The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the school system but data are not yet available to indicate how schools’ financial health has been affected.11 The Department is providing extra funding to help schools cover costs relating to COVID-19, mostly for catch-up learning, but does not know the extent to which this covers cost pressures.12 We noted in October 2021 that the funding being provided to help children and young people catch up on learning lost due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic falls well short of the £15 billion that the Government’s own Education Recovery Commissioner recommended.13 The Department acknowledged that schools would also now be facing rising energy costs, but said that it expected these would comfortably be covered by the planned increases in funding.14 Financial health of maintained schools