Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Accepted
Department actively persuades reluctant schools to engage with National Tutoring Programme.
Conclusion
The Department said there were a range of different reasons for why schools chose to engage with tutoring; some would be about their view of the value of tutoring and some would be about the process of engaging people to do tutoring. It told us that it was seeking to reduce the number of schools that had not engaged with the National Tutoring Programme and was putting a good deal of resource into persuading those schools of the benefits of tutoring, through contacting them directly and through identifying what had worked well.41
Government Response Summary
The government has simplified the National Tutoring Programme, provided funding directly to schools, and increased the subsidy rate for 2023-24 to 50% to reduce barriers to participation. It is also using administrative data and evaluation to understand why some schools do not engage.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: August 2024 3.2 The government is committed to narrowing the attainment gap and improving outcomes for the most disadvantaged in society. 3.3 Informed by evaluation of the first two years of the scheme, on 31 March 2022 the department announced plans to simplify the programme for academic year 2022-23. This has seen the department provide £349 million of core tutoring funding directly to schools and give them the freedom to decide how best to provide tutoring for their pupils. Schools welcomed these changes, and the same model of providing funding directly to schools will apply in academic year 2023-24. This will see the department provide £150 million to schools, bringing total spend on tutoring over the duration of the programme to £1 billion. 3.4 The department is always interested in understanding more about the barriers to participating in the National Tutoring Programme. The department is using administrative data to look further into the characteristics of schools that have not engaged. The department will continue to use evaluation information in academic year 2023-24 to understand barriers to participation. 3.5 Various evidence, including the regular School and College Panel survey, has indicated that schools report funding as overwhelmingly the largest barrier to continuing to deliver tutoring. Having listened to schools’ concerns over the 25% subsidy rate previously communicated, the department has set the subsidy rate for the academic year 2023-24 at 50% to make the programme more deliverable for schools. This means that schools now need to contribute less of their own money than originally planned. The department nevertheless recognises that funding can be challenging for schools. To meet their costs when providing tutoring, schools will be able to continue to use funding streams like the Pupil Premium, which will rise to almost £2.9 billion in 2023-24.