To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to reimburse schools for the costs that they have incurred as a result of providing online learning for pupils during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered on
2 June 2020
We are providing schools with the biggest funding boost in a decade, making sure that every school will receive more money for every pupil.
We are increasing school funding by £14.4 billion across the next three years, with increases of £2.6 billion this year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.
We are also continuing to pay the pupil premium, worth around £2.4 billion per annum, to schools so that they have extra funding to provide support to their disadvantaged pupils, with per-pupil rates for the current financial year being the highest ever.
The Government has committed over £100 million to support remote education. As part of this, we are providing children from disadvantaged backgrounds across England with free laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers to help them learn from home during the lockdown.
To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, 40 teachers have come together to develop the brand-new Oak National Academy, launched at the start of the summer term. Oak Academy provides 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from Reception through to year 10.
We are also providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools can claim up to a maximum amount that will depend on their size, and will be no more than £75,000 per school.