Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Catch-up premium: coronavirus (COVID-19) funding.

The universal Catch Up Premium, worth a total of £650 million, was introduced as a direct grant to schools in the 2020/21 academic year to support with making up for lost teaching time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The universal Catch Up Premium funding was paid to all state funded mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision, as all pupils were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools’ allocations were calculated on a per pupil basis. To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation published a support guide for schools with evidence based approaches to catch up for all pupils.

The Department did not routinely collect information on how schools used the catch-up premium, given the additional administrative burdens this would place on schools at a time of significant pressure. The Department contracted with Ipsos MORI, in consortium with Sheffield Hallam University and the Centre for Education and Youth, to undertake a mixed methods study design to understand how recovery strategies have been implemented, and how best to support schools in future. The year 2 findings of this study were published in January 2023, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1131182/School_recovery_strategies_year_2_findings.pdf

The Department continues to monitor levels of attainment to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and education policies.