Success of National Tutoring Programme threatened by funding shortage
Amrit Virdi
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is tackling the attainment gap but a lack of funding threatens its long-term future, an evaluation from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has found.
The NFER, which carried out an evaluation of the NTP’s third year, found that the majority of senior leaders were concerned that NTP provision may have to stop if funding for the programme is reduced or scrapped. For 2023/24, the subsidy from government for the NTP reduced from 60 to 50 per cent and arrangements for next year are still to be confirmed.
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The pupil premium and the main school budget were the most common funding sources contributing to NTP running costs.
In addition, 85 per cent of schools delivered tutoring themselves, with 64 per cent of leaders saying pupil premium eligibility was a factor for pupil selection and 73 per cent saying special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) was a key consideration.
The survey highlighted that the NTP is helping to close the attainment gap. The Department for Education advises that courses for tutoring should be 12-15 hours long to have a meaningful impact on pupil attainment, and 43 per cent of course lengths in the survey were 10-15 hours.
Schools were satisfied with the quality of provision, the alignment to the curriculum, and the flexibility of delivery provided by the programme.
School leaders said that the one-to-one and small group nature of tutoring resulted in visible improvements in pupils’ confidence, progress and attainment.
Ben Styles, NFER’s head of classroom practice, said: “It is encouraging that most school staff using the NTP were satisfied or very satisfied with how NTP tutoring is aligned with the school curriculum and met pupils’ learning needs.
“However, funding is seen as the biggest challenge for the sustainability of tutoring. The government should explore how financial support can be sustained to allow tutoring to become a permanent support option to help schools close the attainment disadvantage gap.”
Meanwhile, Ofsted has published phase two of its independent review into the government’s tutoring programmes in schools and 16-19 providers. The review found that tutoring was effective in when carried out in small groups, carried out by qualified teachers and aligned with the curriculum.
