Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure infant school children have the devices and internet connectivity they need for home schooling.

Given the extremely challenging global supply context for devices, the Department has had to make difficult decisions about where provision is needed most. In Autumn 2020, following conversations with school leaders, the decision was taken to allocate devices to children in Key Stage 2 and above on the basis that children in younger years would be unlikely to be working on a laptop or tablet independently.

The Department’s guidance on remote education acknowledges that younger children often require high levels of parental involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which makes digital provision a particular challenge for this age group. We do not expect that solely digital means will be used to teach these pupils remotely.

We continue to review the eligibility criteria for the Get Help with Technology Scheme to ensure we meet the needs of disadvantaged children and young people.