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Investment in school budgets to continue

Posted on Tuesday 21st February 2017

The running of schools and their individual finances are ultimately the responsibility of the school governing bodies and the head teachers. Like all other council services, they have to manage their operations from within available resources.

Even though the money available to the council has been drastically cut, schools have had their budgets increased by 19 per cent over the last five years – over and above the Welsh Government pledge.

Last year alone, schools were awarded a 4.5 per cent increase on their individual budgets – the highest growth in Wales.

At the meeting of Cabinet held on 20 February, an additional £1.1m was added to the schools’ budget for 2017/2018 – clearly acknowledging the importance placed on education by Newport City Council.

This is in addition to the cash surplus schools are carrying forward to 2017/18 which is forecast to be £3.9m. Individual schools have been supported by the council to keep those balances in light of austerity measures predicted.

Figures recently published in the press regarding the financial position of schools are incorrect as they do not take account of this additional funding or any actions taken by schools to manage their own budgets.

Newport’s schools are clearly receiving levels of funding that support them to achieve ever improving results – Newport’s primaries have just topped the tables in the recent school categorisations, with the highest proportion in Wales ranked in the top categories.

Secondary school standards also continue to rise with the best ever Level 2 inclusive results achieved last summer (five GCSEs or equivalent at grade A*-C, including English or Welsh first language and mathematics).

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