This morning’s Western Mail reports on a row between Newport City Council and the Welsh Government over how many deprived children can be helped by the flagship flying start scheme.
The Council has been told by the Welsh Government that instead of helping 1,607 children from the poorer parts of Newport it must spend more per child and help only 1,122 of them. The Education Minister has ordered the Council to spend £2,100 on each child in the scheme rather than following its current policy of reducing the amount to £1,600 so as to spread the benefit to more children.
Flying Start provides support for children up to the age of three and includes part time childcare, extra levels of involvement from health visitors, parenting programmes and help with basic schemes.
As this is a pilot scheme it seems perfectly sensible that Newport Council should be given some leeway to deliver it in a slightly different way and get maximum value from the available resource, however the Labour Plaid Cymru Government seem to be obsessed with inputs rather than outcomes, to the detriment of local children some of whom will now be excluded from the scheme.
It is not a good advert for good governance when a Government concerned with getting value for each Welsh pound spent acts in such an inflexible and jobsworth way.
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