Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to ensure transparency and accountability in the use that schools make of their allocation of the £650 million catch-up premium.

The Government has 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. Head teachers have discretion over how to use this funding to best support the needs of their pupils, but we expect them to prioritise those who need the most catch up support. The Catch up Premium guidance is clear that schools should ensure that they provide appropriate transparency for parents in terms of how the premium is spent. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium.

Schools are held accountable for the outcomes they achieve with all their funding, including through Ofsted inspections and by governors and trustees, and this will be no exception.