The government is coming under increasing pressure to release “vital” data on the attendance rates for its beleaguered £25 million catch-up tutoring programme after the Department for Education refused to release the figures to Tes after an appeal.
Conservative MP and chair of the Commons Education Select Committee Robert Halfon said it was “vital” that the data was released, while Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was “very clearly” in the public interest for the DfE to release what he called “pretty basic data” on an initiative it was spending “considerable sums of public money”.
Last month, a minister blocked the release of information of attendance and class cancellation rates for the Tuition Partners sessions on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), after Tes requested the information under Freedom of Information laws, claiming the information would cause “confusion” among schools if it was revealed.
The DfE has now refused to release the information for a second time after Tes appealed the FOI rejection on the grounds that the data was in the public interest, as heads had previously told Tes that NTP tutors were running sessions for “ghost pupils” who didn’t turn up, due to confusion over key performance indicators.
The Department said that disclosure of “unvalidated” data could mean that students miss out on tutoring, as a result of “their school choosing not to take part in the programme”, or by “normalising a culture of cancelling sessions”.
Mr Halfon said: “It is vital that we have transparency on the outcomes and data that are informing the catch-up programme, including the attendance data.
“The publication of data was a key recommendation in the Education Select Committee’s new report - Is the Catch-Up Programme Fit For Purpose? - and is also something I have raised directly with ministers in the House of Commons on a number of occasions.”
Mr Barton said the DfE should be “fully transparent” about the Tuition Partners element of the NTP, on which it is spending “considerable amounts of public money”.
He added: “It is important to know the attendance rate of pupils and the number of cancelled sessions in order to understand how well it is working.
“There is a lot of concern about the Tuition Partners scheme and considerable sums of public money are being spent on this initiative. It therefore seems to be very clearly in the public interest to know what is pretty basic data about its take-up.”
Calls to release ‘hidden information’
Labour shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan has also tried and failed to obtain the information via a request in Parliament. He previously said the decision to keep the information under wraps would leave parents, teachers and pupils wondering “what ministers have got to hide” and asked for it himself via a parliamentary question, only to be denied again.
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson also backed the calls for the release of data and said the government had “hidden information” about the true impact and efficacy of the NTP “at every opportunity”.
John Nichols, president of The Tutors’ Association (TTA) - the professional body for tutors - has also previously said the information was “clearly a matter of public interest”.
Tes initially requested attendance rates for the Tuition Partners strand of the NTP, which the government awarded to Dutch recruitment firm Randstad this year, and which allows schools to access tutoring sessions run by external tutor agency partners.
The request also asked for the number of sessions on the programme that had been cancelled at less than and more than 24 hours’ notice, under the Freedom of Information Act.
But the DfE said that though it held the information, it was blocking its release because a minister in the Department felt this would have a “prejudicial effect” on the conduct of public affairs.
A ‘duty to be transparent’
After an appeal, the DfE has now said it doesn’t actually hold information on the number of Tuition Partners sessions cancelled with more than 24 hours’ notice, though it does hold the other information requested.
It added that an internal review panel had concluded that “releasing the information might lead schools and other interested parties to unnecessarily question the integrity of, and lose confidence in, the programme”.
Ms Wilson said the government needed to “get a grip” and allow parents, politicians and the press “to see behind the curtain”.
She added: “The National Tutoring Programme is failing children across the country, but we cannot solve this problem without first fully understanding it. They have a duty to be transparent.”
The calls come after months of criticism of the NTP. Earlier this month, the government was accused of “moving the goalposts” on the programme, after “confused guidance” over revised targets was sent to school leaders.
Tuition partners have also previously complained that Randstad has an online booking platform that is bureaucratic and “dysfunctional” to use.
