What’s happening to the 'massive' summer catch-up for children?

At the Downing Street press conference on 10 June, Boris Johnson promised “a massive catch-up operation over the summer and beyond” for children who have missed months of schooling.

Just over a week later, the education secretary has announced a £1bn “hugely ambitious catch-up plan”.

It includes £350m to fund a National Tutoring Programme for the most disadvantaged pupils and £650m for schools in England to spend how they see fit, with the government hoping it will be “spent on small group tuition for whoever needs it”.

But both of those chunks of money are for the next academic year (2020-2021). It’s not clear how and whether schools will be able to access these funds before then.

The government is providing advice for schools from the Education Endowment Foundation, which includes the option of running summer schools, while recognising challenges they present such as staffing through the holidays.