Background

The government has announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This includes a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time.

Key points:

• Available for all state-funded mainstream and special schools and alternative provision
• Mainstream schools’ allocations will be based on £80 for each pupil in reception through to year 11 using the October 2020 census
• Special schools will be provided with £240 for each place for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, based on 2019/20 academic year place numbers
• The grant will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year and will be split 7/12ths in 2020/21 financial year and 5/12ths in 2021/22 financial year
• Payment to be received in 3 tranches – autumn 2020, spring 2021 and summer 2021

Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up over the next academic year and will have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.

A quick guide to the amount of funding available is here:

National Tutoring Programme Funding

In addition to the universal catch up fund the government is also launching a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for the 2020/21 academic year.

Schools will be able to use their universal catch-up premium to cover the subsidised cost of the programme.