At the end of April 2020 The Department for Education stated that they would provide digital devices (laptops or tablets) or internet 4G connection for some disadvantaged children and young people who do not currently have access to them from other sources, such as their school. Digital devices could be requested for:

care leavers

children and young people aged 0 to 19 with a social worker

disadvantaged year 10 pupils

They then extended this in August 2020 to cover:

disadvantaged children in years 3 to 11 who do not have access to a device and whose face-to-face education is disrupted

disadvantaged children in any year group who have been advised to shield because they (or someone they live with) are clinically extremely vulnerable

disadvantaged children in any year group attending a hospital school