English: Thank you, Leanne. I don't doubt for a minute the significant challenges that many headteachers are facing with regards to school budgets. It is important to recognise that the responsibility for day-to-day funding of schools lies with individual local education authorities. Like you, I share the ambition of ensuring that as much money gets to the front line as possible, and that's, for instance, why we took the decision to ensure that the £21 million for professional development was passported straight to individual headteachers. Whatever the figure is, it is a source of great concern to me that any money that should be in the schools budget is being held inappropriately, either at LEA level or at consortia level, or, indeed, that there is a duplication of funding from LEAs and consortia. After all, the consortia are run by their constituent parts, and it would be strange indeed, wouldn't it, for a local authority to allow a regional consortium that it runs to duplicate spending when those budgets, as you quite rightly identified, are tight. I am carrying out work centrally within Government to ensure that the direct grants that we have control of are being used appropriately and that that money is getting to the front line. But in the work that is being carried out by the Children, Young People and Education Committee, as I'm sure you're aware, there is not a consensus on whether moving to a system of direct funding of schools, bypassing both the LEA and the regional consortia, is a policy that has a consensus behind it. Indeed, your own education spokesperson feels very strongly that that should not be the case.
Welsh: Diolch, Leanne. Nid wyf yn amau am funud yr heriau sylweddol y mae llawer o benaethiaid yn eu hwynebu mewn perthynas â chyllidebau ysgolion. Mae'n bwysig cydnabod mai awdurdodau addysg lleol unigol sy'n gyfrifol am ariannu ysgolion o ddydd i ddydd. Fel chi, rwy'n rhannu'r uchelgais i sicrhau bod cymaint o arian â phosibl yn cyrraedd y rheng flaen, a dyna, er enghraifft, pam y gwnaethom y penderfyniad i sicrhau bod y £21 miliwn ar gyfer datblygiad proffesiynol yn cael ei basbortio'n syth i benaethiaid unigol. Beth bynnag yw'r ffigur, mae'n destun cryn bryder i mi fod unrhyw arian a ddylai fod yn y gyllideb ysgolion yn cael ei gadw yn amhriodol, naill ai ar lefel AALl neu ar lefel consortia, neu yn wir, fod arian yn cael ei ddyblygu o AALlau a chonsortia. Wedi'r cyfan, caiff y consortia eu rhedeg gan eu rhannau cyfansoddol, a byddai'n rhyfedd iawn pe bai awdurdod lleol yn caniatáu i gonsortiwm rhanbarthol y mae'n ei redeg ddyblygu gwariant pan fo'r cyllidebau hynny'n dynn, fel y nodoch chi'n gwbl gywir. Rwy'n gwneud gwaith yn ganolog yn y Llywodraeth i sicrhau bod y grantiau uniongyrchol a reolir gennym yn cael eu defnyddio'n briodol a bod yr arian hwnnw'n cyrraedd y rheng flaen. Ond o ran y gwaith a wneir gan y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg, fel y gwyddoch rwy'n siŵr, ni cheir consensws ynglŷn ag a yw newid i system o ariannu ysgolion yn uniongyrchol, gan osgoi'r AALl a'r consortia rhanbarthol, yn bolisi y ceir consensws y tu ôl iddo. Yn wir, mae eich llefarydd addysg eich hun yn teimlo'n gryf iawn na ddylai hynny ddigwydd.