Written question WQ83106

Regional consortia were established by local authorities. The Education through Regional Working (ERW) consortium is overseen by a Joint Committee, on which the leaders of its constituent local authorities hold full voting rights. ERW carries out activities that derive from its local authorities’ statutory functions and duties in relation to school improvement.

Welsh Government officials have attended meetings of the ERW Joint Committee and Executive Board as observers throughout 2020 and 2021. This has enabled Welsh Government to monitor discussions relating to the dissolution of ERW and the formation of new partnership arrangements. Senior Welsh Government officials also arranged and attended two workshops with the Directors of Education of the six local authorities in the ERW region at the start of 2021. They used these to understand the local authorities’ plans for future partnership arrangements and to set out clearly Welsh Government’s delivery expectations for 2021-22.

As was confirmed at the 8 July meeting of the ERW Joint Committee, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Swansea local authorities have agreed to form a new partnership, operational from 1st September 2021. Similarly, Powys and Ceredigion have agreed to work in partnership on a number of specified areas of school improvement from the same date. Neath Port Talbot local authority are not currently part of these plans.

ERW will continue to operate and to provide support for its member local authorities, and their schools, until 31 August 2021. Both Neath Port Talbot and Ceredigion have also continued to receive some services from ERW, following their withdrawal from the consortium. Separately, Welsh Government officials have provided support and challenge to all six local authorities on their future plans.

Welsh Government provides funding to regional consortia through the Regional Consortia School Improvement Grant, which totals £158m in 2021-22. This is a single consolidated grant, designed to fund regional consortia and school activities across the range of the education reform programme, including curriculum reform and professional learning. Final funding arrangements for the six local authorities in the region are not yet in place for the 2021-22 financial year. These will be finalised once all six local authorities have submitted full and satisfactory delivery plans for the period from September 2021 to March 2022.

No funding will be provided by Welsh Government to support re-organisation of regional working in the ERW region. The decision to leave and dissolve ERW, and to set up new partnerships, was taken by the six local authorities in the region. Therefore, any costs of doing so will be borne by the local authorities. The terms and conditions of any grant funding from Welsh Government will make this explicit.

I want to encourage regional, collaborative working to support our schools and I expect the local authorities in the ERW region to work together in that spirit. The local authorities’ new arrangements must continue to draw on the benefits of regional working to ensure they can provide high quality support to their schools, and to prevent learners in all parts of the region from losing out because of the re-organisation underway.