Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money his Department (a) budgeted for this financial year and (b) has spent to date on social media advertising for the National Tutoring Programme; on what date that advertising expenditure commenced; and if he will make an estimate of the (i) average spend per day and (ii) daily cost per click of that advertising expenditure.

Since the National Tutoring Programme began in November 2020, over one million courses have started, and the programme remains on track to achieve the ambitious target of delivering two million high quality tuition courses this academic year.

All programme costs are included as part of the £1.1 billion investment in the National Tutoring Programme. All key information about the programme is communicated to schools and the public using a range of media, including social media.

£150,000 is allocated for year 2 of the National Tutoring Programme on all communications activities. Paid-for marketing includes a mixture of digital advertising, social media, public relations and events. £95,000 of the £150,000 has been spent to date.

Independent evaluations of the programme are being carried out, which will focus on pupil progress and also look at school and teacher impacts and explore reasons for non-participation. Separately, we regularly evaluate the awareness of the programme with teachers and parents.