Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 5th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2020 to Question 88339 on Schools: Coronavirus, what the total value was of claims made by schools under the exceptional costs programme from March to July 2020, as of 5 October 2020.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 8th October 2020

The first claims window for the COVID-19 schools fund closed on 21 July. The second window for schools to claim for exceptional costs they faced between March and July will open later in the autumn.

To date, the total value of claims against the published expenditure categories in the fund remains at £104 million. These are: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who were not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements. A further £44 million of claims from schools during the first window fell outside the standard expenditure categories.

Schools have already received payments of £58 million where they have claimed only against the published expenditure categories and within the fund’s cost limits. The Department is assessing all claims outside the published categories and/or in excess of the cost limits, and these will be paid later in the autumn if they are approved.

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