The education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has written to headteachers “strongly” urging them to take up the government’s flagship tutoring programme.
The news comes after Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, suggested that the government should break its contract with Randstad, the company contracted to run the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).
Mr Zahawi wrote to heads saying he would “strongly urge” them to take up the “range of NTP support and maximise the opportunities available to you to support those pupils that need the most additional help”.
He added that tutoring helped build pupils’ “resilience and confidence” and that “we need every school to use this offer to its fullest extent to focus on the most effective approaches”.
Randstad has previously been criticised for providing an unwieldy online platform for schools to use to book tutoring.
But Mr Zahawi said: “We are constantly improving our systems and have recently made amends to the sign up process to reduce the admin required for schools.”
“Our hope is to create a new and permanent element of the school system, providing those children who need it most with an opportunity which has hitherto been available to only the few. I’m grateful for your support in realising that ambition.”
The news comes after Mr Halfon said that the government should “seriously consider” breaking its contract with Randstad.
Writing for the website Conservative Home, Mr Halfon said that while upwards of 96 per cent of schools in the South had engaged with the NTP, just 50 per cent of schools in the North had engaged with it.
In January, the education committee heard concerns from some headteachers that catch-up tutors provided by Randstad were “inconsistent” in quality and not always “very good with children”.
In December 2021, Nick Bent, CEO of the Tutor Trust, one of the partners delivering tutoring in schools under Randstad, told MPs that Randstad did not “have enough staff or the right expertise” and there were “problems” with the tuition hub.
“There are huge problems with the technology hub that is meant to organise all of the tutoring and some of us are still refusing to use that tuition hub because it’s so dysfunctional,” he added.
A spokesperson for Randstad said: “Over 300,000 packages of support were delivered to pupils through the National Tutoring Programme in the first term of the academic year, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to closing the gap on lost learning.
“We continue to work at pace to deliver the National Tutoring Programme, supporting those pupils whose education has been most impacted by the pandemic.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We’re not surprised that education secretary Nadhim Zahawi is now resorting to entreaties to get schools to sign up to the National Tutoring Programme.
“The problem is that the concept is inherently flawed. The logistics of arranging sessions and briefing private tutors is challenging, and many schools decide they prefer to use their own staff, who already know their students and their needs.
“However, the government has ploughed considerable public money and political capital into the National Tutoring Programme and is now left desperately trying to make it work.”
