‘There’s no pleasure’ in making cuts, but they have to be made, Ceredigion’s chief education officer said.

Meinir Ebbsworth was updating the members of the county council’s learning communities overview and scrutiny committee on progress made to make savings within the schools service.

Her report to the meeting said that the identified transformation savings of £106,000 had been met for 2018/19 but further cuts had to be made in the next two years.

Savings had been made within music provision and removing posts from the schools service staffing structure, she told members.

The target for 2019/20 is £250,000 of cuts and the following year £240,000 has to be found.

Mrs Ebbsworth stressed that these savings were made “internally” and not by individual schools but there would be a knock-on effect with a reduction in support.

“The target for next year will be very challenging and will affect the provision for pupils and schools,” said Mrs Ebbsworth.

Many of the schools service’s work is statutory which meant there were fewer options to make savings, she told members, resulting in more significant impacts.

She added that “no-one takes pleasure in making these savings” but all non-statutory elements had to be scrutinised.

Cllr Alun Lloyd Jones asked if the projected savings were “realistic” adding that he was not happy with the “drip-drip cutting” of necessary services.