The pandemic threw disparities in our education system into stark relief. For example, on average, a child with a laptop worked for 75 per cent longer than a child with no device during the first lockdown.

During this period, 35 per cent of state school children did not have live online lessons. The home environment has, of course, always been a key contributor to children’s outcomes, but the pandemic quickly made this tangible.

As schools reopened, it became clear that a scheme to help children catch up was needed, and so the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) programme was created.

Tutoring funding must remain

The NTP has been running for three years but is set to end this year unless the government commits to further funding - something we as the group advising the government on its tutoring strategy think should definitely happen.

The academic research is clear: tutoring works. Evaluation from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has shown it to be one of the most effective ways of closing the attainment gap that we have.

It has an average impact of four months’ additional progress over the course of a year, and individual case studies from various providers show heartening results in terms of both catch-up and in addressing the attainment gap.

What’s more, new economic analysis, published today by Public First, shows the value-for-money case for tutoring - for example, for every £100 spent, there is more than a £650 return, if tutoring is approached in a way consistent with the EEF evaluation.

This means the long-term benefit to the economy of the tutoring provided in 2021-22 and 2022-23 is £4.34 billion.

This is an impressive return on investment and adds to the body of evidence in favour of continuing to fund the NTP.

A popular system

As well as boosting learning outcomes, closing the attainment gap and adding more money to people’s pockets - and the nation’s economy - another Public First report, from last July, found tutoring to be popular with every group across the school system - parents, teachers and, most importantly, children.

One respondent told the authors that they appreciate the routine and structure tutoring brings to their lives and how it can help them learn: “Being able to have that one-to-one tuition definitely did make up for lost time [because of the pandemic]…you’re able to go through things at a faster pace, you’re able to stop and start when you need to.”

As well as academic benefits, those interviewed said that tutoring helps with mental health and wellbeing, with 85 per cent of parents saying that tutoring had positively impacted their child’s confidence, 68 per cent saying that tutoring improved attendance and 78 per cent saying it developed their child’s relationships with classroom teachers.

Indeed, many people surveyed said they enjoyed the chance to make a fresh start with a new adult and that it could help recalibrate their relationships by having tutoring in school but not being part of the school.

Cutting it off in its prime

Yet despite all these benefits, in many cases, the removal of funding will result in tutoring no longer being provided in schools, with 66 per cent of headteachers saying the cessation of financial support would see tutoring scaled back or simply stopped altogether.

As a result, relationships that have been built up over time will be cut off - between tutors and pupils, service providers and schools - leaving thousands of children without access to tutoring and their schools left alone to unpick the damage done by the pandemic.

We must not allow tutoring to return to its pre-pandemic status as the preserve of the wealthy. That would be a hugely regressive backwards step.

Ensuring high-quality tutoring is available to pupils who need it, not just families that can afford it, remains as worthy an ambition now as it was when the NTP was introduced.

With the attainment gap at a 10-year high, now is the time to redouble our efforts, not reduce our investment, in the children and young people who need our support the most.

Nick Brook is chief executive of Speakers for Schools and chair of the Strategic Tutoring Advisory Group at the Department of Education

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