Children: ICT and Internet

(asked on 22nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had about providing internet access and adequate devices for disadvantaged children who are out of school.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 10th July 2020

The Government wants to do everything it can to support schools and families to continue children’s education while they are at home.

We have committed over £100 million to support remote education. We are making laptops and tablets available to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, and to those receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, and care leavers.

Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we will be providing 4G wireless routers to them so that they can learn at home.

In May, the Department invited local authorities to order devices for the most vulnerable children first - children with a social worker and care leavers. In June, the Department started inviting academy trusts and local authorities to order their devices for disadvantaged year 10 pupils. The Department has published information about how many laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers we have delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts as of 30 June, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data.

The Department is working with the major telecommunications companies to improve internet connectivity for disadvantaged and vulnerable families. For families who rely on a mobile internet connection, mobile network operators are working to provide access to free additional data while the COVID-19 outbreak requires children to learn from home and more social care services are online. In partnership with BT, the Department is also providing disadvantaged children and young people with free access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots.

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