Politics Morning Star
Teachers react with fury to Welsh government’s latest budget
TEACHING unions reacted with anger today to the Welsh government’s supplementary Budget, passed in the Senedd late on Tuesday. The Budget came after the Plaid Cymru-led government struck a deal with W
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The Budget came after the Plaid Cymru-led government struck a deal with Welsh Labour to put £60 million into schools for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN), in a move unions have described as inadequate.
Finance minister Elin Jones said: “Members across the political spectrum have consistently highlighted the challenges facing learners with [ALN].”
TUC Cymru general secretary Laura Doel said: “We will always welcome additional funding for Welsh public services.
“Public services, and the hard-working staff that make them tick, need adequate investment to continue delivering for the people of Wales.
“The Welsh government cannot deliver its ambitions for education and public services without listening to the workers who deliver them.”
The TUC Cymru leader also warned that ministers must work with trade unions and the workforce to ensure staff have the capacity and support needed to deliver on the government’s priorities.
NASUWT Cymru’s Neil Butler said: “While the proposed increase in ALN funding in Wales is welcome, it still falls well short of the Barnett consequential of £550 million over three years.”
Mr Butler emphasised the recruitment-and-retention problem facing Welsh schools and said money had to be made available for this.
“Of teachers who joined the profession 10 years ago, just under 40 per cent have left, and of those who joined five years ago, 25 per cent have gone.
“Teachers have just had another pay cut, with inflation at 3.9 per cent they received 3.5 per cent even though the review body recommended 4.25 per cent.
“The future of our children in Wales depends on getting this right […] there is a lot of fiddling while Rome burns,” Mr Butler said.
Dr Graham Gault of headteachers’ union NAHT said: “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.”
Dr Gault said the union had written to Wales’ Auditor General to investigate what has happened to the additional ALN money provided by Westminster under the Barnett formula as a result of extra special educational needs funding in England, over and above the £60m actually provided.
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