The Government’s recovery plan for schools has been in the news all week. You’d be forgiven for not seeing it given the constant noise about the Delta variant and the end of restrictions later this month.

Here’s what we know so far. The education recovery commissioner for England, Sir Kevan Collins, resigned after a row with the Government. Sir Kevan made three requests: a £15 billion rescue plan to help children catch up after months of disruption to their education, an additional 100 hours of school each year from 2022, and extra tutoring for children and training for teachers.

In the report Sir Kevan presented to the Government, it said that doing nothing would cost the country an eye-watering £1.5 trillion. How well you do in school has a significant impact on how well you get on in life: whether or not you go onto higher or further education, what job you get, how much you earn. In other words, good education is good for people which is good for the economy – and we’re all affected by the peaks and troughs of the economy. So how well children do affects us all, whether or not you have children in school.

More importantly, doing everything in our power to support schools is morally the right thing to do. This pandemic has been cruel on children. Poorer educational outcomes are no fault of children who have been forced to learn from home and have missed hours upon hours of teaching time. Our children have had less time to socialise too, which is a formative part of any child’s development.

For these reasons, I would support the Government if it were to make £15 billion available for catch-up programmes. It’s similar to the £13.5 billion the Education Policy Institute said we need.

Yet the Treasury has allocated £1.4 billion. That includes £1 billion for 100 million hours of tutoring, aimed at the most disadvantaged, and £250 million for teaching training and development. On the face of it these may sound like big numbers, but when you consider Lancashire County Council gets nearly £900 million this year for the services it delivers it’s clear that £1.4 billion for schools across the entire country won’t go far enough.

Welcome though that is, I don’t think it right to cut corners when it comes to the future of millions of young people. It appears some Conversative MPs feel the same way and are demanding a rethink.

We should take the politics out of education and the Government should work with Labour to set out a proper education recovery plan. Breakfasts clubs and extracurricular activities for every child, mental health support in schools, tutoring for all that need it, support for teachers and a guarantee that no child goes hungry would all be good places to start.

Our children’s education, jobs and futures depend on the support they receive coming out of this pandemic. Let’s get it right.