Education Recovery

Debate between Baroness Berridge and Baroness Donaghy

Tuesday 8th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

I understand that the noble Baroness, Lady Wyld, has withdrawn, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab) [V]]

The Secretary of State has laid great emphasis on a tutoring revolution. He seemed to link the review of school hours with the spending round, almost as though he was planning a battle with teachers instead of working with them. I hope the Minister can assure us that that is not the case. Surely it would be more productive to concentrate on core funding of a whole school environment, including exercise, extra tutoring and socialisation, instead of the current unhealthy relationship, where limited conditional funding is doled out as if in a master/servant relationship. How will we know what success looks like in the tutoring programme? What measure of independence will there be in that judgment?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

I assure the noble Baroness that there is absolutely no intention to have a battle with teachers at all. It is children first and foremost who we all need to focus on at the moment, as well as the well-being of the workforce in schools. As I outlined, much of the money has been given to schools so that it is part of their core schools budget, such as the £650 million we have given and the second tranche of £302 million, which was recovery premium money. They have the flexibility to spend on the array of activities.

On the tutoring programme, through the Renaissance Learning work we are monitoring where students are at in their learning. The contract was properly procured, and it is a sign of good management that we put it out to the market and have saved substantial money on that section of the contract. As the noble Baroness will be aware, there will be no school performance data, but that data will be available to the department and to Ofsted. We will of course track very carefully what the outcome of the tutoring programme is in relation to how much schools buy and the impact it has. I will ensure that the noble Baroness is aware of any publicly distributed data in that regard.

Education Recovery

Debate between Baroness Berridge and Baroness Donaghy

Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

The noble Baroness is correct that family hubs have delivered well. The Government are investing £14 million and we have just finished a procurement for the National Centre for Family Hubs to ensure that best practice is spread across local authorities. These hubs should bring together charitable as well as statutory services, ranging from birth through to 18 or 19 years old, so they should provide the support that families need.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab) [V]]

The Minister knows that this is a mess. When Conservative MPs met the Prime Minister’s PPS and two Education Ministers, they were told that

“there has been a big mess-up over the last few days for no reason.”

So there is a revolt in the Conservative ranks. What process took place that made the choice of Randstad preferable to the National Tutoring Foundation, which was set up by the Education Endowment Foundation? Sir Kevan Collins himself was briefly CEO of that foundation. If the Government are not prepared to pay up or trust schools, how will they ensure that the children most disadvantaged by lockdown will be helped?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, as is required, the department ran a commercial procurement for the next years of the national tutoring programme. Randstad won that procurement, so a contract has been signed. But schools are trusted; that is why, as a development of the tutoring fund, £579 million will be going to schools themselves. Schools might want to employ a local tutor or use existing staff; particularly for those with special educational needs, using staff that pupils have an existing relationship with is often of great benefit to those students as well as others.