The Minister for School Standards (Mr Robin Walker)
This update presents the latest performance data for the national tutoring programme that the Government have published today.
On 31 March, I announced that almost 1.2 million courses had been started by pupils through the programme since its inception in November 2020. I am now pleased to advise the House that our latest estimates show that, up to 8 May, 1.5 million courses have now started. This represents solid progress towards the Government’s ambitious target of delivering up to 6 million courses by the end of the academic year 2023-24. 900,000 of the 1.2 million courses started this year are being delivered through the school-led option by schools using grant funding directly allocated to them.
On 31 March, we also announced that from the next academic year we would allocate all funding for tutoring directly to schools. Procurement is currently under way for three new contracts to support schools to engage well-trained, high-quality tutors. The delivery partner(s) who will be selected through three open, competitive exercises will be responsible for quality assurance, offering training and recruiting, and deploying academic mentors. The procurement closed on 23 May. We will communicate full details of next year’s programme to schools in June and we will announce the successful applicant(s) in mid-July, so that delivery can commence at speed from the start of September. I will update the House on the successful applications in a future written ministerial statement.
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