Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 24
24
Accepted
Department expects schools to fund tutoring from mainstream budgets, citing overall funding increases.
Conclusion
We asked the Department how, as the level of subsidy reduced, schools would be able to meet the cost of continuing to participate in the National Tutoring Programme. The Department told us that it had always been clear that the subsidy would taper and, if tutoring was to become a normal and embedded part of the school system as the Department intended, it would have to be funded increasingly through mainstream school budgets. It assured us that it wanted schools to be sufficiently funded to do all the things they needed to do for their pupils, and that overall school funding in the current year was going up by something in the order of £4 billion.49
Government Response Summary
The government has set the National Tutoring Programme subsidy rate for 2023-24 at 50% to make it more deliverable for schools, allowing them to meet costs with less of their own money. It also continues to monitor tutoring volumes and is developing further interventions.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with Committee’s recommendation [PAC Rec 4]. Target implementation date: December 2024. The department agrees that it is important to monitor the volume of tutoring that schools are providing, which is why schools are asked to report on tutoring via the termly school census and a bespoke year-end statement. This monitors the number of pupils receiving tutoring, the number of hours delivered, and schools spend on tutoring overall. The department is developing interventions that may be deployed, as appropriate, in academic year 2023-24 or in subsequent years, should there be a significant reduction in the amount of tutoring schools provide. Furthermore, 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.