News

Government announces funding for catch-up support

28th August 2020

  • The government has announced funding worth £1 billion to ensure that schools and colleges have the support they need to help children and young people make up for lost teaching time. The funding is separated into two blocks:

    • £650 million catch-up funding will be allocated for schools to use as they wish to help pupils catch up on learning.
    • £350 million will be used to create the National Tutoring Programme to provide tuition for the most disadvantaged pupils.

    Catch-up funding

    This funding will be available for all state-funded mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provisions for the academic year 2020/21. Mainstream schools will receive £80 per pupil and special schools will receive £240 per place. Schools will have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances. They are likely to focus on literacy and numeracy but can also target other aspects of learning, such as behaviour or social and emotional needs.

    For pupils with complex needs, the government is encouraging schools to spend their catch-up funding on support to address pupils’ individual needs, such as travel training, input from speech and language therapists or educational psychologists, small group and individual interventions, or access to technology or summer schools.

    National Tutoring Programme (NTP)

    This funding will be available to state-funded primary and secondary schools and colleges (mainstream and special). It will be targeted at those who are eligible for the pupil premium (generally, children on free school meals, adopted children and children in care). Schools will be able to access subsidised tuition from an approved list of tuition partners. Schools in the most disadvantaged areas will also be able to employ academic mentors to provide intensive support to pupils.

    Many children and young people with SEND will be eligible for NTP support, and school leaders and teachers will be able to determine if tutoring is the right support for each pupil.