Schools: Coronavirus

Department for Education written question – answered at on 10 January 2022.

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Photo of Abena Oppong-Asare Abena Oppong-Asare Shadow Exchequer Secretary (Treasury)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing targeted financial assistance to schools in response to the omicron covid-19 variant to support the (a) implementation of additional covid-19 safety measures on their premises and (b) purchase of air filtration devices where natural ventilation is limited due to design and capacity of buildings.

Photo of Robin Walker Robin Walker The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, Minister of State (Education)

The measures in place day-to-day in schools, colleges and nurseries to tackle COVID-19 are based on the latest scientific advice and strike a balance between managing transmission risk and reducing disruption to children and young people’s education.

The priority is for schools, colleges and nurseries to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all children, pupils and students. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, and mental and physical health. To manage COVID-19 transmission, education providers continue to ensure good hygiene for everyone, maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, keep occupied spaces well ventilated and follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation, face coverings and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.

To support schools with these measures, the department provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including nurseries, schools and further education colleges, backed by £25 million in government funding. We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the autumn term. Feedback following this roll out shows that in most schools, colleges and nurseries existing ventilation measures are sufficient.

For the very few cases where maintaining good ventilation is not possible, the department is supplying up to 7,000 air purifiers cleaning units. This is on top of the 1,000 funded units for special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision providers that we announced in November. We have also made over £100 million of funding available to secondary schools, colleges, and specialist providers to support them with the workforce costs associated with delivering on-site testing, and continue to do so, in line with departmental testing policy.

This should also be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. Overall, core schools funding will increase by £4 billion in financial year 2022/23 compared to 2021/22, a 5% real terms per pupil boost. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new school supplementary grant for financial year 2022/23. This funding boost will rapidly give schools the resources they need to rise to the challenges of COVID-19 response and recovery, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment and educational outcomes for all children and young people.

The vast majority of schools are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The latest published figures show that the percentage of both academy trusts and local authority maintained schools in surplus or breaking even increased compared to the previous reporting year. At the end of financial year 2020/21, 92% of local authority maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. At the end of the 2019/20 academic year, 96% of academy trusts were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 94% the previous year.

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