Following a recent meeting with local Head Teachers from North West Durham schools, Richard Holden MP questioned the amount of bureaucracy involved in schools applying for funding from the National Tutoring Programme, designed to help young people catch up after the global pandemic.
Richard thanked the School Standards Minister, Robin Walker MP, for his recent visit to Buropfield Primary School in North West Durham (details here) but raised the issue local Head Teachers had raised with him about the delays.
In response, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, who was recently promoted after leading the UK Government's efforts on the vaccine programme, said that he would:
"He will recall when I was vaccines Minister I was able to cut through some of the bureaucracy and get more retired doctors and nurses to come back and vaccinate the nation. I will happily look again, with the Minister for School Standards, at any bureaucracy that gets in the way. We will get rid of it."