Schools using National Tutoring Programme (NTP) cash to hire external tutoring organisations will only be able to spend it on firms that have been quality assured and placed on a Department for Education list, under guidance issued by the government.
At the moment, there are three pillars to the NTP. There is one that allows schools to sort tutoring themselves - known as school-led - one that allows them to hire academic mentors and another that allows them to use external tuition partners.
All the money will go directly to schools from next year, but while schools using the school-led route this year can currently engage any tutoring organisation they wish to, for 2022-23, they will have to check the provider they are using is on the DfE’s Find a Tuition Partner service, which the government says will undergo “rigorous” quality control checks.
Schools will still be able to recruit their own staff, such as classroom teachers or teaching assistants - or bring in retired, supply or returning teachers - without them being on the list, as the new guidance applies only to organisations.
The change has been broadly welcomed by headteachers and the tutoring industry, although the DfE has been urged to ensure there is enough capacity for schools to draw on.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was “obviously” important that tuition partners are quality assured and offer good value for money and that “everybody would support that”.
He added: “The possible challenge will be to ensure that there is sufficient capacity on which schools can draw.”
And he said that most schools would opt to sort their own individual tutors rather than engaging the DfE’s approved organisations.
Ben Gadsby, head of policy and research at youth charity Impetus, also welcomed the move.
He said: “High-quality tutoring is one of the best-evidenced interventions for supporting young people. But it’s crucial that it is high quality. I’m pleased the government has closed the loophole that enabled potentially sub-standard tuition through the net.
“Schools can look to accredited tuition partners and buy with confidence, knowing they have met a rigorous set of quality standards.
“But we need more high-quality accredited tuition partners. The government should fund a capacity-building programme as part of the National Tutoring Programme, to support those organisations that fall short of the quality standards to improve their practice. This will help ensure that every school has access to the high-quality tuition their pupils need.”
Earlier this week, the DfE announced that education services provider Tribal Group will run the quality assurance of tuition partners on the NTP next year.
Education Development Trust will run training services for tutors and academic mentors.
And Cognition Education, which delivers the Talent to Teach in Further Education (T2TFE) programme, have been awarded the contract to recruit and deploy academic mentors.
Since its inception in 2020, there have been some concerns about the tutoring infrastructure available to schools, particularly in certain regions of England, such as the North East.
Earlier this year, Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, said that schools in the area found tutoring “extremely slow and cumbersome” to set up.
“The lack of pre-existing tutoring infrastructure, as well as challenges around recruitment and retention, has made it difficult for North East schools to engage with the scheme,” he said.
