Coronavirus Catch-up Premium

(asked on 17th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium funding is ring-fenced by schools for the provision of catch-up support to pupils who have missed learning as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and whether his Department is monitoring the use of that allocated funding.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th November 2020

All students will have been impacted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. We expect schools to spend this funding on the additional activities required to support children and young people to catch up after the period of disruption to their education. We know that each school will have different needs as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and schools should tailor the catch-up funding to their specific contexts, and towards the pupils who need it most. We trust our excellent school leaders to make the appropriate decisions for their students to ensure that this money is spent wisely.

To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up and a school planning guide, available here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/#nav-covid-19-support-guide-for-schools1. Head teachers may use these documents and their strategic judgement to prioritise support for all pupils, guided by the level of individual need.

The first payment represents 25% of the total allocation and was made to schools in the autumn term. This autumn payment for schools totals £159,011,640. A detailed breakdown of the amount given in the autumn payment can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium-provisional-allocations.

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