Schools to take charge of tutoring cash from September

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is to be revised so that all money for tutoring goes directly to schools. As a result Randstad, the outsourcing firm which had been running the scheme, will see its contract end after just one year. The move comes as new figures show that the government is currently falling well short of its targets for NTP participation.

The government estimates that 887,521 tutoring courses have been started since September 2021, against a target of two million courses by the end of the academic year. Meanwhile just one in seven schools have used Randstad-approved tutors via the NTP this year. The latest data also reveals that three quarters of starts on the NTP have been via the school-led tutoring pillar, under which schools arrange their own provision.

This direction of travel is reflected in the changes the Department for Education (DfE) is making. From next year the two tutoring routes which Randstad currently organises - tuition partners and academic mentors - will be organised by schools directly. The DfE will launch a procurement process this month for a new supplier to oversee the scheme, but their role will be much reduced. The new provider will retain responsibility only for quality assurance, recruiting and deploying academic mentors and offering training. Randstad would be able to bid for this new contract if it wished. In a move which may be aimed at maximising the chances of meeting its target of two million courses, the DfE will also allow schools to continue to provide tutoring during the upcoming summer holidays.

In an interview with Schools Week, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the aim of the changes was to ‘simplify’ the scheme, but also steered clear of criticism of Randstad. He suggested the reforms were a result of feedback received from schools, saying: ‘You launch something, you scale it and then you begin to circle back and say, right, how can I refine it? And that’s what we’re doing.’

For Labour, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson was more critical, commenting: ‘The Conservatives’ flagship tutoring programme has failed our children and wasted millions of pounds of public money. The education secretary is finally catching-up but this is too little, too late, for too many children’. Also responding, Dr Mary Bousted,?joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the changes to the NTP need to ‘mark a new approach, where the Department for Education listens more closely to leaders and teachers rather than attempting to run schools from the centre without any regard for input from the profession. School and college leaders know their students and their school community best and know what constraints they have to juggle on staffing, so of course they must be able to deploy the recovery funding.’

Meanwhile, despite its contract stopping after one year of a possible three, Randstad said it welcomed the reforms to the NTP. NTP director Karen Guthrie said they had lobbied ministers ‘for some time to simplify the rules around accessing the programme and standardise the funding and we are pleased that our advice is being implemented for next year. We have always supported the position that schools know best what is needed for their students and welcome the fact the department has recognised this’. She added: ‘We remain committed to the programmes’ principles and its delivery and still have an important job to do for the remainder of this year’.