Department for Education: Randstad

(asked on 31st March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 31 March 2022, HCWS755 on Education Update, on what date the decision was taken not to renew the contract held with Randstad beyond its initial contract term.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 21st April 2022

As of 13 March 2022, the National Tutoring Programme has delivered just under 1.2 million tuition course starts. This has been driven by the successful introduction of school-led tutoring, which is proving popular among schools. The latest statistical release on 31 March 2022 showed that 76% of tutoring in the 2021/22 academic year is being delivered through this route.

The department has concluded that a new approach is required for next year. This is based on government learning from school-led tutoring and wider feedback from schools asking for more freedom and flexibility to deliver tutoring.

On 31 March 2022, the department announced that all tutoring funding for the 2022/23 academic year will go directly to schools. This will simplify the system and increase flexibility for schools to decide how best to provide tutoring for their children. The department announced the launch of procurement activity in mid-April to appoint one or more delivery partners for the 2022/23 academic year and the 2023/24 academic year. The delivery partner(s) will be responsible for quality assurance of tuition partners, recruiting and deploying Academic Mentors, and offering training.

Independent evaluations are being conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) for both year one and two of the programme’s Tuition partner and Academic Mentor routes. The department expects results from the year one evaluation to be published in Autumn 2022.This will include insights into how the programme has been implemented and the impact on pupil progress. Interim findings are being shared with the department so that ongoing evaluation can inform policy making. The year two evaluation of the Tuition partner and Academic Mentor routes focuses on pupil progress, school and teacher impacts, and reasons for non-participation.

In addition to the evaluation of the Tuition partner and Academic Mentor routes, school-led tutoring is being evaluated by the NFER. It is looking at the impact of school-led tutoring on pupil attainment outcomes. Its report will also look at how schools have chosen to spend the grant, how successfully training has supported tutoring, the perceived benefits of the school-led tutoring grant and how it could be improved in the future. The year two reports will be published in 2023. These will include an estimate of the number of tutors participating in school-led tutoring and the proportion of those with qualified teacher status.

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