Union leaders have criticised a government decision to subject dozens of schools to an audit to establish how National Tutoring Programme (NTP) catch-up funding has been spent.
Tes can reveal that dozens of schools have been told just days before the Christmas holidays that they face a visit by the ESFA early in the new year.
They will be asked to produce evidence to support the end-of-year statements they submitted to show how they spent their catch-up funding allocation last year.
A headteacher at one of the 40 schools chosen has described the process as “a joke” and warned that the exercise will cost more in staff time than the school spent on catch-up funding last year.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that it would add “woefully” to the workload of school finance staff who are already dealing with soaring energy costs and unfunded staff pay rises.
A headteacher whose school is facing this audit and who asked to remain anonymous said: ”This does add a degree of stress for coming back to work in January and I still just can’t believe the point of it for such a tiny sum.
“The cost of me, my business manager, the auditor and their teams’ work will far exceed this - it’s a joke.”
The audit relates to school-led tutoring, which has become the most well used part of the government’s NTP.
It sees tuition sorted directly by schools that can use grant funding to either employ their own staff to carry out this work or to source external tutors.
Earlier this year, school leaders had to fill in a year-end statement outlining how they used school-led tutoring money in 2021-22.
The Department for Education said at the time that any unused cash would be recovered.
The DfE believes that it is now important to test a sample of these year-end statements to ensure funds have been used for the purpose they were intended.
It has selected a sample of 40 schools that submitted funding claims through the end-of-year statement and will carry out reviews in the first quarter of the year.
Tes understands that the ESFA audit will involve selecting a sample of pupils who received tuition and asking schools to explain why they were selected.
Schools will also be asked to provide attendance records to show the hours of tuition they received and to produce evidence of the costs incurred.
Mr Barton said: ”The whole sorry tutoring saga has been a textbook lesson in how to take a good idea and then undermine it through stifling government bureaucracy.
“We understand the need for transparent and robust accountability to ensure public money is being used in a responsible manner, but it has to be proportionate.
“Finance professionals in schools are under sustained workload pressure and are having to manage rising energy costs and unfunded pay awards.”
Mr Barton said the NTP had been characterised by “Byzantine complexity” from the start.
He added: “This latest review will inevitably place an extra burden on leaders and business managers from the schools selected, adding woefully to their workload, and reinforcing a sense that the DfE thinks it always knows best.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Over £1 billion has been invested into the NTP to support schools to deliver tutoring and help pupils to catch up on learning following the pandemic.
“To ensure that public funds are being spent appropriately, a very small number of schools have been selected by the ESFA to have their data quality assured.
“We will work with these schools in the new year to agree a date for each review that works best for them, and which minimises overall disruption.”
