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A major independent review of how education funding in Wales is allocated to schools, colleges and universities has been announced by Education Minister Leighton Andrews.

The Minister said:

“We need to ensure our funding reaches the education front lines.”

The First Minister for Wales made a commitment in his manifesto to refocus educational investment. The Education Minister has pledged to make this commitment a priority and the review will take this important agenda forward.

The review will be conducted in two stages by external consultants with experience and expertise in this field to ensure complete objectivity and impartiality. Scheduled to begin in February, the first stage is an internal exercise looking at the costs of administering education in Wales using information collected by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Recommendations for making savings and opportunities to move resources to front line services will be made by the end of March. A wider review of administering education across Wales will then follow.

Leighton Andrews said:

“I want to see more funding going to schools, colleges and universities.

“To achieve this we must review the real cost of administering education across Wales. It is imperative that we reduce the bureaucracy and streamline the education system to make it lean and effective to benefit our learners.

“I believe we can do things more smartly and simply in Wales . Today’s announcement is very much in line with the recommendations made to us in the review of public services in 2006 by Sir Jeremy Beecham.  

“We need to make sure we make the best use of the resources available to us. Major performance improvement and better efficiency from our education providers is the key to us getting more funding to the front line.”

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