Commenting on the Prime Minister's speech on levelling up, Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT said: "The Prime Minister is right to include schools in his vision for a fairer society, but sadly at the moment, the government’s actions do not match their lofty rhetoric. 

“Independent research by the Education Policy Institute, EPI, has found that schools serving the most disadvantaged schools will benefit the least from its most recent school funding package.

“Furthermore, we know that many disadvantaged children have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic, and yet the government's response to education recovery from Covid has been woefully inadequate.

“The government declined to fund Sir Kevan Collins' suggested catch-up plan on the grounds that it was too expensive. Instead, they chose to fund one-tenth of the cost of the plan. Even when you take into account previous Covid funding this still only equates to around £310 per pupil per year. In the USA this is £1,600 and in the Netherlands it is £2,500. Far from levelling up, this looks like a race to the bottom, internationally.”