Schools that received school-led funding last academic year as part of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) have been given an extra two weeks to fill out a vital form, with those that miss the deadline risking having the money clawed back from them.
Headteachers were previously told that they had until last Friday (16 September) to complete the “year-end statement”, which records details including the number of hours of tutoring the school has delivered and the amount of money spent.
School-led tutoring (SLT) was one of three pillars on the NTP last year, with schools allowed to use the grant funding to employ their own staff or source external tutors.
In a warning published with the guidance during the summer, the Department for Education (DfE) said: “If your school does not submit the year-end statement, we will understand that as admission that you have not carried out any SLT and we will recover your full allocation as an overpayment.”
It also added that it would not be possible to submit any data after the deadline, with the cash being clawed back if the statement is not completed “either deliberately or by missing the deadline”.
Now, several days after the initial planned deadline, the DfE has said there will be an extension to Friday 30 September.
No reason has been given for the extension, though the previous deadline fell during the mourning period following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
In April, union leaders warned that schools face being forced to return cash after being handed the bulk of the money late in the academic year.
Earlier this year, the deadline for using the school-led cash was extended to the end of the summer holidays.
But Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said at the time that while schools would “appreciate” being told they could use catch-up cash to fund extra sessions over the summer break, the “reality” was that holiday commitments and a lack of desire among pupils to commit to summer classes “may present difficulties arranging extra sessions for those happy to go ahead”.
This academic year, all £349 million for the NTP will go directly to schools as part of a shake-up of the programme, unveiled in March.
