The government has refused to account for £143 million of itsCovid catch-up tutoring fund, after Tesfound the cash hasyet to be assigned.
And the Department for Education will not say whether it is sticking by its original pledge for the money -amounting to 40 per cent of the whole tutoring fund -to benefit pupils this academic year.
Heads have said it “beggars belief” that a“big chunk” of the money has not yet been allocated, and warnsthat there is a “real danger” the benefit of the fund will be lost“the longer ittakes to turn it into tangible support”.
In June, the Department for Education (DfE) and10 Downing Street together launched a billion-pound Covid catch-up plan, including £350 million for a newNational Tutoring Programme (NTP).
Background:£1 billion ‘Covid catch-up plan’ unveiled
Viewpoint:Is the £1bn catch-up more about headlines than pupils?
NTP:No Covid catch-up tutors until second half of next term
The tutoringscheme would “increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people over the 2020-21 academic year”, the government .
However,Tes has established that roughly £143 million of the fund hasyet to be assigned.
And the DfE has refusedto say if it will honour its pledge to provide the full amount of the funding in2020-21.
When asked about the missing £143 million, the departmentwould only say that further details would bereleased following the government’s spending review.
According to , the NTP will comprise of at least threeparts in the 2020-21 academic year, including:
- A5 to 16 programme
- A 16 to 19 fund
- A Reception-year early language programme
Details published by the DfE show the is worth £96 millionand the is worth £9 million.
The remainingis made up oftwo parts: theNTP Tuition Partners,which will allowschools to accessheavily subsidised tuitionfrom alist of approved partners; and the NTP Academic Mentors, which willprovide one-to-one and small-group support fordisadvantaged pupils.
The states that the subsidised tutoring strand is worth £76 million.
Separately, the government granted Teach First £6.44 millionto run the recruitment and training process for the academic mentors.
Teach First is seeking to recruit up to 1,000 mentors, who will, in turn, each receive salaries of £19,000per annum from the government, amounting to £19 million-if every mentor were to work for a year. This brings the total worth of the mentors strand to £25.44m.
Altogether,Tes’ calculations show the NTP isworth £206.44 million. This is £143.56 millionshort of the £350 millionfund assigned to the programme.
When asked to explain where the remainder of the money hasbeen spent, or will be spent, the DfE said Tes’ breakdown of the fund was broadly correct, but did notprovide any more detail.
Instead, it said further information on programmes within the NTP wouldbe set out following the government’s spending review, which will look at budgets for2021-22 to 2023-24.
Asked if that meantthe unassigned £143.56 millionfrom the NTP wouldbe allocated as part of the spending review, the DfE would not provide an answer.
Jules White, headteacher and founder of the WorthLess? school funding campaign,said it was “dispiriting” that the full allocation of the money seemed to be a “mirage”.
“Disadvantaged children have been most adversely affected by the pandemic and as the government continues to set a course for examinations which fails to take into account the current challenges, it is impossible to see why students should be further let down if promised financial support for schools fails to materialise in full,” he said.
“There are also significant reservations about how the National Tutoring Programme will actually work. Yet again, we are weeks into a school term and yet there is no detail about who the tutors will be, how and where they will work and what their skills and specialisms are. Students and schools deserve much, much better.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), added: “We are concerned to learn that a significant sum of money for the National Tutoring Programme has apparently yet to be allocated.
“It is essential that catch-up funding is delivered as quickly as possible so that it can benefit children whose education has been significantly disrupted by the Covid pandemic and who desperately need additional support.
“The length of time it is taking to get the National Tutoring Programme up and running is already a source of frustration, given that it would have been a lot simpler to have just given the money directly to schools.
“It beggars belief if it is the case that a big chunk of the money hasn’t even been assigned yet. There is a real danger that the potential benefit of this funding will be lost the longer it takes to turn it into tangible support.”
A spokespersonfrom theNTPsaid:“The Education Endowment Foundation has been given an initial tranche of money totalling £76 million to establish NTP Tuition Partners in 2020-21. Likewise, Teach First have been given £6.4 million to deliver NTP Academic Mentors, with £19k salaries paid directly to schools by the Department for Education.
“Both 5-16 pillars of the National Tutoring Programme are funded from the government’s £350m allocation to tutoring, through the £1 billioncoronavirus catch-up package.
“The NTP aims to support schools in providing a sustained response to the coronavirus pandemic and to provide a longer-term contribution to closing the attainment gap.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Our £1 billion Covid catch-up package will help to tackle the impact of lost teaching time as a result of the pandemic, including a £650 million catch up premium to help schools support all pupils and £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged students.
“The programme aims to ensure that high-quality tutoring is available in all parts of the country to those disadvantaged children and young people who will need the most support to catch up.”
