Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the value is of each bid received for the National Tutoring Programme contract for academic year 2021-22; and how many pupils are projected to receive tutoring under each of those bids.

The Department has announced that Randstad will be the new supplier of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) from September 2021. They will be supported by Teach First to ensure the programme is successfully set up for effective delivery and continuous improvement in the 2021/22 academic year.

The new £25 million contract with Randstad runs for one year, with the option to extend for two further years. The original values were based on information from year 1, and this bid represents good value for money. The programme aims to reach some 750,000 disadvantaged pupils during the 2021/22 academic year.

The Department followed the open procedure as detailed in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, to ensure a fair and open procurement to select the supplier for the 2021/22 academic year. Tenders were submitted which were then evaluated and independently moderated.

The Department is unable to provide information on the value of each bid and projected profit margins as it is commercially sensitive. We are currently working with Randstad to prepare for next year’s offer and will be able to provide further detail in due course.

The NTP will broadly remain the same into the next academic year. It will continue to operate with both the Tuition Partner and academic mentor pillars with quality approved tuition at its core. The Department has set out the Tutoring Partner Quality Standards and Accreditation Standards which Tutoring Partners will need to meet to be on the panel that schools will draw down from next year.

In addition to the core NTP offer, the Department has announced £579 million of funding will be given to schools to develop local tutoring provision using new or existing school staff. Tutors will be directly employed by schools, and schools will be funded in accordance with their pupil premium allocations.