A senior councillor has called for a thorough review of Powys school funding as the council seeks to recover from a critical Estyn inspection and boost exam results.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, June 24, councillors received a report outlining the council’s school standards improvement plan. This plan is part of the response to the damning Estyn inspection published in March, which highlighted serious concerns about the county’s education service.

The improvement plan includes an integrated business plan (IBP) detailing the council’s proposed steps to raise education standards over the next five years.

The document had been considered earlier this month by the council’s Learning and Skills scrutiny committee. Its chairman, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative), presented the committee’s views to Cabinet, emphasising the need for a detailed investigation into the relationship between school standards and funding.

Cllr Thomas said: “I really do think a piece of work needs to be done on whether they have enough resource - or are schools running too thin to provide a breadth of curriculum?

“We need to understand that.”

Council leader, Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat) said that the Cabinet had agreed to “fully fund” the schools funding formula this year.

Cllr Berriman reminded councillors of the need to provide a “fair distribution” of resources to “all areas” of the council.

Finance portfolio holder Cllr David Thomas (Labour) said that the “concern that funding is not meeting education needs” is a theme brought up by the committee “constantly”.

Cllr Thomas said: “At the end of the day, it’s the responsibility of the funding formula working group.

“They should be working with scrutiny and the schools budget forum to put recommendations forward.

“If the formula is not fit for purpose, I would like to see some recommendations brought forward so it can be amended.

“It’s a bit unfair really to be saying we’re not funding the needs of the curriculum, as that’s not something that is the responsibility of the finance department.”

Earlier in the meeting, Anwen Orrells, Head of Schools Improvement and Learning, explained that the report compares Powys schools’ performance against similar schools across Wales. This comparison is organised into “families” of up to 10 schools.

Mrs Orrells said: “We’ve provided detailed data of the performance of Powys secondary and all-age schools and highlighted areas that have declined over time.

“Based on Powys’ level of free school meals and low level of deprivation, it is an expectation that our schools should perform well above the national average, and this is not the case.”

She explained that education chiefs have outlined what they intend to do to turn this around in the integrated business plan.

Mrs Orrells said: “These actions are designed to address the underlying factors that have led to the current situation and lay the ground for consistent and sustainable improvement across Powys.”

Cabinet noted the report.