Commenting after the Welsh Government’s supplementary budget was agreed by the Senedd, Dr Graham Gault, national secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“The failure to provide schools with the funding they need to properly support the growing numbers of pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) unfortunately casts a long shadow over some more welcome investments in building maintenance, secondary free school meals, and supporting swimming lessons.

“Our members have now been left with no choice but to ballot for industrial action over a combination of factors, including the continued underfunding of ALN provision and the impact that is continuing to have on our members’ workload. School leaders have spent years absorbing pressures that should never have fallen to schools in the first place. The system is being stretched beyond its limits and the consequences are increasingly being felt by the children and communities that schools serve. 

“Let us be clear – while the £60m in additional ALN funding is an improvement, schools are being denied the full £322m they should be entitled to under the Barnett formula Wales as a result of extra special educational needs funding in England. That’s why we have written to the Auditor General to ask them to investigate what has happened to this missing money.”