Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many hours of tutoring each pupil designated as vulnerable can expect to receive from the national tutoring programme in the 2020–21 school year.

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) was announced on 19 June as part of the £1 billion COVID-19 “catch-up” package for schools, and further information was published on 20 July. The programme will enable schools to access high-quality tutoring for disadvantaged pupils at a substantially reduced cost – and it will also give funding to school sixth forms, colleges and other further education providers for small group tuition targeted at disadvantaged students aged 16 to 19 whose studies have been disrupted as a result of COVID-19. Details about the NTP as a whole are available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium.

The element of the NTP for 5 to 16 year olds in state-funded schools in England comprises two parts. The first of these is being developed by the department in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and will enable schools in all regions to access subsidised tuition from an approved list of tuition partners that meet quality, safeguarding and evaluation standards and which will be supported and funded to meet as many disadvantaged pupils as possible. Preliminary information for schools and tutoring organisations that are interested in taking part in this aspect of the NTP is published on the EEF website, available at:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/.

The second part of the programme will support schools in the most disadvantaged communities to employ in-house academic mentors to provide small group tuition to their pupils. Teach First will be responsible for the recruitment and training of the first cohort of academic mentors and their placement in schools from October 2020 onwards, with their salaries being subsidised by the government. Information about this part of the NTP is available at https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/academic-mentors.

The NTP is intended to support disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils to catch up with the education they have missed due to extended school closures. Schools will have the discretion to decide which pupils would benefit from tuition delivered by external tutors, and the number of hours that those pupils would need.

The cost per hour per pupil of implementing the NTP will vary depending on how the tutoring is delivered: whether remotely or face-to-face; in small groups or one-to-one support; and whether the tuition is accessed by schools from tutoring organisations under the NTP or through an academic mentor engaged full-time in the school.