Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what long-term policies they are following to ensure that those affected by disrupted education during the COVID-19 pandemic are able to catch up on lost tuition and missed schooling.

The government recognises that extended school and college restrictions have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s education and are committed to helping pupils catch up.

Since June 2020, the department has invested £3 billion to support education recovery. This will have a material impact in closing gaps that have emerged. This funding includes:

• £1.5 billion for a national tutoring revolution which will allow us to provide up to 6 million tutoring courses of 15 hours of tutoring for 5-16 year olds by 2024, and the equivalent of 2 million 15-hour courses for 16-19 year olds by 2024
• £400 million to help to provide 500,000 teacher training opportunities across the country, alongside professional development for early years practitioners
• £200 million for secondary schools to deliver face to face summer schools this summer, giving secondary pupils access to enrichment activities, such as games, music, drama and sports that they have missed out on over the COVID-19 outbreak
• £650 million universal catch up premium for schools this year to use to prioritise support for all pupils, and a £302 million recovery premium next year which includes £22 million to scale up proven approaches, building on the pupil premium, to further support pupils who need it most
• £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the language skills of Reception age children who need it most

In addition, schools or colleges will be able to offer students in Year 13 a repeat year where they have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government is committed to an ambitious, long-term education recovery plan and the next stage will include a review of time spent in school and college and the impact this could have on helping children and young people to catch up. The findings of the review will be set out later in the year to inform the spending review. The department will also be continuing to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on education.