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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>
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