Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the ability of schools to access the national tutoring programme.

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help to catch up.

Through the NTP programme for 5-16 year olds, schools will be able to access high quality, subsidised tuition from approved tuition partners. Schools in the most disadvantaged areas will be supported to employ in-house academic mentors to provide tuition to their pupils. The NTP has not gone live yet so the Department does not have figures on the number of pupils who have accessed it. It is expected that the first group of tutors will be supporting schools from November, with provision continuing into the spring term. Further information on the processes for delivering and accessing tuition support is set out here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs.

NTP funding will also be used to provide additional targeted early language and literacy support for reception classes. The Department is inviting applications from all state-funded schools with a reception class, with priority given to those with a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals. The application deadline is 30 October 2020. Participating schools will begin delivering to children from January 2021.

The Department is also providing funding to support small group tuition for 16-19 year olds, in English, maths and other courses where education has been disrupted as a result of COVID-19. The 16-19 tuition fund is a one-off, ring-fenced grant available to school sixth forms, colleges and all other 16-19 providers.