Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what methodology his Department uses to calculate the allocation of devices to schools to facilitate remote working.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

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, colleges, 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.

The Department has based allocations on estimates of the need of disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 using data on the number of pupils eligible for Free School Meals data and external estimates of the number of devices that schools already own.

We have extended support to disadvantaged 16-to-19 year olds, including those in further education. Schools with sixth forms, colleges and other further education institutions are being invited to order laptops and tablets to further support disadvantaged students to access remote education.

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