Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his Department's policy to continue to fund the core salary of academic mentors beyond 31 July 2021.

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) was developed at speed to respond to a very immediate need to support pupils to catch up on education lost because of restrictions to schools and colleges. The programme has deployed academic mentors to provide tailored support to schools, including subject specific work, revision lessons, and additional support available outside of schools. Since October 2020, academic mentors have provided significant support to young people to catch up on lost education. The programme has reached over 60,000 pupils in the most disadvantaged schools through placement of academic mentors.

In year one of the programme, schools received funding to cover the core salary of academic mentors between October 2020 and 31 July 2021. Where mentors had made agreements with schools to continue delivery over the summer holidays, arrangements were made for them also to receive a payment to cover August 2021.

Next academic year, mentor contracts will run until the end of August as standard to bring consistency between mentors and others in the school community.

Applications are now open for individuals interested in becoming an academic mentor in the academic year 2021/22. Further information is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/ntp-academic-mentors/application-process and here https://tuitionhub.nationaltutoring.org.uk/NTP/s/ntp-academic-mentor-registration.