Around 850 schools are set to have catch-up cash clawed back by the government because they did not return a form setting out how they spent the money.
Sector leaders are urging the Department for Education to be “accommodating” to those affected and say that taking back the money - worth tens of thousands of pounds in some cases - would be “tone deaf” given the financial pressures that schools are under.
Others say that smaller schools may have lacked the capacity to complete the form or to spend the cash as required.
The form was mandatory for all schools that received school-led tutoring funding as part of the government’s National Tutoring Programme last academic year.
Schools missing the deadline to fill in the form would have to return all their catch-up cash, the DfE warned.
The DfE initially set a deadline of 16 September - and said even schools that had not used the grant were required to fill it in - but later pushed this back to 30 September due to the mourning period following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
But an estimated 2,390 schools - around 11 per cent of those who received the grant - had not submitted their returns by 30 September, a response to a freedom of information request from Tes reveals.
The DfE said this was despite undertaking an “extensive” campaign to inform schools of the deadline.
According to the DfE, it then continued to follow up for three more weeks - including via phone calls, emails and extra guidance - but around 850 schools had still not submitted by 21 October, when the form was closed.
The exact amount of cash being recovered will vary significantly depending on the size and profile of the school, but it could be thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds in some cases.
‘Not in anybody’s interests’
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said that while it was “prudent” of the DfE to extend the deadline at a “time when schools are under ever-increasing pressure”, it was “surely not in anybody’s interest to see funding clawed back from already cash-strapped schools”.
“We would urge the DfE to be as accommodating as possible to the small percentage of schools that have missed the latest deadline”, he added.
The DfE said this week it was making final checks on the data sent by schools and would be writing to them to confirm their return statement and, where applicable, the amount that would be claimed back.
It will also contact those that have not submitted returns to outline the next steps, with leaders having the opportunity to contact the ESFA if they wish to query the outcome.
It said the money would be recovered in December and January - by offsetting payments from the ESFA - with some money also being clawed back from those who did not use their full allocation.
‘Tone deaf’
School leaders who spoke to Tes outlined that, while they understood the need to ensure public money was being well-spent, extra provisions could have been put in place to make the process of completing the statement easier for leaders.
Vic Goddard, CEO of Passmores Co-operative Learning Community in Essex, said that school leaders knew the form was “required” when given the grant, but that clawing back the money would feel “tone deaf in the current circumstances of school funding”.
“The ESFA has a flagship programme of school resource management advisers and it would seem very sensible to use this army of expertise to support schools - often small schools where people have multiple roles - to get this task completed”, he said.
“How about all the schools that haven’t replied being contacted by one with an offer to talk them through it?”
The figure of 850 schools that did not return their statement will likely include settings where leaders opted not to use their NTP allocation - although the DfE had told them to fill in the form regardless - as well as those who missed the deadline.
‘Labyrinthine’
And school leaders have said greater flexibility is needed to entice those who did not use the funding to use it in future.
Mr Barton criticised some of the process requirements of the NTP, calling it “labyrinthine in its complexity”, and arguing greater flexibility was needed to increase take-up, including changes to a rule that requires schools to top-up grant money from other sources.
Michael Tidd, headteacher at East Preston Junior School in West Sussex, also said that many heads may have “actively chosen not to use the money”.
He said smaller schools with low numbers of pupil premium children may have decided that, given the small allocation they received, using the cash was “not worth it”, especially as the administration was “overly complicated and burdensome”.
The comments come after a report found that some heads that used the NTP last year found the workload “immense”.
And a survey out yesterday also found that nearly 1 in 3 schools plan to cut tutoring due to funding issues.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “To support schools to complete the school-led tutoring year-end statement, we provided clear guidance, extended the deadline by over a month, and undertook an extensive campaign to remind schools of the requirement and to offer support where needed.
“As a result, 96 per cent of schools successfully submitted their data on time and we will we continue to work closely with the ESFA to advise schools, including the small number that failed to complete the form, on next steps in the coming weeks.”
