Written question WQ95308

Local authorities and schools have discretion to delegate their own budgets to meet the needs of their learners, and this can include providing interpretation and translation support for multilingual learners and their families where this is needed, including for learners with English and Welsh as additional languages. We do not request that schools and local authorities take time away from supporting learners to provide Welsh Government with specific detail on the amount of their budget that they delegate in this way.

To support local authorities and schools to meet needs, in 2024-25 the Welsh Government is providing £11m in total to local authorities via the Minority Ethnic, Gypsy, Roma, Traveller (MEGRT) Grant. This grant supports learners who can experience barriers to learning, accessing the curriculum, or education in general.

Whilst the grant can be used to provide interpretation, it is also used to support a wide range of other activities, for example: professional learning; individual learning support; approaches to supporting wellbeing and attendance; and approaches to ensuring a diverse and inclusive curriculum and school environment. It cannot therefore be seen as a proxy for the cost of interpretation across schools in Wales.