The government will spend £1.4 billion on tutoring pupils and training teachers as part of its Covid education recovery plan, it was announced today.

£1 billion is to be spent on supporting up to 6 million tutoring courses for disadvantaged school children over the next three years, and £400 million will be invested in training and supporting teachers.

However as Tes revealed on Sunday, the new announcement represents only a fraction of the £15bn which the Department for Education and Downing Street had been hoping to secure from the Treasury and does not include extending the school day which was expected to be central to its plans.

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Education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins warned today that “supporting every child to get back on track will require a sustained and comprehensive programme of support” and more investment “will be needed to meet the scale of the challenge”.

Yesterday, the £15 billion catch-up plan he would have liked to have seen was leaked in an apparent to force the Treasury’s hand.

The DfE said today that the next stage of its plans will include “a review of time spent in school and college and the impact this could have on helping children and young people to catch up”.

It said the findings of this will be set out later in the year to inform the government spending review. But sources have pointed out that backers of the extended school day will still have to persuade the Treasury to change its mind, with the levelling up agenda competing for cash.  

Just over half of the £1 billion announced for tutoring today will not go to the National Tutoring Programme, but directly to schools to develop their own tutoring using new or existing staff.

The DfE has also announced today that Randstad will be the new supplier of the National Tutoring Programme from September 2021, supported by Teach First.

The funding announced today comes on top of the £1.7 billion that the government had already announced to help children catch up on what they missed during the pandemic. 

Tes revealed last month that almost a quarter of this earlier Covid catch-up funding package was actually recycled from existing budgets.

Today’s funding package includes:

• £153 million for training for early years staff to support the very youngest children’s learning and development. This will involve new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language.
• £69 million to extend the rollout of the Early Career Framework reforms for teacher training in the first two years after qualification. Teachers in their first year after qualifying already have funded time off timetable to access this training, which will be extended to second year teachers from this September - a year earlier than previously planned. A further £32 million cost of this will be met through existing schools budgets.
• £184 million of new funding for middle and late-career national professional qualifications. The existing NPQs in senior leadership, headship and executive leadership have also been refreshed and will begin to be delivered from September.
• £218 million of the additional £1 billion for tutoring will be directed through the NTP. This is on top of the £215 million already planned to be invested in the 2021-22 academic year.
• £579 million will fund schools to develop local tutoring provision using new or existing school staff. Schools will be funded based on their pupil premium allocations.
• £222 million will fund an extension to the existing 16-19 tutoring programme, expected to deliver around 700,000 courses each year.
• As has been previously announced, every state school with a reception class in England can already apply for training and resources through the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, to help improve children’s early language, communication and speech skills.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said: “Young people have sacrificed so much over the last year and as we build back from the pandemic, we must make sure that no child is left behind.

“This next step in our long-term catch up plan should give parents confidence that we will do everything we can to support children who have fallen behind and that every child will have the skills and knowledge they need to fulfil their potential.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “This is the third major package of catch-up funding in twelve months and demonstrates that we are taking a long-term, evidence-based approach to help children of all ages. 

“I am incredibly proud it recognises the efforts and dedication of our teachers who are at the forefront of children’s recovery - making sure every teacher has the opportunity to access world-leading training, giving them the skills and tools to help every child they work with to fulfil their potential.

“The package will not just go a long way to boost children’s learning in the wake of the disruption caused by the pandemic but also help bring back down the attainment gap that we’ve been working to eradicate.”

Sir Kevan said:  “The pandemic has caused a huge disruption to the lives of England’s children.

“Supporting every child to get back on track will require a sustained and comprehensive programme of support.

“The investments in teaching quality and tutoring announced today offer evidence-based support to a significant number of our children and teachers. But more will be needed to meet the scale of the challenge.”