Councillors have called for schools budgets to be given priority should any extra funding be forthcoming from the Welsh Government.
At the moment there is a proposed 2% cut to budgets delegated to schools but Caerphilly County Borough Council’s education scrutiny committee unanimously agreed to ask cabinet to prioritise education if there is any extra funding from the Welsh Government.
The Welsh Government is expected to announce its local government financial settlement for 2020-21 on Monday (December 16).
Normally this takes place earlier in the year but the uncertainty of Brexit and the upcoming General Election led to a delay in the decision making process.
Speaking in the education scrutiny committee, Cllr Wynne David said that if the council received more money than expected from the Welsh Government, the priority should be to minimise the impact of the budgets delegated to schools.
He said: “I don’t want to move to withdraw the 2% reduction in school budgets at this point in time.
“Both major parties have pledged to put a substantial amount into education.
“If that money comes to us I propose this committee asks cabinet to give priority to reducing or getting rid of this 2%.”
The proposal received unanimous support from the committee and was backed by the new leader of the council and cabinet member for education, Cllr Philippa Marsden.
She said: “Cabinet would be pleased.
“I would echo that proposal.”
The proposal of a 2% reduction in the budgets that are delegated to schools would total more than £2.112 million.
It consists of the individual schools budget (£2 million), a reduction of £30,000 in the former key stage two grant and a reduction of £22,000 in the secondary additional funding budget.
The proposal will be taken back to cabinet in the coming months.