The proportion of schools taking part in the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) this year has dropped to just over half after funding to support participating schools was cut.
As of 16 May 2024, the Department for Education estimated that 57.8 per cent of schools had participated in the NTP - the government’s Covid catch-up scheme - in 2023-24.
This is down from the 76 per cent of schools that participated in the NTP up to the same point last year.
School participation has slightly increased from January this year, when 50.1 per cent took part.
The government subsidy of the four-year NTP has gradually reduced in value, from 75 per cent in the scheme’s first year to 50 per cent this year, in line with policy.
The number of courses started this year up to May dropped by a quarter to 968,968, compared with the same period last year when 1,317,267 course starts were made, the data showed.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the fall reflected the fact that “many schools are facing severe financial pressures” and so could not afford the higher levels of funding required to take part this year.
He added it is critical that the funding attached to the programme is not lost to the system in the new academic year, “especially after a decade in which the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children has widened”.
Nearly half of pupils taking part on free school meals
The data showing the drop in schools engaging in the catch-up programme comes after the most recent key stage 4 attainment data revealed the disadvantage gap is at its widest point since 2011.
The proportion of pupils who received tutoring via the NTP who were disadvantaged or had special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) remained at similar levels to last year up to January 2024.
Just under half (47.8 per cent) of those who took part were students eligible for free school meals (FSM) in the past six years, compared with 47.9 per cent last year. Nearly a third (30.2 per cent) were known to have SEND, compared with 27.8 per cent in 2022-23.
At the beginning of this year, a survey of trusts by the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) found that a significant proportion said they would not be able to match the funding needed for tutoring this year.
As a result, just 58 per cent said they planned to use the NTP this academic year, compared with 75 per cent in 2022-23.
End of the National Tutoring Programme
This was the final year of the NTP as funding has not been extended to 2024-25, despite repeated school leader warnings they would not be able to afford tutoring once the funding ends.
The lowest NTP participation was seen in schools in the North East, with 51 per cent of schools taking part. London saw the highest proportion of schools take part, with 68.1 per cent recorded as using the programme.
There were 172,238 tutoring courses started by pupils in London this year up to May, compared with just 50,015 in the North East.
Participation this year has been much higher among secondary schools, with 74.8 per cent using the NTP, compared with 55.4 per cent of primary schools.
Impact on the disadvantage gap
Cross-government MPs warned the previous government that cutting tutoring cash would be “highly detrimental”.
However, the Department for Education said that schools that wanted to continue with tutoring could do so using pupil premium cash.
Former catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins resigned in 2021 after the DfE came up with funding far short of the £15 billion he said was needed to close learning gaps created by the pandemic.
The new Labour government has since appointed Sir Kevan as an adviser on school standards.
The current government has not made any commitments to tutoring, though has said it hopes its policies to deliver a child poverty strategy and put free breakfast clubs in every school will help tackle the attainment gap.
In its most recent evaluation of the second year of the NTP (2021-22), the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that tutoring helped pupils make a small amount of progress when led by schools.
However, analysis by consultancy Public First suggested the scheme will eventually lead to 390,000 grade improvements.
The NFER also found that year that only 35 per cent of Year 11s who received tutoring were from disadvantaged backgrounds, and as a result suggested further tutoring needed to be targeted more strongly at these pupils.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We encourage schools to continue targeting tutoring towards pupils who need it most because we know that, despite the work of our brilliant teachers, too many pupils are still being held back by their background.”
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