Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the updated guidance on the full opening of schools published on 22 October 2020, what assessment he has made of the potential financial effect on schools of the new requirement for remote learning.

On 1 October 2020, the Department announced a further remote education support package to help schools and further education (FE) colleges meet the remote education expectations set out in the schools’ guidance for full opening published in July 2020, and the FE colleges’ autumn term guidance published in August 2020. Alongside this, the Department published a Temporary Continuity Direction which makes it clear that schools have a duty to provide remote education for all state funded, school age children who are unable to attend school because of COVID-19, in line with guidance and the law. This has been in effect since 22 October 2020.

The remote education support package includes access to the right technology to deliver remote education, peer to peer training on how to use this effectively, and practical tools, guidance, and webinars.

The Government has also announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a Catch-Up Premium worth a total of £650 million, to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. School leaders have discretion over how to use this funding to best support the needs of their pupils.

The Department has invested over £195 million to support remote education and access to online social care, delivering over 220,000 laptops and tablets during the summer term for disadvantaged children who would not otherwise have had access to a digital device. The Department is adding to this support by making over 340,000 additional laptops and tablets available to support disadvantaged children that might face disruption to their education. The support package also includes £1.5 million of additional funding to expand the EdTech Demonstrator programme, which provides peer-to-peer support for schools and colleges.

Alongside this, the Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of last academic year, and for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons for a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Oak will remain a free optional resource for 2020-21.

Schools have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s spending round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.