Multi-million pound technology boost for disadvantaged children
Nina Jacobs
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Care leavers, disadvantaged pupils and children arriving from Afghanistan, will benefit from £126m funding that will provide technology to help them access education and support, the government has said.
Announcing the multi-million pound boost to its Get Help with Technology programme to coincide with the start of Care Leavers Week (25 - 31 October), the Department for Education said the investment would pay for around 10,000 new devices for children with a social worker and those leaving care.
The expansion of the programme could mean up to half a million more disadvantaged children and young people in England would be given devices enabling them to connect to their peers and professionals, the department said.
Providing new laptops and tablets to these vulnerable young people would make it easier for them to keep in touch with their social workers, personal advisors and wider support networks, it added.
For those children and young people that have recently arrived from Afghanistan, devices would be also allocated to help them to adjust to life in England and support their education.
Under the DfE plans, additional devices will be provided to schools and colleges to help young people isolating at home due to Covid-19 to access online lessons and connect with their classmates and teachers.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the investment in new technology would complement learning in school as well as help the government achieve its aim to improve long term outcomes for looked after children and care leavers.
“This added investment builds on the 1.3 million laptops and tablets we have already provided during the pandemic, helping all children and young people, no matter their background, to access education and support,” he said.
Zahawi said the funding followed on from “significant ongoing support” for care-experienced young people that included the care leaver ministerial board, an initiative to improve opportunities for care leavers as they approached adulthood.
He said the extra investment for the Get Help with Technology programme would also enable help for students with homework and out-of-school learning.
This would operate alongside the government’s education recovery plans that include a tutoring programme to help students catch up, he said.
It is expected schools, colleges and councils will be invited during November and December to order their allocation of devices.
These orders will be determined by the proportion of pupils on free school meals and the number of care leavers in each local authority, the DfE said.
It is also making £13m available to schools and colleges that need to buy IT support to set up the devices.
This will cover the cost of reconfiguring any devices previously received via the programme to allow education settings to use them fully in the long-term, it added.
