Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding he plans to make available to support schools as they reopen to students.

Schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of any periods of reduced attendance, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure they can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments.

In February 2021, the Department appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to advise on the approach to education recovery and the development of a long-term plan to help pupils make up their lost education over the course of this Parliament. As an immediate step, we have made available a further £700 million to support education recovery measures. This builds on the £1 billion from last year and brings the total available to £1.7 billion. Funding will support pupils in nurseries, schools and colleges and provides an additional ‘Recovery Premium’ to schools, expansion of tutoring in schools and colleges, summer schools in 2021 and early language support.