A Department for Education spokesperson said:
“Thanks to the professionalism of staff in schools, nurseries,
colleges and children’s homes, this report shows that the
standard of education and support that children and young people
receive has remained high.
“The safety and wellbeing of the most vulnerable children has
always been our focus, which is why we kept nurseries, schools
and colleges open for those children throughout the pandemic. We
all owe a debt of gratitude to the teachers and support workers
who have gone above and beyond to support vulnerable children
since national restrictions were first introduced.
“It remains a national priority to keep full-time education open
for all. We have allocated £1 billion to schools to
supports all children to catch up on lost
learning and are offering at least two years’ targeted tuition
through the National Tutoring Programme to those who need it
most.”
Further information:
Unregistered schools
- Unregistered schools are unlawful and present a risk to
children. They often do not teach a balanced and informative
curriculum and unregistered schools can expose pupils to
dangerous and extreme influences.
- The Department remains committed to ensuring that anyone
found to be running an unregistered school faces the full force
of the law and strengthening Ofsted’s powers to make sure they
can shut down illegal schools.
Quality of apprenticeships
- The Secretary of State has been clear that boosting further
education is at the heart of his vision for a world class
education system.
- We are investing significantly to level up skills and
opportunity across the country. In addition to our £3 billion
National Skills fund, we have announced a £400m increase to 16 to
19 funding for 2020-2021, creating longer, higher-quality
technical apprenticeships.
- We are continuing to look at how the apprenticeship programme
can best support the changing needs of businesses so more people
can get ahead and all employers can benefit.
Attainment gap
- While the attainment gap narrowed by 9% between 2011 and
2019, many children have had their education disrupted by
coronavirus, and we cannot let them lose out.
- Schools are putting remote education in place for pupils
self-isolating and our £1 billion Covid catch up package will
tackle the impact of lost teaching time as a result of the
pandemic, including a £650 million catch up premium to help
schools support all pupils and the £350 million National Tutoring
Programme for disadvantaged students.
- Schools and FE providers have been working extremely hard to
develop remote education contingency plans. This is testament to
their commitment to ensuring any missed learning is recovered and
that we prevent the attainment gap from widening further.
Mental health support
- Our Wellbeing for Education Return programme is supporting
staff in schools and colleges to respond to the additional
pressures some children and young people may be feeling as a
direct result of the pandemic, as well as to any emotional
response they or their teachers may still be experiencing from
bereavement, stress, trauma or anxiety over the past months.
- Our mental health support builds on the transformation of
services through the NHS Long Term Plan, backed by an extra £2.3
billion investment in mental health per year.
- The Department for Education is providing £1.6 million to
expand and promote the NSPCC’s helpline, offering advice and
support on how to raise concerns about children at risk during
the coronavirus outbreak.
SEND provision
- The safety and wellbeing of the most vulnerable children has
always been a priority. That’s why we kept nurseries, schools and
colleges open to those with Education, Health and Care Plans
throughout the pandemic, where it was safe to do so, and provided
clear guidance on who was eligible to attend.
- We have supported local authorities, education providers and
health services to respond to the challenges effectively,
providing local authorities £3.7 billion to meet additional
demands including within children’s services. We’re also
increasing high needs funding for those with the most complex
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) by £780 million
this year and a further £730 million next year, to help provide
the support that parents rightly expect for their children.
- Reforms to the SEND system in 2014 introduced vital support
for children, young people and their families. Our current
cross-government SEND review that is currently underway is
looking at ways we can continue to ensure that this support is
consistent, high quality, and integrated across education, health
and care.
