The government is to shift £65 million in catch-up cash to the school-led tuition route of the National Tutoring Programme, from the academic mentor and tuition partner pillars, the education secretary has announced today.
Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) annual conference this morning, Nadhim Zahawi said that, of the estimated 1 million courses started since the beginning of the programme, around 532,000 were provided through the school-led tutoring route.
The move comes after the Randstad-led tuition partners and academic mentors strands of the government’s catch-up effort were heavily criticised in a report from the Commons Education Select Committee this week.
This school tutoring route provides funding directly to schools, giving them greater flexibility to source their own tutors, whether external or staff already working in the school.
The Department for Education said the move would give more schools “the autonomy and support to deliver high-quality tutoring to as many children and young people as possible”.
More NTP catch-up cash going directly to schools
At the same time, the DfE said that schools working with tuition partners can now use their discretion when determining group sizes, with a cap of up to 1:6 allowed when needed.
In newly released statistics today, the DfE said that an estimated 532,000 courses, of the 1 million starts on the programme, have been through the school-led route.
The figures show 114,000 courses have been started by pupils through tuition partners, while an estimated 74,000 pupils have started packages through the academic mentor pillar.
Speaking at the conference today, Mr Zahawi said: “It’s important to step back and look at what we’ve achieved with the National Tutoring Programme. Tutoring used to be something that was the preserve of only a fortunate few.
“Thanks to this government, today it’s benefitting all children who want it and need it, from Bristol to Blackpool and Newquay to Newcastle, helping them realise their potential.
“I am proud to announce that more than 1 million tutoring courses have been delivered since we rolled out this programme last year.
“I hope you will agree with me that what we are doing together on tutoring is an invaluable addition to our education system, and I am continuing to look at how we can make sure it is having as big an impact as possible.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said it “had always made perfect sense” for schools to deliver catch-up tuition as “school leaders and teachers know their students better than anyone and can address their individual needs more effectively”.
“It has taken far too long for the government to recognise this fact but it has got there in the end. The £65 million extra funding announced today will help schools roll out the support that so many children and young people need to recover after two years of learning blighted by the pandemic.”
The news comes after a report released by the Commons Education Select Committee yesterday said that the DfE needs to step away from the “spaghetti junction of funding” for its education recovery programmes and give cash directly to schools.
The report said that the current funding set-up for the government’s catch-up programmes has, at times, “been challenging for schools to navigate or use to their best advantage”.
Last year, Tes revealed that just 8 per cent of the 524,000 pupils the government aims to reach with its flagship Covid catch-up tutoring programme in 2021-22 have started their tuition - a third of the way through the school year.
