Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure former teachers that are not registered with a teaching agency are able to participate in the Government’s 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 have been hardest hit from disruption to their education as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

There is extensive evidence that tutoring, by trained tutors who may or may not be qualified teachers, is one of the most effective ways to accelerate pupil progress, can lead to positive impacts and can boost catch up for lost teaching time by much as 3 to 5 months.

High quality tuition is one of the fundamental principles of the NTP, and the Department has worked closely with delivery partners to ensure it can be delivered across the programme.

Whilst we recognise that the education and experience of tutors is important to the delivery of high quality tuition, even tutors with relevant qualifications will require training to ensure that delivery is in line with the model offered by the Tuition Partners’ pillar of the NTP.

Opportunities to become a NTP tutor are available through approved Tuition Partners who are responsible for recruiting, training, and deploying tutors. Further information on each of our tuition partners can be found here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/ntp-tuition-partners/ntp-approved-tuition-partners.