Cwestiwn ysgrifenedig WQ95545

The Sustainable Communities for Learning (SCfL) Programme has introduced a nine-year rolling programme which, subject to budget availability and individual business case approval, will see the Welsh Government grant funding of over £690 million across 82 projects in north Wales. This is in addition to the ongoing works within the Band B capital programme with a total approved Welsh Government investment of £471 million across north Wales.

Welsh Government funding of £2.32 million has been provided to the four schools affected by RAAC in north Wales to address interim remedial works that have enabled the schools to continue operating safely. Officials are continuing to work closely with the local authorities of the four schools for the longer-term management and removal of RAAC through their new 9-year investment plans.

To challenge and innovate our Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme to meet our green agenda, a Sustainable Schools Challenge project was initiated, with one of the successful projects, Campws Cymunedol Bontnewydd, seeing a Welsh Government investment of £15m for this innovative school for Gwynedd.

Providing equitable access to safe and modern learning is a value reflected throughout the SCfL Programme, with smaller capital grants distributed to local authorities based on number of schools and pupils in each region. For north Wales, funding for this year has included the Capital Maintenance Grant (£9.29m) and Additional Learning Needs Capital (£4.64m), with the wider programme accessible to all delivery partners subject to expressions of interest or submission of business cases.

All requests for project funding are considered consistently, regardless of the delivery partner or region. Business cases are robustly reviewed by a Business Case Scrutiny Group before they are considered by the Education Investment Panel, to inform Ministerial Advice.