Schools have been ordered to submit performance data on how they are spending school-led catch-up tutoring grants from the first week back after half term.
In an email to heads, seen by Tes, the Department for Education said schools will be contacted on Wednesday 3 November to request information about their plans to use the school-led recovery tutoring grant and its delivery so far.
The move comes after Tes revealed last week that heads leaders are warning that most schools will not be able to offer catch-up tutoring to disadvantaged pupils until after Christmas due to late allocation of the funding and training of non-teaching staff not taking place until next month.
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The Department for Education announced last June that the majority of funding for Covid catch-up - £579 million of a total £1.4 billion pot - would go directly to schools to fund local teachers, teaching assistants or tutors to support disadvantaged pupils to recover lost learning in the current academic year 2021-22.
The DfE has now said that schools will be asked for data on a monthly basis showing whether they are currently using the grant to provide tuition, how many pupils have received tuition and how many hours of tuition have been delivered using the grant since the start of the autumn term.
“Collecting this information will help us to understand the rollout of the programme,” the email says.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described the DfE move as “out of touch”.
“If anything shows how out-of-touch the DfE seems around the reality of life in our schools and colleges it was their request this week for schools to include information about their use of the school-led tutoring grant in the ‘educational setting status form’,” he said.
“The original purpose of this form was to ensure the government had essential information in order to help it to manage the pandemic and protect the needs of children.
“That appears to have morphed into a clunky monitoring procedure. Whether and how schools are providing tutoring to pupils feels a long way from attendance issues, and instead feels like unnecessary and ideological micromanagement from the DfE.”
Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, told Tes: “With take-up of school-led tutoring slow, it is understandable why government wants to know how many schools are accessing the funding available.
“However, monthly data drops appear excessive when termly returns might be more informative and less burdensome.
“Many school leaders will see a slippery slope, and will be worried that government may well start making similar demands for data across interventions and activity, distracting their attention from the far more important business of educating children.”
Last week, Mr Brook warned that most schools would not be able to offer catch-up tutoring to disadvantaged pupils until 2022 because of a combination of late training and funding, as well as over-stretched budgets.
“We’re unlikely really to see large numbers of children being tutored on the school-led route this term and unlikely to see an uplift on that until 2022,” he said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are significantly expanding the National Tutoring Programme this year, building on the progress from last year when more than 300,000 children benefited, and giving schools more flexibility to deliver high quality tutoring that helps pupils catch up on missed learning.
“We recognise the importance of not over-burdening schools with regard to data collection, but frequent and up-to-date feedback is vital in helping to shape the National Tutoring Programme, ensuring that it works for both schools and pupils.”
