Head teachers in Wales say the shortfall in school budgets is not only an English problem - they too face problems, when they had expected to have more money.

The director of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Cymru, Karl Davies, said: "I have taken reports from our branch secretaries in about half the local education authorities and I know there are redundancies going ahead."

Schools say they need more resources to raise standards

In what head teachers regard as "the same old story", the assembly government says it has given the 22 local education authorities (LEAs) enough money, and the LEAs are blaming the government in Cardiff.

Part of the schools' complaint is that the funding system has not been changed this year for education authorities in Wales as it has been in England.

Although that change has been blamed for compounding the problems in England there is a greater "transparency" in the figures, with the money for each area now split between a block for schools and a block for the local education authority's services.

"The funding fog is even more dense in Wales," Mr Davies said.

"I would go so far as to say that both local government and the government in the assembly are happy for this to continue because one can blame the other - and we are not able to have an informed debate about the funding shortfalls in schools."

'We need more staff'

The NAHT's branch secretary in Flintshire, primary head Gareth Jones, said so far his area had managed to avoid compulsory classroom redundancies - but only through voluntary early retirement deals, "natural wastage" and reductions in non-teaching staff.

Initiatives don't raise standards - the teachers in the classrooms and the ancillary staff do that Head teacher Gareth Jones

"So it is masked locally, but we are finding real problems."

He added: "If you want to raise standards you have got to employ more people and you have got to put more resources into schools.

"Initiatives don't raise standards - the teachers in the classrooms and the ancillary staff do that."

Expectations were raised by the impression given at the time of the chancellor's spending review last summer, which led head teachers to expect substantial amounts of new money.

Mr Jones said there was even an element of envying schools across the border, which were getting a higher proportion of the money for education as a whole delegated to them than in Wales.

English deadline

The assembly government allocates an amount to each area for all its services. Each council then decides how much to spend on its education service, and how much of that schools get.

I do not accept the claims that there has been a lack of funding Education Minister, Jane Davidson

The argument in England has centred on money intended for schools that so far has been held back by the LEAs - totalling more than �590m across England.

The LEAs say there are good reasons for that. The government has given them until next Monday to justify their decisions.

Many head teachers say it is not enough to cover the shortfalls they are having to cope with and redundancy notices will be going out at the end of the month.

In Wales, the budget statements from LEAs - showing how much they are spending on schools - will not be available until July.

But the Education Minister, Jane Davidson, has said: "I do not accept the claims that there has been a lack of funding for education in Wales."

Central funding to councils has gone up by 9.2% this year - enough, she says, to cover schools' increased pay and other costs.

And Ms Davidson - just re-appointed in the new cabinet - has her own "same old story" rejoinder to head teachers' complaints.

"Last year at this time we heard again about the possibility of redundancies but following the mid-May cut-off point no such redundancies came to light - in fact figures show that an extra 413 teaching posts were created not lost."

Workload concerns

In Wales as in England there are concerns looking ahead that the money will not be available to finance the agreement on reducing teachers' workloads, primarily by employing more classroom assistants.

This was an agreement signed by government, unions and employers across England and Wales - because teachers' pay and conditions are not devolved matters.

But funding is devolved. And head teachers complain that whereas the agreement had an appendix setting out the money to fund the deal in England, there was no equivalent for Wales.

"We don't have any indication of what sort of money we are going to be getting in schools to try to reduce teachers' workloads," said Gareth Jones.

The assembly says it has committed �21m over the next three years to increase the level of administrative support in schools, but is open to negotiations with the unions on the amount needed.