Teach First is to be paid by Randstad, the new national tutoring provider, for advice on how best to support schools serving disadvantaged communities as part of a government agreement.
Schools Week can also reveal that Liverpool Hope University is expected to provide the training for the academic mentors arm of the National Tutoring Programme next year.
This year, Teach First ran academic mentors as part of a £6.4 million contract, providing all the training in-house. The Department for Education paid the mentors’ salaries.
The charity was listed as a subcontractor on the unsuccessful bid for the second year of the NTP by the National Tutoring Foundation, sources said.
But a DfE press release said Randstad would be “supported” by Teach First to “ensure the programme is successfully set up for effective delivery and continuous improvement” in the next academic year.
Charity ‘well placed’ to provide tutoring support
Teach First told Schools Week that it was “well placed” to provide advice on setting up the next phase of the programme until at least Christmas. But it will “continue to provide advice and guidance when needed beyond this date, as part of the agreement”.
A contract is still to be signed. Teach First said it would receive “a fee from Randstad to cover the time and resource the charity is providing” but did not reveal its amount, citing commercial sensitivities.
The Education Endowment Foundation, which is currently running the tuition partners arm, confirmed it is providing transition support but will not receive a fee.
Randstad, a multinational HR firm which won a £25 million government contract to run the NTP next year, did not respond to a request for comment. A Liverpool Hope spokesperson was “unable to respond at this time as we are not yet under contract for this work”.
A Teach First spokesperson said: “We absolutely want this programme to succeed and are providing transitional advice and guidance to Randstad for a short period of time around how to best support schools serving disadvantaged communities.”
Wouldn’t it have been better to have contracted out the programme to a company with relevant experience? Or better skill, scrap this sticking plaster scheme and fund schools properly.