Treasury could find education catch-up funding ‘from back of the sofa’ if there is political will, says senior Tory

A senior Conservative has suggested the Treasury could find additional funds for schools’ catch-up plans “from the back of the sofa” if there is political will.

The remarks from Robert Halfon – chair of the Education Select Committee – comes after the government’s catch-up tsar dramatically resigned from his position, suggesting the financial package offered had fallen “far short of what is needed” to help children.

Denouncing the government’s plans on Wednesday evening as he announced he was quitting – just four months after being appointed – Sir Kevan Collins said in a statement: “A half-hearted approach risks failing hundreds of thousands of pupils.”

He was said to have been pushing for £15bn worth of funding to alleviate the impact of the Covid crisis on schools and children’s learning, but the government unveiled a package of just £1.4bn in an announcement yesterday.

Amid reports the Treasury had rejected the funding plea, Tory MP Mr Halfon said the government must “decide their priorities in terms of education”.

“Of course there are funding constraints but the Treasury announced over £16bn extra for defence only last year, we’ve got £800m being spent on a new research agency, £200m being spent on a yacht,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“So where there is the political will, the Treasury can find the money from the back of the sofa, and there has to be that political will because we need a long-term plan for education, a proper funding settlement.”

Mr Halfon said the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to children “has been nothing short of disastrous”, adding: “We need some radical thinking, some thinking out of the box, a proper long-term plan and I will keep campaigning for that, and a proper funding settlement so that the plan is properly resourced”.

Former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield also told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve seen in other areas of course spending has needed to happen during the pandemic. Furlough, not least.

“None of us would say that wasn’t money well spent, but somehow when it gets to children and education there’s so many hoops that need to be jumped through.

“So, wherever this lives, whether it’s in No 10 or whether it’s in the Treasury, this is a false economy.”

And Dr Lee Elliot Major, a professor social mobility at the University of Exeter, also told the BBC that “at least 10 times the amounts that were announced yesterday would be needed for children to have a chance to catch up” as he responded to Sir Kevan’s resignation.

“I just hope that it’s a wake-up call for the government to see this as the beginning of a much bigger, more ambitious programme,” he said.

“What we do know, and I think there is a lot of evidence around this, is that extra teaching for children will have huge benefits. And remember this is an investment for the future. If we don’t address these issues now the real fear is that we will fail a whole generation.

“This is about a whole generation of children and so my belief is that there is compelling evidence that, if done well, if you extend teaching, then that will help us catch up. I don’t see any other way of doing it.”

Home office minister Victoria Atkins, who was on the government’s morning broadcast round, insisted that the government had focused the “latest tranche” of £1.4bn of funding on extra tuition for children.

“We very much want to support teachers in developing and delivering this package of work across schools,” she said.

Pressed on Sir Kevan’s resignation and whether the £15bn he requested for the catch-up programme was still under consideration, she responded: “As a Home Office minister I’m not privy to the discussions between Department for Education and the Treasury.

“This is part of a programme of work, we are reviewing this recommendation about reviewing the school day, we are very much looking into that. We do have to bring people with us, bring teachers with us, bring parents with us on this journey.”

She added: “We are all focused on helping children, it’s the absolute focus of the secretary of state for education, it’s the absolute focus of the prime minister.”