are spent on matters not experienced by Welsh schools, with fees for professional services and other accommodation related expenses falling to some English schools.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies published a Public service spending and performance in Wales report in March which states that ‘School spending per pupil in Wales is expected to be £8,700 in 2025-26, slightly above the expected level of £8,600 for England. Both England and Wales saw a 14% real term rise in school spending per pupil between 2019-20 and 2025-26. In Wales, this more than reversed cuts of 5% during the 2010s and leaves spending per pupil about 10% higher in real terms than in 2009-10.’
The Welsh Government publishes annual statistics on spending for all maintained schools in Wales on the StatsWales website.