Responding to the new National Audit Office report on post-pandemic education recovery in schools, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Schools have been working incredibly hard to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on pupils, but government support has been piecemeal and insufficient and its own recovery tsar resigned when ministers failed to back his plans with the funding needed.

“Given the financial squeeze schools are facing, recovery efforts could be undermined further when the tutoring programme subsidy ends, and the National Audit Office is right to question. this.”