What catch-up funding is for
In June 2020 the government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up on missed learning caused by coronavirus (COVID19). This is especially important for the most vulnerable pupils and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who we know have been most affected. This funding 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 missed learning
- a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help, which includes:
- a schools programme for 5 to 16-year-olds – for more information, see the National Tutoring Programme FAQs
- a 16 to 19 tuition fund
- an oral language intervention programme for reception-aged children
Eligibility
The followings settings are eligible:
- primary, secondary and all through local authority-maintained schools, academies and free schools
- local authority-maintained special schools
- special academies and free schools
- special schools not maintained by a local authority
- pupil referral units
- alternative provision (AP) academies and free schools
- local authority-maintained hospital schools and academies
- independent special schools
Government will provide funding to local authorities for pupils with education, health and care (EHC) plans who are educated in independent special schools based on the number of such pupils in their area.
Funding allocations
School allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis.
The following settings will get £240 for each place for the 2020 to 2021 academic year:
- special schools, including special units within mainstream schools
- AP schools
- hospital schools
We have applied additional weighting to specialist settings, recognising the significantly higher per pupil costs they face. A typical primary school of 200 pupils will receive £16,000 while a typical secondary school of 1,000 pupils will receive £80,000.