£1.6m to beef up school security, including Welshpool, Guilsfield

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

As part of attempts to address concerns raised by the scathing Estyn inspection report into Powys County Council’s education service, £1.6 million will be spent on upgrading school security.

At an extraordinary meeting of Powys County Council on Thursday, members of the Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet outlined in a presentation how the council will address the four recommendations that they were given by Estyn after the report was published last month.

One of the recommendations from Estyn is to: “Ensure that the local authority addresses urgently important school site security issues.”

This encompasses a whole range of issues that include, fencing, CCTV, lighting, gates, or car park access.

Welshpool High School is one area of concern, according to one of the town's three county councillirs, while Guilsfield Primary School is undergoing new fencing work this week.

The overall recommendation was addressed by Liberal Democrat Cllr Jake Berriman, the planning and property portfolio holder, who wanted to give councillors “assurance” that the issues are being overseen.

Cllr Berriman explained that his talks with council staff had centred on “processes, systems and behaviours” in a bid to make the changes “stick”.

Cllr Berriman said: “By way of context, since 2021 the safety of children on school premises across Powys has seen nearly £5.5 million of capital and revenue expenditure invested in safeguarding works.

“Projects coming forward have been identified by individual schools, education service, and by school estates teams, health and safety inspections and Estyn itself.”

He explained that 80 safeguarding issues had been identified and 49 had been “signed off as complete” with a target finishing the rest of the work in the next “six to 12 months”.

He added: “The total funding needed to deliver these safeguarding projects is around £1.6 million; £350,000 has already been identified in this year’s budget.

“We hope a further £400,000 to £800,000 will come forward in a capital allocation from the Welsh Government in June.”

Cllr Berriman explained that a proposal was being put to the “Capital Oversight” board today (Monday) to agree the remediation work before the funding is received.

This puts the council’s own money “at risk” if the funding doesn’t arrive from Cardiff.

Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Gary Mitchell said: “Is site security seen as schools budget issue or a central council issue, where does the money come from?”

Cllr Berriman explained: “It is a collective issue; some are the schools’ responsibility and there is a central resource to make sure things are reported and everyone is better aware of these things.”

Powys Independents Cllr Graham Breeze has called for security fencing at Welshpool High School after saying he was “surprised” that Cllr Berriman has taken over responsibility for site security from Cllr Roberts.

“I welcome the response, there’s clearly a lot of thought gone into the safety of our schools,” said Cllr Breeze.

“The lack of safety of the children and staff that this authority is responsible for has been shocking.”