The Panel will consider a verbal update on the COVID Catch up Fund.
Contact Officer: Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director (Learning and Early Support)
Minutes:
The Panel considered a verbal update on the COVID Catch up fund, presented by Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director for Learning and Early Support.
Jo-Anne Sanders highlighted the following key points:-
· the Government had announced that for the academic year 2020/21 (September to August) they would be supporting all schools with £80 per pupil from Reception to Year 11 with additional premium to support catch up funding and special schools and pupil referral units were entitled to £240 per pupil; across the year that would equate to approximately £5m;
· the first grant received across the authority had been for £1.3m and since the census took place in October that would be the basis on which the allocation of funding would be passported out to schools and they know that they could plan on the basis of the allocation that they would be receiving;
· it was down to individual schools to determine how best to spend the additional resource to meet the needs of the youngsters in their schools;
· helpful information had been published for schools on the education endowment fund in terms of research-based opportunities that might support their thinking about how best to spend the funds;
· there was a National Tutoring Programme which would be able to complement what schools were able to do in terms of the catch up fund;
· the DfE had published a COVID-19 support guide for schools;
· Governors would be wanting to work with school leaders on how best to use this additional funding and school colleagues had attended the Governor Briefing early on in the autumn term as it was important that schools could articulate how they were going to be spending the money and the rationale underpinning that;
· the Council had been undertaking virtual visits to schools to talk to learning partners and asking how that funding was being spent and it had been a varied picture but was quite early days; schools had been asked to confirm how they had been spending catch up funding and they would have to articulate the rationale, what the implication was and the impact and Kirklees Officers would continue to review this but there was not a uniform approach and spending would be based on what was best for youngsters in individual schools.
Jo-Anne Sanders advised that it was too early to measure the impact in schools of the COVID-19 Catch up Fund and the Panel agreed to revisit this matter later in the academic year for 2021/22. The Panel was informed that were the Council had seen good practice they were encouraging collaboration and sharing of good practice.
The Panel acknowledged that significant pressure had been placed on school Leaders for the extra work undertaken during COVID and agreed to monitor how school’s had been utilising funding, impact of COVID catch up funding, sharing good practice and learning points.
The Panel was informed that Ofsted was currently not inspecting schools but they were undertaking some assurance visits and looking at best practice and to support schools the DfE were putting together case studies and good practice guides available for school leaders.
Cllr Marchington, Chair of the Panel, advised that Educational Outcomes were a key area of focus for the Panel and looking at the longer-term impact of COVID. The Panel agreed that catch up funding needed to be in place to help the children of Kirklees and also look at how this complemented the pupil premium and SEND. The Panel agreed to focus on this area in their work programme and that a longer-term view was needed on the impacts of COVID for schools and the children of Kirklees.
RESOLVED –
1. That the Panel noted the verbal report on COVID Catch up Fund and thanked Jo-Anne Sanders for her contributions.
2. The Panel agreed that as part of the Educational Outcomes they would consider an update report later in the academic year covering the longer-term impact of Covid for schools and how long the Covid catch up funding needed to be in place to help children in Kirklees and how it complemented pupil premium and SEND. The Panel also greed that it would be useful to look at how the schools had used the funding, how this was measured, the sharing of good practice and any learning points.