Two-thirds of pupils allocated places on the government’s Covid catch-up tutoring scheme had still not started the sessions last month, a new report reveals.

And demand for “academic mentors”, who were trained by Teach First and placed in disadvantaged schools to help with the Covid recovery effort, has “outstripped supply”, with 39 per cent of schools requesting them going without, according to new findings from the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO’s report, published today, examines support for children’s education during the early stages of the pandemic and analyses the progress of the government-funded National Tutoring Programme (NTP).

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The report finds that, under the “tuition partners” arm of the scheme - which involves pairing pupils up with approved providers offering subsidised catch-up sessions - only a third of children identified as needing support had begun their tuition by last month.

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Of the 125,200 pupils allocated a tutoring place by February, just 41,400 (33 per cent) had started catch-up sessions, according to the report.

The NTP has said it hopes the subsidised tutoring will reach 250,000 pupils by the end of the academic year.

But Tes previously revealed that this only represents a small fraction of disadvantaged children in England.

The report states: “The department expected the tuition partners scheme, announced in June 2020, to reach between 200,000 and 250,000 children. At February 2021, 125,200 children had been allocated a tutoring place across 3,984 schools.

“Of the 125,200 children allocated a tutoring place, 41,100 had started to receive tuition.”

Demand for the “academic mentors” arm of the scheme has also “outstripped supply”, the NAO found.

Academic mentors were trained by Teach First to work in schools with disadvantaged pupils, with the intention of helping those most affected by the Covid disruption.

Schools in disadvantaged areas across the country were told they could have up to two mentors each to assist with the education recovery effort.

But the NAO found that more than 600 schools that requested a mentor have not received one.

The report states: “The scheme was expected to place between 1,000 and 1,200 mentors in disadvantaged schools.

“At January 2021, Teach First had received requests for mentors from 1,789 eligible schools (based on a maximum of two mentors per school). Academic mentors were placed in schools in three tranches in October 2020 and January and February 2021.

“In total around 1,100 mentors were placed across 1,100 schools, meaning more than 600 schools that requested a mentor have not received one.”

It adds: “Teach First told us that, where it is unable to match a mentor to an eligible school, it works with the tuition partners scheme to explore alternative support. Stakeholders have raised concerns that, with most mentors not placed in schools until the spring term, there will not be enough time for them to have sufficient impact.”

A spokesperson for the NTP said: “The NTP is committed to making sure high-quality tutoring is available to schools to help their pupils whose education has been most affected by school closures.

“All state schools in England are eligible to access support through NTP Tuition Partners. Through our 33 tuition partners, we have enrolled more than 150,000 children and are on track to reach the target of 250,000 by the end of the academic year.”

A spokesperson for Teach First said: “Our target was to recruit a minimum of 1,000 academic mentors exclusively for schools serving disadvantaged communities and we recruited over 1,100.

“We’re pleased to have contributed to helping to accelerate the learning of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through this programme.

“We trust schools to allocate the mentors to the children who need it most, but we know the scale of lost learning means a long-term recovery plan, spanning multiple years, is needed to ensure no child is left behind as a result of this pandemic.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “This pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to all areas of life, but we have acted swiftly at every turn to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provide extensive support for schools, colleges and early years settings.

“Schools have been open to vulnerable pupils throughout the pandemic, and getting all children back into the classroom - as they are now - has been the department’s number one priority during the periods of national lockdown.

“We have invested over £2 billion into schemes to provide pupils with devices for remote education and ambitious catch-up plans - with funding targeted at disadvantaged children and young people who need support the most.”