England's catch-up support poorly targeted

The Education Policy Institute has published a new report which compares the education catch up plans of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The report finds that the catch-up plans of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland offer insufficient support for pupils, and are unlikely to address the scale of learning loss following the pandemic.

The funding directly committed in Scotland for catch-up is shown to be the most generous on a per pupil basis, followed by England. Both countries offer catch up funding per pupil that is over twice that of the support offered by Wales and Northern Ireland.

However, the catch-up programmes of Wales and Northern Ireland are far better targeted at their most disadvantaged pupils, who according to research, have seen their education suffer the most over the course of the pandemic. In these two countries, around half of catch-up funding is allocated to poorer pupils.

English and Scottish programmes, however, are poorly targeted, with a lower proportion of funds directed at their most disadvantaged pupils.