Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many laptops have been (a) requested and (b) sent to schools in (i) Stoke-on-Trent and (ii) Staffordshire during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department is investing over £300 million to help schools and young people in England continue their education at home and access online social care. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department has already delivered over 560,000 laptops and tablets for disadvantaged pupils who would not otherwise have access to a digital device.

The Department is adding to this support by making a further 440,000 devices available, bringing the total to over a million laptops and tablets available to support disadvantaged pupils that might experience disruption to their education. This scheme is continually reviewed to ensure that support is offered in the most effective way.

The laptops and tablets are an injection of support to help schools, academy trusts and local authorities to provide access to remote education and online social care. Schools, academy trusts and local authorities are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which children and young people need access to a device.

As of December 2020, data on devices can be viewed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/946954/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_data_as_of_December.pdf. This includes 235 devices delivered or dispatched to local authority-maintained schools in Stoke-on-Trent and 769 devices delivered or dispatched to local authority-maintained schools in Staffordshire. The Department has also delivered devices to academy trusts in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire in addition to those delivered to local authority-maintained schools.

Where schools need additional devices, they should contact the Department for Education’s service team at covid.technology@education.gov.uk. They should include the number of children in Years 3 to 11 who require support and an explanation of how they have gathered this evidence.