Cross-party MPs, including Commons Education Select Committee chair Robin Walker, write to the chancellor ahead of spring Budget calling for ‘life-changing’ tutoring cash to continue
A group of cross-party MPs, including the chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, have written to the chancellor adding their voices to calls to extend tutoring cash.
The letter to Jeremy Hunt, sent this morning, is signed by Conservative MPs Robin Walker and Simon Fell, along with Liberal Democrats education spokesperson Munira Wilson and Labour MPs Cat Smith and Stephen Timms.
The MPs are asking the chancellor to use the spring Budget on 6 March to extend the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and the 16-19 Tuition Fund, which are both slated to end this academic year.
In response to previous calls for tutoring cash to be extended, the Department for Education has said it will continue to support tutoring through pupil premium funding.
Pupil premium is ‘already well used’
Former schools minister Mr Walker told Tes: “The difficulty in the government’s position is that pupil premium is already well used.
“I’m not sure there is sufficient space in the pupil premium to support tutoring becoming part of the system.”
Previous reviews of the NTP have found that most school leaders say they would be unlikely to afford to carry on tutoring once the government subsidy is removed.
“As members of Parliament, we represent different parts of the country, but each of us have heard first-hand the difficulties that schools, parents and young people are facing across the nation,” the cross-party letter reads.
“The pandemic has cast a long shadow across children and young people and we are proud that tutoring has played a significant role in Covid catch up.”
The signatories said that speaking to school leaders and tutoring organisations has shown them removing funding at the end of the year will have a “significant and highly detrimental impact” on the tutoring infrastructure created over the past few years.
“I’m sure some schools will continue to use pupil premium funding towards it, but it will be on a small scale,” added Mr Walker.
“The infrastructure would wither away and that would be a missed opportunity.”
Benefits of the NTP
A review of the second year of the programme, when it was delivered by Dutch outsourcing firm Randstad, found small benefits - around one month of additional progress when the tutoring was school-led.
Mr Walker pointed out to Tes today that changes were made to the NTP after he was questioned about its shortcomings at the Commons Education Select Committee when appearing there as schools minister in March 2022.
By 2022-23, the funding went directly to schools so they could decide how best to spend it.
“It’s a good example of us listening and learning, and I hope that the chancellor will be doing the same,” he told Tes.
Analysis by consultancy Public First estimated the NTP would eventually lead to 390,000-grade improvements in English and maths across two years of the scheme.
The subsidy for the NTP has gradually reduced in value, from 75 per cent in the scheme’s first year in 2020-21 to 50 per cent this year.
It was reported earlier this month that there was unlikely to be additional funding for tutoring in the budget, which unions and leaders from across the sector said would be a “national travesty”.
“Post-pandemic, we want to see tutoring be available to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds if they have fallen behind that is available to their more affluent peers,” Ms Wilson told Tes.
She added: “Schools are really struggling in terms of budgets so there’s no way they’re going to be able to continue when the funding runs out. They need clarity now so they can plan.
“Ultimately, more disadvantaged pupils will lose out if they don’t extend it.”
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