The Department has no vision for building on the investment it has made in IT equipment for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. In the early stages of the pandemic, the Department initially considered trying to provide 602,000 laptops and tablets, and 100,000 4G routers, to priority groups of children. It scaled back these plans, however, and by the end of the summer term 2020 had delivered almost 215,000 laptops or tablets and 50,000 routers for children with a social worker and care leav...

The Department has no vision for building on the investment it has made in IT equipment for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. In the early stages of the pandemic, the Department initially considered trying to provide 602,000 laptops and tablets, and 100,000 4G routers, to priority groups of children. It scaled back these plans, however, and by the end of the summer term 2020 had delivered almost 215,000 laptops or tablets and 50,000 routers for children with a social worker and care leavers, and for disadvantaged children in year 10. The Department continued to distribute IT equipment during the 2020/21 school year, and by March 2021 had Type: recommendation | Number: 4 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: 4.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 4.2 The government has invested over £400 million in devices, internet access and training to support access to remote education and online social care services for disadvantaged children