Welsh Labour leader Mark Skates has made clear he wants to strike a budget agreement with the Plaid Cymru government in the Senedd, but he is drawing a firm line when it comes to additional learning needs funding.
Skates, who took over the Labour leadership in Wales following the party’s loss of government, has been in talks with Plaid Cymru as the new administration looks to get its budget through the Senedd. Labour’s support, or at least its abstention, could prove crucial in getting the numbers to work.
But the Labour leader is not coming to the table empty handed. He has made additional learning needs, known as ALN, his absolute top priority in any deal. ALN covers support for children and young people with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities, and it has been a pressure point in Welsh education for years. Many families have struggled to get the right support for their children, with concerns about long waits, underfunding and patchy provision across different local authorities.
For Skates, this is not just a political bargaining chip. Labour has faced criticism over how ALN provision developed under its own time in government, and pushing hard on the issue now is a way of signalling that the party understands where it fell short and is serious about doing better.
The question is whether Plaid Cymru is willing to move far enough on the issue to bring Labour on board. Plaid now finds itself in the unusual position of having to negotiate with opposition parties to pass its budget, a situation that requires compromise but also carries the risk of being seen to give too much ground.
Budget negotiations in the Senedd have become increasingly complex in recent years. With no single party holding a majority, getting a budget passed means building coalitions of support, and that gives smaller parties and opposition groups real leverage. It is a dynamic that has reshaped how Welsh politics works in practice.
Labour, despite losing power, remains a significant force in the Senedd and Skates is clearly trying to use that position to extract concrete commitments rather than vague promises. ALN funding is something that resonates with voters across Wales, particularly parents who have seen their children struggle to access the support they are legally entitled to.
The wider budget picture in Wales remains tight. The Welsh Government, like all devolved administrations, is working within limits set by the block grant from Westminster, and there are competing demands from health, housing, transport and education all pulling at the same pot of money. Agreeing to increase ALN funding meaningfully would require difficult choices elsewhere.
Still, Skates appears confident that a deal is possible. He has not ruled out supporting or abstaining on a Plaid Cymru budget, but he has been clear that he needs something real to show for it. Warm words about supporting children with additional needs will not be enough.
How the talks develop over the coming weeks will say a lot about the new shape of Welsh politics. Plaid Cymru is finding its feet as a governing party, Labour is recalibrating as an opposition, and the Senedd itself is becoming a more genuinely contested chamber than it has been for much of its history.
For the families of children with additional learning needs across Wales, the hope is that the political manoeuvring results in something tangible, more funding, faster assessments, better support in schools, and not just another round of negotiations that ends with promises that never quite materialise.