Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 8th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support his Department plans to make available to schools to enable them to temporarily hire other premises to allow for more social distancing during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 16th June 2020

We have published guidance on the additional funding we are providing to schools to cover unavoidable costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources. The fund is targeted towards the costs we have identified as the biggest barrier to schools operating as they need to at this challenging time.

The cost categories covered by the fund are clearly set out in the guidance below - increased premises related costs of opening over school holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs relating to cases or suspected cases of coronavirus, above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020

Each school's circumstances will be slightly different. Any schools that cannot achieve the small group sizes set out in the protective measures guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings) should discuss options with their local authority or academy trust. If necessary, schools have the flexibility to focus first on continuing to provide places for priority groups and then, to support children’s early education, settings should prioritise groups of children as follows:

  • early years settings - 3 and 4 year olds followed by younger age groups;
  • infant schools - nursery (where applicable) and Reception;
  • primary schools - nursery (where applicable), Reception and year 1.
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