Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing further funding for schools to deal with the costs of (a) insurance, (b) sick pay, (c) supply teachers and (d) other costs associated with staff sickness during the outbreak of covid-19.

School budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year and will increase by a further £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.

As part of the three-year increase to core funding – the biggest in a decade – schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of any periods of reduced attendance. This will ensure they can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments.

Workforce absence and community transmission rates have reduced since the autumn term when we introduced the COVID-19 Workforce Fund to support schools and colleges with high staff absences and significant financial pressures to remain open. We will continue to monitor the situation.