Over 4 in 10 schools snub tutoring in final year of subsidies

More than four in ten schools snubbed the National Tutoring Programme this year, new data suggests, likely halving the number of pupils getting support as the government prepares to withdraw subsidies.

Department for Education data published this morning shows 57.8 per cent of schools had participated in the NTP between last September and May this year. That compares to 76 per cent at the same point in the previous academic year.

Overall, 968,968 courses had been started as of mid-May, less than half of the 2,142,822 started in the last academic year overall.

It would have left the scheme with just two months to begin 362,000 courses in order to meet the government’s overall target of six million over the course of the programme, which was quietly abandoned last year.

As of January this year, 47.8 per cent of pupils receiving tutoring were known to have been eligible for free school meals during the previous six years, far below the government’s original target of 65 per cent.

Schools must fund tutoring themselves next year

This academic year is the last in which schools will receive subsidies from government to provide tutoring, and the amount leaders had to find from their own budgets rose from 40 to 50 per cent.

It emerged earlier this year that ministers had clawed back £134 million in unspent tutoring money from schools last year – and agreed with Treasury bosses to keep the cash to fund the teacher pay grant.

Today’s statistics suggest a further clawback is likely, with the DfE still seeking money to fund the pay rise in the next academic year, and a rumoured 5.5 per cent rise recommended for September.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT leaders’ union, said many schools faced “severe financial pressures, so it is not surprising that fewer schools were able to run the National Tutoring Programme after the last government cut its subsidy”.

“While the National Tutoring Programme has not been perfect, it undoubtedly provided many schools with funding which made a real difference to pupils whose learning was harmed by the pandemic.”

He added that it was “critical” that the funding attached to the programme “is not lost to the system – especially after a decade in which the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children has widened”.