This financial year will see nearly £3.9 billion spent on Welsh schools, resulting in a spend of £8,616 per pupil. Data shows this is the highest amount to be spent in real terms since the Welsh Government published them in this way in 2014.
Yet earlier this year, the Petitions Committee heard a call “to protect funding in education from Welsh Government and Local Authority cuts”. The Petitioner says that “there are numerous reports of LA's putting out consultations or actual published budgets with massive cuts to education budget(s)”. More than 11,000 people agreed and signed the petition, meaning Members of the Senedd will discuss these issues during a Plenary debate on Wednesday 24 September.
Who funds schools?
Most funding for compulsory-age education is provided by the Welsh Government to local authorities. It is part of the so called ‘local government settlement’- a sum of money intended to contribute towards the services a council provides. The money is ‘un-hypothecated’, meaning the Welsh Government doesn’t tell councils how much it must spend on individual services. It’s up to each council to decide how much to spend on what — including on schools and education.
This significant amount of education funding that goes via local authorities is supplemented by a much smaller amount of direct spending from the Welsh Government’s central education budget. To illustrate the scale of this split, in the financial year 2025–26, approximately £3.9 billion of the funding earmarked for schools will come via local authorities, with another £402 million set to come directly from the Welsh Government’s central education budget.
How local authorities decide how much to spend
How much is spent on compulsory-age education is decided through a series of stages:
The first factor is the amount that Local Authorities have to spend on education. Welsh Government uses formulas to decide how much money to give each local authority every financial year. Combined with council tax revenues from local residents, this funding creates a budget used by councils to fund all its services. They then decide how much of that money to use on schools and education.
Secondly, local authorities then decide how to split their education funding. Once a council decides the total amount to spend on education, it takes three steps to split this further, in line with the School Funding (Wales) Regulations 2010:
- The central local authority education budget: This is the amount kept by the council to spend on ‘central education functions’ like alternative provision for learners not at school, education welfare services, and support to help schools improve performance. This pot also includes ‘non-school’ spending like money for further education.
- The schools budget: This is the overall amount local authorities will spend on school services. It includes a pot of money held back by the council for things that are seen to be more efficient to administer centrally, like support for learners with Additional Learning Needs, school meals and milk.
- Individual schools budget (ISB): This is the funding given directly to individual schools.
Welsh Government’s pre-16 Local Authority Education Grant
Although local authorities make up the vast majority of funding that schools get, the Welsh Government provides some funding to schools from its education budget through the annual Local Authority Education Grant (LAEG). It’s made up of four strands, totalling £402 million in 2025-26:
- Education Reform: £67 million
- School Standards: £169 million
- Equity in Education (including the Pupil Development Grant): £156 million
- Cymraeg 2050: £8.8 million.
What the figures tell us
In real terms, as shown in the tables below, between 2010-11 and 2025-26 there has been:
- an increase of 6.18% on gross budgeted expenditure on schools
- an increase of 7.43% allocation per pupil
Gross Budgeted Expenditure on schools £ Billion
| Gross Budgeted Expenditure on schools £ Billion | Real terms (base year 2025-26) |
|
| 2025-26 | 3.870 | 3.870 |
| 2024-25 | 3.591 | 3.686 |
| 2023-24 | 3.343 | 3.571 |
| 2022-23 | 3.096 | 3.502 |
| 2021-22 | 2.913 | 3.527 |
| 2020-21 | 2.822 | 3.397 |
| 2019-20 | 2.657 | 3.370 |
| 2018-19 | 2.566 | 3.332 |
| 2017-18 | 2.543 | 3.371 |
| 2016-17 | 2.519 | 3.392 |
| 2015-16 | 2.496 | 3.436 |
| 2014-15 | 2.528 | 3.506 |
| 2013-14 | 2.519 | 3.536 |
| 2012-13 | 2.495 | 3.569 |
| 2011-12 | 2.470 | 3.599 |
| 2010-11 | 2.458 | 3.645 |
£ Per Pupil Budgeted Expenditure on schools
| £ Per Pupil Gross Budgeted Expenditure on schools | Real terms (base year 2025-26) |
|
| 2025-26 | 8616 | 8616 |
| 2024-25 | 7926 | 8136 |
| 2023-24 | 7327 | 7827 |
| 2022-23 | 6773 | 7660 |
| 2021-22 | 6387 | 7733 |
| 2020-21 | 6203 | 7466 |
| 2019-20 | 5857 | 7428 |
| 2018-19 | 5675 | 7368 |
| 2017-18 | 5628 | 7461 |
| 2016-17 | 5570 | 7500 |
| 2015-16 | 5526 | 7609 |
| 2014-15 | 5607 | 7776 |
| 2013-14 | 5594 | 7853 |
| 2012-13 | 5520 | 7897 |
| 2011-12 | 5451 | 7942 |
| 2010-11 | 5409 | 8020 |
What local authorities say about school funding
The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) represents all 22 local authorities in Wales. It has warned of the inflationary pressures facing schools largely related to pay, reporting that “pay accounts for around 80% of schools’ pressure” in recent years. It also says that a theme “repeatedly highlighted” by local authorities is that “school budgets are starting from an already fragile position”
The WLGA says that there was an estimated budget shortfall across all council services of around £400 million in the financial year 2024-25 and that this “has meant difficult decision[s] for non-statutory services and increasingly, schools.” It refers to a letter the WLGA sent to the First Minister in which schools and education are said to be ‘Priority Area 1’. It goes on to say:
Councils have reported £92m of in-year pressures added to school budgets for 2024-25, which is well over double that reported in the pressures survey for the previous year.[…]. Whilst this is concerning, what worsens the situation is the fact reserves have largely been depleted so no longer remain the option they were in previous years.[…]. The future pressures that schools are facing is sobering, showing £122m in 2025-26, with a further £111m and £112m in 2026-27 and 2027-28 respectively.
Having sufficient funding to support children with additional learning needs is a focus in this Petition. The WLGA says that whilst there are many causes of financial pressures on schools, a recurring theme from local authorities is that “all schools are seeing an increase in both the numbers of learners with additional learning needs and in the complexity of those needs”. It also says that that the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 “is cited as the main reason for the escalation in costs.”
What’s been said about this Petition so far
The Welsh Government provided two responses to the Petitions Committee and in the most recent it told the Committee:
Local authorities and schools are responsible for providing a suitable education for all learners, including those with additional learning needs (ALN). It is for local authorities to determine how to spend the total resources available to them in order to best meet their local needs
The Petitioner emphasised they want “ring-fencing funds to be protected for education within LA budgets”. Then in April 2025 the Petitioner raised concerns about “significant amounts of money” being spent by local authorities on education tribunals —which they say "many of which they go on to lose”. The Petitioner says this is a “troubling use of public funds.”
The Children Young People and Education Committee is scrutinising the new Additional Learning Needs (ALN) system. It has already heard that funding pressures are a key challenge and has recommended the Welsh Government review how ALN provision is funded in mainstream schools. The final evidence session on the implementation of education reforms, including the new ALN system, will be on the 23 October 2025, when the Cabinet Secretary for Education will give evidence.
Before that, the Senedd will debate this Petition on education funding in Plenary on Wednesday 24 September 2025. You can follow on Senedd.tv.
Article by Sian Thomas, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
