Catch-up tutoring scheme bound for failure without reforms, experts warn

Youth charity Impetus, a founding partner of the NTP, has published a set of reforms for the new tuition partner’s contractor, Tribal Group, and the Department for Education. 

• National Tutoring Programme: key questions

• How tutors help pupils to progress

The “tweaks” are relatively low cost, both financially and politically, the report states, but they have the potential to make a difference by creating an NTP that is “transformational rather than transactional”. 

NTP has received widespread criticism over its failure to reach its two-year target of delivering support to two million children whose education has been affected by the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

But schools are struggling to find quality tuition and need more support than the NTP is currently providing to make the scheme work, the report states. 

Earlier this month, Impetus welcomed the announcement that from September, schools can only use accredited tuition partners who have met a rigorous set of quality standards and are placed on the DfE’s Find a Tuition Partner service. 

However, teaching unions have accused the department of “cutting corners” over the relaxation of the qualifications for academic mentors recruited to the scheme, who no longer require degree status. 

Impetus believes that for the NTP to work as it was intended, the following measures need to implemented:

• To support schools’ access to quality tuition, the DfE and the Tribal should ensure the availability of programme data so that NTP can better understand which pupils are benefitting from tuition partners; the choices schools are making about how to engage with NTP and create an annual snapshot of the state of the tuition provider market.

• NTP contractors should include a “capacity building” element in their programme - to grow the availability of quality tutoring. NTP “can’t be successful” unless organisations get this support as the underlying availability of quality tuition partners will remain unchanged, the report states.

• Explore higher subsidy rates for higher quality tuition providers - to encourage the take up of the best quality tuition.

Ben Gadsby, head of policy and research at Impetus, and author of the report said: “Tutoring is one of the best-evidenced interventions for supporting young people to make accelerated progress but, two years on, quality tutoring still isn’t available to every school that needs it.

“The National Tutoring Programme has the chance to transform the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. But without better data, and the ability to attract more, higher quality tutors, there is a real risk that this potential will never be met. 

“Our report outlines the steps that the new contractor, along with the Department for Education need to take to make the programme a success, so that all schools can secure the tutoring they want for their pupils.”