Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will set out the reasons for the Infrastructure and Projects Agency's red rating of delivery of the National Tutoring Programme in 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 NTP is an ambitious scheme that supports schools to access 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. In the longer term, we aim to stimulate a well-functioning and sustainable tutoring market, offering high quality tutoring across the country.

Since the programme launched in November 2020, over 240,000 pupils have enrolled on the NTP, and over 195,000 have now commenced tutoring. This is in addition to over 1,000 academic mentors that have been placed in our most disadvantaged schools to provide tuition to pupils that need the most help to catch up.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) undertook a full review of the NTP on 1 March 2021. Nine recommendations were made, including more dedicated resourcing with relevant skills, longer term planning and more direct engagement with the sector.

The IPA carried out a review focused on progress against the recommendations at the end of April 2021, and found that progress had been made. Based on these findings, the review team rated the programme Amber.

A further review is planned for August 2021, focusing on readiness for launch of the Core NTP programme in academic year 2021-22 and progress on the expansion of the programme through school-led tutoring.