IT HAS been revealed that 30 school staff members have been made redundant across the Vale of Glamorgan since April.

The local authority confirmed, at a full council meeting held at the end of last month, that in the current financial year 30 school staff members had lost their jobs - including 13 teachers.

It followed a question tabled previously by Plaid Cymru councillor Chris Franks, asking what toll “funding challenges” had taken on Vale teaching staff.

A total of seven redundancies have been made across four primary schools, it was said - consisting of five teachers and two LSAs - while four secondary schools made a combined total of eight teachers redundant, alongside two members of senior leadership and one LSA.

Cllr Franks has since criticised both the Vale council and the Welsh Government for what he called a ‘failure’ on both of their parts over the cuts.

“The Welsh Labour government has cut support for schools centrally,” he said. “They slashed the Education Improvement Grant to the Vale by £224,000 and a further £181,000 was lost due to reductions in the grant for sixth forms.

“Plaid forced the Vale to disclose schools were not fully funded to cover school budgets. Governors have been placed in very difficult positions making staff cuts and redundancies.”

“Although Labour, both in the Vale and in Welsh Government, talk about their commitment to education the reality is very different in our schools.”

Deputy leader of the council Lis Burnett said that challenges had emerged from needing to “balance the books”.

“Our commitment to delivering education remains a priority,” she said. “For example, in this year’s budget the council again met the Welsh Government’s minimum funding commitment for schools and funded education above Welsh Government’s indicator-based assessment in every year of the current administration. In this year the budget for schools was increased by £1.65m.

“Our headteachers and governing bodies manage their own budgets and school-based resources. This empowers them to independently make decisions for their schools, taking into consideration individual circumstances and learning needs.

“Even with increased budget pressures our schools continue to improve, with recent Estyn reports praising the way they are managed to provide the best learning environments for our pupils.”

“Even with increased budget pressures our schools continue to improve, with recent Estyn reports praising the way they are managed to provide the best learning environments for our pupils."