Damning response to lacklustre government ‘recovery’ plan

Damning response to lacklustre government ‘recovery’ plan

The government has announced a £1.4 billion ‘recovery’ plan for schools following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding, announced on Wednesday, is primarily to be used to support the existing National Tuition Programme, the development of “local tutoring provision”, and teacher training.  This works out at approx £50 extra per pupil over the next three years.  Following the announcement, Sir Kevan Collins is standing down as Education Recovery Commissioner as the government’s announcement falls a long way short of what he had recommended. 

This plan is only a fifteenth of the cost of Sir Kevan Collins’ £15 billion proposed ‘recovery’ plan which, at its heart, had the question: what should be done to help children catch up learning lost in the pandemic? In an opinion article with The Times Sir Kevan put forward his belief that “great teaching is the single most powerful tool” with his plan recommending a significant investment in teachers, extending access to tutoring with a focus on disadvantaged pupils and flexible extension to the school day, which would be optional with pay for teachers to deliver, allowing for the provision of enrichment activities which children have missed out on during lockdown. 

The government announcement, which gave Sir Kevan “no option but to resign” from his post was a disappointment to many within the sector, particularly with schools acting as the fourth emergency service during the pandemic providing high level pastoral and social care to the communities which they serve.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) commented that this package does not match the scale of learning loss along with having no regard to children’s mental health and wellbeing. In a previous report the EPI estimated that the cost of ‘recovery’ would cost an estimated £13.5 billion over three years with a focus on “recovery and resilience” as well as separately focussing on primary and secondary, early years and post-16 provision with each strand needing focussed investment. 

Schools North East Director, Chris Zarraga, said “This announcement is disappointing, the £1.4 billion package is clearly not anywhere near the amount required for schools to recover from the pandemic, let alone to address the pre-existing issues that it has exacerbated.  We need much bolder and broader plans with substantially more investment than the government appears willing to provide.”

“The North-East, along with other areas of high long term deprivation, has been hit the hardest by this pandemic. The gap between the most deprived pupils and their more advantaged peers has widened significantly because of Covid-19.  Whilst we particularly welcome the investment in local tuition capacity and teacher training, it is unrealistic to expect that the impact of the pandemic can be mitigated by an additional £50 and compares shamefully to other western nations like the United States, which is committing an additional £1,600 per pupil, or the Netherlands which has announced an additional £2,500 per student.

“The government has announced a short-sighted and short term plan with the caveat that ‘more money may come’ but no suggestion of when these announcements could come or what they will look like. This is less of a plan and more of an ad hoc allocation of packets of money without any bigger ‘strategic vision’. 

Schools North East will continue to press for a strategic recovery plan that will properly address recovery from the pandemic as well as the pre-existing issues that it exacerbated.  This was an opportunity for the government to ‘level up’ the education system, which, sadly, they seem to have missed.  I have to agree with Sir Kevan Collins, this is too narrow, too small, and too slow.”

The Labour Party has also responded to the Government announcement calling it “totally insufficient” and they plan to force a parliamentary vote on support for education ‘recovery’ in the House of Commons.  Alongside this, the Shadow Secretary for Education Kate Green has put forward a “post-covid agenda” which sets out proposals for children to “play, learn and develop” after warning that the Conservatives are “showing no ambition for our children’s futures”, Labour’s plan promises:

• Breakfast clubs and new activities for every child;
• Quality mental health support in every school;
• Small group tutoring for all who need it;
• Continued development for teachers;
• An Education Recovery Premium; and 
• Ensure no child goes hungry.

Kate Green will be speaking to Schools North East Advisory Board members and Trustees on Friday as part of a roundtable series which has been undertaken over the last 6 months.  This has enabled North East school leaders to have their voices heard in parliament, furthering the mission of narrowing the gap between the north and the south in the context of education. The roundtables have prompted a variety of actions from the region’s MPs, of all parties, including writing to HMCI Amanda Spielman and the Secretary of State for Education, drawing their attention to the issues of most concern to NE school leaders, as well as meeting with Ministers like Nick Gibb and tabling a range of questions in the House of Commons.