Ministers could “incentivise” schools using the government’s flagship tutoring programme to choose better-quality providers by offering them higher subsidies for doing so, according to a new report.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is currently run via three pillars. One allows schools to sort tutoring themselves - known as school-led tutoring - one allows them to hire academic mentors and another allows them to use external tuition partners.
All the money will go directly to schools from the next academic year, but while schools using the school-led route can currently engage any tutoring organisation they wish, for 2022-23, they will have to check that the provider they are using is listed with the Department for Education’s Find a Tuition Partner service, which the government says will undergo “rigorous” quality control checks.
A new report from youth charity Impetus argues that giving schools more control of how they engage with tutoring is a “sensible idea”, while changes that mean they can no longer use tuition providers that have not been accredited as tuition partners are “welcome”.
But Impetus argues that this should be accompanied by “positive measures” to encourage schools to opt for high-quality tutoring, with the most “straightforward way” being for schools to receive higher subsidies - ie, a higher proportion of a session’s costs being covered by government money - for higher-quality tutoring.
However, the Tutors’ Association (TTA) - a professional membership body for tutoring organisations - has criticised the idea of variable rates and insisted that schools were “perfectly capable of evaluating their experiences with tuition providers and exercising choice”.
The Impetus report states that, at the moment, the subsidy is the same for “best-in-class tutoring as well as for those tuition partners who only just meet the quality criteria”.
And it adds that instead of a flat 60 per cent subsidy for all tuition partners, as schools will receive in 2022-23, they could instead receive different subsidies depending on the partner they use, starting from the 2023-24 academic year.
The report states, as an indicative example, that a 70 per cent subsidy could be offered for using the best tuition partners, a 40 per cent subsidy for using “excellent but not quite as good tuition” partners, and a 10 per cent subsidy for using providers that just meet the minimum standards.
It concludes that this would “widen school choice” as, for a given sum of money, schools could choose either higher-quality tuition for fewer pupils or put more pupils into a slightly lower standard of tutoring.
The report also calls for government and the tuition partners contractor - which will be Tribal Group next academic year - to make NTP data available to check that tuition is reaching the pupils who need it most.
And it said that new NTP contractors - chosen earlier this month - should be required to include training and capacity building to ensure a strong supply of high-quality tutors.
Ben Gadsby, research and policy head at Impetus, and author of the report, said that tutoring was one of the “best-evidenced interventions” for supporting young people to make accelerated progress but, two years on from the start of the NTP, quality tutoring “still isn’t available to every school that needs it”.
He said: “The National Tutoring Programme has the chance to transform the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. But without better data, and the ability to attract more, higher-quality tutors, there is a real risk that this potential will never be met.
“Our report today outlines the steps that the new contractor, along with the Department for Education, need to take to make the programme a success, so that all schools can secure the tutoring they want for their pupils.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the NTP needed to be kept “as simple as possible” and that “over-complexity has been one of the problems with the scheme”.
He added: “The fact that the subsidy is only partial is a real problem because it means that NTP is actually a cost to schools at a time when their budgets are under extreme pressure.”
John Nichols, president of TTA, said that while the association “fully supports” the collection and publication of “rigorous data relating to the delivery and impact of the NTP”, he criticised the idea of a variable subsidy rate.
“It is impossible to ascertain, with confidence, the quality of a tuition provider solely from an application form, not to mention the challenges involved in doing so,” he said.
”Schools are perfectly capable of evaluating their experiences with tuition providers and exercising choice. The evidence suggests they have been very happy to switch when they are dissatisfied and many have done so.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “The government has been driving forward work to get children back on track after the pandemic, including through our National Tutoring Programme - with over two million courses already started - and targeted support for whole areas of the country where standards are weakest.
“We have taken on board feedback from the sector and, from September, the National Tutoring Programme will be simplified, with all £349 million of funding being provided directly to schools, who will be supported by three new delivery partners, helping as many children as possible experience the benefits we know high-quality tutoring can bring.”
