NAHT Cymru has expressed deep disappointment at the level of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) funding agreed as part of the Welsh Government’s supplementary budget, warning that the package represents a missed opportunity to deliver the transformative investment that learners, schools and families were promised.

While the union welcomes the fact that some ALN funding has now been secured and that a greater proportion of funding will flow directly to schools, it says the overall package falls significantly short of the need identified across the education system.

Rob Kelsall, Assistant General Secretary of NAHT, said:

“While some will undoubtedly celebrate this announcement as a major success, school leaders across Wales are asking a very simple question: what happened to the £322 million that became available to Wales as a result of additional SEND funding in England?

“For months we have argued that this funding represented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen support for some of our most vulnerable children and young people. Instead, what has emerged is a package that falls substantially short of that figure and asks schools to be grateful for receiving only a fraction of what should have been available to learners with additional needs.”

NAHT Cymru said that although directing 80% of the funding to schools is an improvement on previous proposals, the overall scale of investment remains inadequate.

Mr Kelsall wrote to the Auditor General two weeks ago to ask them to investigate where the £322 million that came from the Barnett consequential went to.

Mr Kelsall continued: “Every single penny of the additional funding should go to schools and the learners that have been deprived of support that they need.

“The scale of what has been lost should not be overlooked. The £60 million package being discussed equates to roughly £130 per pupil across Wales’s maintained school population. By contrast, the full £322 million consequential funding would have been worth almost £700 per pupil. That is an extraordinary difference. School leaders cannot help but reflect on what that additional investment could have delivered for children with additional learning needs, for frontline support services, for ALNCO capacity and for schools struggling every day to meet rising levels of need. This settlement may represent progress, but it also serves as a stark reminder of the scale of the opportunity that has been missed.”

Kerina Hanson, NAHT Cymru President, said:

“Schools are best placed to identify needs, deploy support and ensure funding reaches the children for whom it is intended. We have consistently argued that resources should be placed directly into the hands of schools wherever possible.

“While the commitment that 80% of funding will flow directly to schools is an improvement, it does not alter the fundamental problem. The pot itself is simply too small. Children with additional learning needs have still been significantly short-changed.”

The union also questioned the decision to set out funding figures for the second and third years of the programme.

Ms Hanson continued: “We are particularly concerned that, by specifying funding allocations for years two and three, the government appears to have placed an artificial ceiling on future discussions.

“Why would we choose to limit our ambition in this way? Why would we lock ourselves into figures that remain significantly below the level of investment that should have been available this year alone?

“School leaders know that demand is continuing to rise. They know the pressure on ALN services is growing. They know schools are struggling to meet the needs of children with increasingly complex requirements. Setting out a three-year funding profile that falls so far short of the original consequential funding risks sending the message that this issue has now been dealt with, when the reality is very different.”

NAHT Cymru said that the announcement does not change the wider funding picture facing schools.

Kerina Hanson concluded:

“The reality is that schools continue to absorb enormous pressures created by years of underinvestment, while school leaders work tirelessly to protect children from the consequences.

“This announcement represents progress of a kind, but it does not represent success.

“We will continue to make the case for the level of investment that learners actually need, not the level that happens to be politically convenient. Wales's most vulnerable children deserve nothing less.”