DfE officials take questions from MPs on school funding
Civil servants from the Department for Education took questions from the House of Commons’ education select committee on Tuesday, focusing on funding and financial management of schools. Giving evidence were Tony Foot, Director of Strategic Finance (DfE), Graham Archer, Director for Qualifications, Curriculum and Extra-Curricular (DfE), and Warwick Sharp, Director of Academies and Maintained Schools at the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The session took place before the announcements this week on further catch-up funding.
Chair of the Committee, Robert Halfon MP, first enquired about the £650 million catch-up premium for schools, asking how this funding was being spent and if it was being used effectively. Graham Archer said that how this money is being spent has largely been left up to schools, and that they ‘are seeing a range of uses of that funding, whether that is for evidence-based programmes of work, providing assessments of where children are after a period out of education, or to support children with their mental health or other issues which make it harder for them to engage with education.’
As North East schools plan for full reopening on the 8th March, our feedback from school leaders shows they are keen to ensure that the curriculum is broad and re-engages students with a love of learning. This requires dealing with the impact of lockdown beyond the ‘learning loss’, and so it is encouraging that the DfE is giving schools the flexibility to identify the needs of their students, and also allow catch-up funding to support mental health and wellbeing.
Graham Archer reiterated this further when he was asked about the £220 million holiday activities and food programme. He made it clear that catch-up needs to involve re-engagement and socialising activities, alongside a more academic focus especially for those students transitioning or at the end of their period in formal education. Additionally, he said that he expected ‘a synergy between covid recovery and school reform more generally’. The pandemic has highlighted the role schools play as vital strategic infrastructure, and this recognition of the need for longer term thinking as we look at ‘recovery’ is important.
MPs also asked questions about disadvantaged pupils, looking at whether or not pupil premium is sufficiently targeted towards the long-term disadvantaged, as it applies to all eligible pupils for free school meals at any point over the past six years. Tony Foot defended the six-year rule as the best funding measure to target disadvantage, reflecting that there are some children who move in and out of free school meal eligibility. It will of course be important to these students as we come out of the lockdown, as more children may temporarily enter this group. However, the impact of disadvantage goes beyond the pandemic, with research from Durham University Evidence Centre for Education showing that attainment is affected by every year a child is on free school meals.
Finally, the panel were asked about the National Tutoring Programme. Graham Archer said that around 125,000 children signed up for the NTP, with 700 of the planned 1000 academic mentors delivered through Teach First in schools. Current plans aim to double the number of students receiving support from a mentor through targeted advertising in all regions to ensure that schools take up the offer throughout the country.
While any support is welcome, it is not clear that the NTP is suitable for all schools. Schools in the North East are looking to their own staff, due to the importance of established relationships in ensuring children are engaged in learning. Several schools have also reported that despite applying for mentors, they have received little further information, possibly highlighting the different levels of tutoring capacity across the country. The approach to ‘catch-up’ must avoid a one-size fits all policy, with trust in the teaching profession to find the best solutions for their students.