The Education Development Trust, Tribal Group and Cognition Education have been chosen to run the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) from next year.

Back in March, the Department for Education announced that £349 million of tutoring cash would go directly to schools from the next academic year.

This was in a bid to “simplify” the system after the DfE finally decided to end its contract with Dutch recruitment firm Randstad, which had struggled to meet targets.

The following month, three separate contracts were published:

1. £7,987,500 for a provider to recruit and deploy academic mentors.
2. £7,423,500 to train tutors and academic mentors.
3. £2,481,600 to recruit quality-assured tuition partners.

It has now been confirmed that Education Development Trust, which also oversees the Behaviour Hubs programme, will run training services for tutors and academic mentors.

Cognition Education, which delivers the Talent to Teach in Further Education (T2TFE) programme, has been awarded the contract to recruit and deploy academic mentors.

And education services provider Tribal Group will run the quality assurance of tuition partners.

• Background: Miss tutoring form deadline and we’ll reclaim cash, DfE tells heads
• NTP: Catch-up tutors run lessons for ‘ghost pupils’
• Related: Randstad says schools lack ‘bandwidth’ to sign-up to NTP

Currently, the NTP has three different strands - school-led, academic mentors and tuition partners.

While the money is all going directly to schools from next year, schools will still be able to work with partners, as well as recruit and employ academic mentors, but they will get the funds directly for this instead of having to go through a third party.

How will the contracts work?

The first contract, which has been awarded to Cognition Education, is for a provider to “recruit a new pool” of Academic Mentors and “manage their deployment to schools”.

The second, which Education Development Trust has been awarded, says that bidders will be expected to provide “high-quality training” for tutors and academic mentors and ensure that this training is available to at least 25,000 participants in the 2022-23 academic year and 20,000 participants the following year.

The final contract - won by Tribal Group - says that the provider will provide quality assurance of the agencies that provide tutors directly to schools, “so that schools can be confident that the tutoring provision they receive from these organisations is of a high standard”.

Schools minister Will Quince said: “I am determined to provide every pupil with the opportunity to reach their full potential and look forward to working with Tribal Group, Education Development Trust, and Cognition Education to continue growing this vital programme and ensure even more children can benefit from the high-quality tutoring we know makes such a difference.”

Commenting on the new contract awards, John Nichols, president of The Tutors’ Association, which represents tutoring providers, said: “It is of paramount importance that the new providers work constructively with the tuition sector, taking advice from the experts on how best to coordinate and deliver quality tuition, at scale and at an affordable cost.”