AM criticises local Assembly Minister for misleading statements on college cuts

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th May 2009

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black has hit out at Assembly Finance Minister and Swansea West AM, Andrew Davies for making misleading statements over the budget cuts faced by Swansea and Gorseinon Colleges.

Both Colleges face cutting about three quarters of a million pounds off their budgets as a result of the failure of the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government to put sufficient funding into Further Education. An extra £9 million was found after protests from opposition AMs, lecturers and students but this was not distributed according to the normal formula allocation and as a result Gorseinon and Swansea Colleges remained underfunded, forcing them to make cuts. This has led to the proposed closure of Canolfan y Bont in Pontarddulais and Stadium House in Landore, redundancies and the closure of adult education and other courses.

When challenged on these funding issues in the Assembly, Finance Minister, Andrew Davies argued that the two colleges had not received all the funds they need because their performance was not good enough. On Swansea Sound on 10th May he repeated that argument, claiming that the Colleges had not met the targets set for them by the Government. Yet the answer to a written question tabled by Peter Black has revealed that this is not the case.

In her response to Mr. Black, Education Minister Jane Hutt says that 'in terms of 2006/07 and 2007/08 the targets have been met by both colleges. The 2008/09 targets are still being monitored.' She goes on to point out that both Swansea and Gorseinon have received excellent Estyn reports and that they have exceeded all quality targets set by the Government for the Further Education sector.

Commenting on the discrepancy between the actual performance of the two colleges and the excuses given by the Minister, Mr. Black said: "In a time of recession Labour and Plaid Cymru are cutting back on education and training and all we get from Ministers are excuses and misleading answers to legitimate questions in the hope of avoiding the blame. I am appalled that the Assembly Member for Swansea West has disparaged the very good and high quality work delivered by Swansea and Gorseinon Colleges in this way."

"At the end of the day the reason why cuts are being made in our local Further Education Colleges are down to decisions taken by him and his Ministerial colleagues. To even suggest that it is the fault of the colleges for not meeting targets is insulting and very wrong. Ministers must take responsibility for their own decisions but above all they must ensure that good work is rewarded and on that basis they need to find more money so as to reverse these cuts."

ENDS

Note: the exchange that took place in Plenary on 6th May, in which Andrew Davies accused Swansea and Gorseinon of not meeting Government targets, is set out below. The answer to the written question tabled by Peter Black is attached.

Peter Black: Minister, an important area of public service delivery in the current recession is further education. You will know that, despite the fact that the Government recently caved in and put more money into further education following protests across the sector and from opposition politicians, Swansea College in your constituency still has a shortfall of £750,000. Gorseinon College in the adjoining constituency has not received any extra money and is closing a campus in Pontarddulais and making cuts across the board, including in adult education. How do you justify that in light of the recession? Does it not show that your Government is about as agile as a lame hippopotamus?

Andrew Davies: The funding formula for further education colleges was essentially based on performance, and funding followed performance. Regrettably, if a college such as Swansea College was unable to demonstrate growth, the funding did not follow. Nevertheless, the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills and the Deputy Minister for Skills listened to the representations and additional resource was put in-a fact that you acknowledged. We will work with the sector to identify other sources of funding that can be put in, whether it is on the capital side or the revenue side through schemes such as ProAct.