An extra £500,000 will be pumped into a special school in Brecon to fund teaching children who have Additional Learning Needs (ALN) there.

But councillors have questioned why this money was not included in Powys County Council’s budget for 2026/2027 when it was set last February.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills committee on Thursday, September 10, councillors and independent lay committee members received a report on the budget performance during the first quarter of the year, from April until the end of June.

The report will go to a meeting of the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet later this month to agree a number of “virements”, which is a mechanism to move money between internal council budgets.

One of these is a “temporary virement of £500,000 from corporate revenue risk budget to fund the additional numbers on roll in special schools with effect from September 2026”.

The education department will then ask that the £500,000 becomes added into the budget permanently from next year.

Cllr Angela Davies (Liberal Democrat – Rhayader) said that she was “really concerned” that the department was already asking for more money early in the financial year.

Cllr Davies said: “Did you mis-budget or misunderstand the demand for your service?

“We’ve put a lot of money into ALN, and I fully support that, but this is an investment in special schools. I’m concerned about the impact for mainstream schools?

“If we’re putting money in one pot, are we taking it out of another?”

Cabinet member for education Cllr James Gibson-Watt (Liberal Democrat – Glasbury) said: “The money is to meet some exceptional extra demand.

“Ysgol Penmaes in Brecon is expanding into new premises that are adapted for its sixth form pupils.

“It will allow more to come into the school.”

Director of education Dr Richard Jones said: “This virement is to allow an additional 17 of our most vulnerable learners that have been on waiting lists to have the education they are entitled to.

“That’s not to say we are doing it at the expense of our mainstream schools.”

He added that the department had worked with schools on better early identification and intervention on children’s needs and that a new network of ALN teacher coordinators was providing more support in schools.

Dr Jones stressed: “There is a relentless focus on high-quality teaching and learning for all.”

Schools finance manager Nancy Owen “clarified” that this monetary did form part of the budget-setting process.

“They were planned in the financial resource model and were included in the services risk element.”

The money comes from the £4 million held in the council’s corporate revenue risk budget, which is taken out of the budget and set aside to use on emerging financial pressures through the year.

This process is used so that the council doesn’t eat into its reserves, which stood at over £72 million at the start of the year.

Cllr Davies asked: “I will keep banging the drum on ALN, it’s causing a huge strain, what are we doing school by school to help?”

Inclusion and youth service manager Karen Jenkins said: “We really are ensuring that schools are getting that ALN funding as long as it’s legally compliant.

“Inclusion managers have gone into every single school to do an ALN support audit; this year it was to find a baseline.”

She added that these visits, which will help schools receive the relevant ALN funding and staffing levels, will be an annual occurrence.