THE Welsh government is facing its “starkest and most painful financial situation faced since the start of devolution,” it said today.

Ministers were responding to a critical report from the Senedd’s cross-party finance committee, warning that Wales’s most vulnerable people will be hit by cuts to the funding of free childcare and other front-line services.

The committee, comprising two Labour members, one from Plaid Cymru and one Tory, said that the Budget came “at the expense of long-term measures to reduce poverty [and] will lead to a serious shortfall for local authorities, which will impact the services they deliver and hit the most vulnerable in society worst.”

Committee chairman Peredur Owen Griffiths said: “We recognise the difficult financial position faced by the Welsh government, but we are concerned about their claims that this Budget will protect front-line services in Wales.”

The report warned that such services were “unlikely to be protected.”

It said: “Decisions to not extend free school meals and to cut the spending on childcare is also cause for concern and something which will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable in Wales.

“We’re urging the Welsh government to look again at these decisions.”

The Welsh government is expected to make an £11.2 million cut to childcare provision, which helps provide free support for up to 30 hours a week.

The committee said that such a reduction would “significantly increase the financial pressure on households, particularly on women’s income.”

“An increase in take-up will lead to the childcare budget being significantly underfunded and create additional pressures elsewhere in the Budget, which is of great concern,” it said.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “This is the starkest and most painful financial situation faced since the start of devolution.

“We have been clear going into our draft Budget preparations that, because our budget is now worth £1.3 billion less in real terms than when it was set in 2021, incredibly difficult decisions have had to be taken.

“We will take the next few weeks to consider the findings of this and other scrutiny committee reports before publishing our final Budget on February 27.”