Background

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has been developed to support schools across England that have been dealing with the challenges caused as a result of school closures during the coronavirus pandemic. Its aim is to provide additional support to schools to help disadvantaged pupils whose education has been most affected by these school closures. It also intends to provide a longer-term contribution to closing the attainment gap.

The programme launched in November 2020 and was initially funded to provide subsidised tutoring for up to 250,000 pupils. A collaboration of five charities designed and developed the programme - the EEF, Sutton Trust, Impetus, Nesta and Teach First.

Three organisations are currently in place to run the scheme:

  • Tribal Group PLC will deliver quality assurance for the NTP;

  • The Education Development Trust will provide training services to tutors and academic mentors

  • Cognition Education will recruit and deploy academic mentors

The Dfe has confirmed that the academic year 2023/24 is the fourth and final year of the NTP.

Development of the NTP

The programme has evolved since its launch and undergone a number of changes. From the academic year 2022/23, the DfE has confirmed that all the tutoring funding - £349 million - will go directly to schools. The Department has stated that this is to simplify the system and give schools the freedom to decide how best to provide tuition for their pupils.

This will build on the School-led Tutoring route that was introduced for the 2021/22 academic year and was favoured by a number of schools participating in the NTP.

The Tuition Partners and Academic Mentors schemes that have been running since the launch of the programme will continue for 2023/24. More details on the areas of the programme are in the detailed briefing below.

Schools that are currently working with Tuition Partners will be able to continue to do so from September 2022 where the organisation remains on the programme. Similarly, if schools have established their own School-led Tutoring provision, this can continue.

Eligible schools can also continue to employ Academic Mentors who are on their staff this year and will also still be able to recruit Academic Mentors directly.

Current arrangements for 2023/2024

Funding

The funding arrangements for 2023/24 are set out below.

From the outset of the NTP programme, it has been made clear that the subsidy rate will reduce each year. This has been from 75% in 2021-22, with a planned 25% for 2023/24. However, the Government has now confirmed the subsidy rate will in fact be 50%.

State-funded schools with pupils in years 1 to 11 who are eligible for the pupil premium will receive NTP funding. All eligible state-funded schools will receive their NTP funding over the course of the academic year 2023/24. The funding is paid in termly instalments, directly to academies and non-maintained special schools, or to maintained schools via local authorities.

As in previous years of the NTP, schools will need to make up the remainder of the cost using Pupil Premium or other core school budgets.

A new condition that was applicable in 2022/23 remains in place; that the Recovery Grant Premium cannot be used to meet a school’s remaining portion of the costs of tuition provided through the NTP.

The Recovery Grant Premium is explored in more detail in our Education Recovery Package briefing​.

NTP funding can be used to subsidise tuition delivered by one, or a combination of, the programmes’ three established routes set out earlier in this briefing – Tuition Partners, Academic Mentors and School-led tutoring.

For the academic year 2023/24, the following funding for NTP will be provided:

  • mainstream schools: a minimum of £67.50 per PP-eligible pupil;

  • special schools: a minimum of £176.25 per PP-eligible pupil.

Any unspent funding, or funding spent outside of grant conditions, will be recovered by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the academic year 2024/25.

As in previous years of the NTP, the total cost of tutoring should not exceed the maximum hourly per-pupil rate that applies to all NTP tutoring provided, to ensure the cost of tutoring is not excessive.

The hourly per-pupil rates are:

  • mainstream schools: £18 of which the Department for Education (DfE) subsidy will be £9 (50%);

  • special schools: £47 of which the DfE subsidy will be £23.50 (50%).

The DfE recommends schools use Pupil Premium to fund the school’s portion of the tuition cost. Tuition is included in the menu of approaches in the Pupil Premium guidance for school leaders.

The NTP funding allocation can be used to contribute towards on-costs, or employer costs, such as National Insurance and pension contributions. It cannot be used for onboarding costs, such as providing DBS checks or induction training.

Schools must, as in previous years, report how the NTP grant was used in the year-end statement.

The DfE has stated the academic year 2023/24 will be the fourth and final year of the NTP. The department has expressed a desire for tutoring to continue into the long-term and is considering how this can be supported.

Full guidance on the NTP arrangements for 2023/24 can be accessed on the DfE’s National Tutoring Programme web page.

NTP Tuition Partners

Through NTP Tuition Partners, schools can access tutoring provision from an approved list of providers.

The list of Tuition Partners and their cost is published on the NTP website and the NTP states that the providers cover all regions of England. The providers deliver one-to-one and small group tuition, both online and face to face. Tutoring will be available in 15-hour blocks, to support best-practice evidence on tutoring.

Schools can decide which Tuition Partner they would like to work with and which of their pupils will benefit most from this additional support. For multi-academy trusts (MATs) interested in accessing tuition for several or all schools with the trust, the approved providers will be able to specify whether they can organise tuition for all schools through one central contact, or if they will need an individual contact at each school.

The NTP includes specialist provision for supporting students with SEND, including providers who are able to support students in special school settings.

NTP Academic Mentors

Academic Mentors are salaried members of staff who are employed by a school. They work alongside teachers to provide one-to-one and small group, subject-specific tuition. This enables them to embed tutoring within the school and reach more pupils, making them well suited to schools with high levels of disadvantage or large numbers of students in receipt of the Pupil Premium.

Academic Mentors will not all be qualified teachers, but some may be working towards an initial teacher training qualification or considering a career in the education sector.

School-led Tutoring

Following feedback received from schools during the first year of the NTP initiative, School-led Tutoring is now a permanent offering of the programme.

This includes feedback from some schools that would prefer to source their own tutors, for example, from their existing teaching staff or a local resource that already has a relationship with the school’s pupils.

School-led Tutoring provides this flexibility for schools to identify their own tutors. These can be individuals from existing staff such as classroom teachers or teaching assistants. Additionally, retired, supply or returning teachers can be sought to deliver tutoring.

Staff employed by schools to provide tutoring will receive training, provided by the DfE’s appointed training provider, the Education Development Trust.

NTP’s rationale for the development of the programme

It has been well documented that there is a substantial attainment gap between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers, an issue that the NASUWT has long sought to see addressed by successive governments. Since school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is evidence from a range of sources, including EEF, that this is likely to have grown significantly.

The NTP reports that there is extensive evidence showing the impact of tutoring to support pupils who have fallen behind, as well as demonstrating the potential of one-to-one and small-group tuition as a cost-effective way to support these pupils. The Teaching and Learning Toolkit produced by EEF suggests it can boost progress by up to five months.

Yet tutoring is often limited to the schools and parents who are able to afford it. The NTP has therefore been set up with the aim of helping schools to address this.

Analysis of research conducted by the Sutton Trust for the NTP has highlighted two ‘tutoring gaps’ which the NTP aims to address. These are:

  • the Disadvantage Gap: pupils from the least affluent families are significantly less likely to have been tutored compared to those from the most affluent (18% vs. 43%), a gap that likely widened during lockdown;

  • the Regional Gap: the availability of high-quality tutoring varies widely across England, with many areas unable to offer tutoring. Pupils in London are significantly more likely to have accessed tutoring (50%) than their peers outside the capital (29%).

Concerns regarding the implementation of NTP
Limited funding

The NTP states that while the funding will significantly increase the amount of tutoring available to disadvantaged children, it is not enough to provide support to every disadvantaged pupil in England. While the NASUWT recognises the pressures on funding, it is worrying that some schools and pupils will be able to access the tutoring programme, while others will not.

Furthermore, the level of subsidy has dropped year-on-year for schools wishing to engage a tutor. Schools will therefore need to find 50% of the cost of tutoring for the academic year 2023/24, which may present challenges particularly in the current economic climate.

Selection of Tuition Partners and tutors

To select the tutoring providers, the NTP reports that applications were assessed against criteria covering safeguarding, quality and impact by a team within the EEF. Every approved Tuition Partner is, according to the NTP, experienced in working directly with schools, with demonstrable expertise to deliver tutoring that complements classroom work.

There are also a number of stipulations for the tutors deployed into schools by the Tuition Partners in schools. The NTP states that tutors go through a ‘well-defined and manualised training programme’. There is no detail on what this training entails.

While the NASUWT recognises that the NTP has clear and comprehensive assessment criteria for the Tuition Partners, and guidelines on the expectations of the tutors themselves, the Union will continue to monitor feedback from members on the Tuition Partners to ensure all suppliers support schools and pupils in the best ways possible.

Fair pay for tutors

Each Tuition Partner sets out the cost of their subsidised rates on the NTP website. What is not as transparent is the level of pay for individual tutors through those providers. There is reference to the fact that some tutors are in fact volunteers, which presumably means they are unpaid.

The NASUWT believes that given the nature of the programme, which is intended to support disadvantaged children in schools, tutors should be fairly rewarded for this contribution. Three hundred and fifty million pounds is a significant sum of money and it should benefit everyone involved in the delivery, not just the organisations who are procuring the tutors.

The NASUWT recognises that the programme has the potential to provide work for supply teachers. However, without clarity over the rates of pay for tutors, and a lack of information on how individuals can become a tutor with one of the approved partners, this option is less viable for supply teachers who are entitled to a level of pay that reflects their highly qualified, professional status.

Lack of clarity over teacher involvement

While the NTP makes reference to the effectiveness of tutoring being greatest when guided by the classroom teacher, and has published a guide to Best Tutoring Practice for Schools (pdf), it does not put into place any processes for this to happen.

The NASUWT is concerned by the lack of clarity over how teachers can lead and shape the way tutors deliver their sessions. It is also unclear as to the involvement teachers will have in identifying pupils who would benefit from tutoring and selecting the Tuition Partner they see as most fitting for the pupils’ needs.

The inverse to this is also worrying: that teachers are subject to additional workload pressures due to unnecessarily heavy involvement in the tutoring.

For those schools utilising Tuition Partners, Academic Mentors or School-led Tutoring, the NASUWT would expect school leaders to involve classroom teachers in the identification of pupils who would most benefit from this additional support, as well as the ability to set the direction of learning. However, this should not be at the expense of adding to their existing workload or becoming a time-intensive task.

Review of effectiveness

The NASUWT would welcome recommendations from the NTP on how the success of the programme will be assessed. This needs to be more than purely numbers of how many students have accessed tutoring and focus on the impact the sessions have had.

We would also be keen to understand the plans for the longevity of the programme. While the Government asserts that the initial purpose of the NTP is to support pupils most affected by school closures, the NASUWT does not see how ending the programme when the funding has been depleted meets the secondary goal of providing a longer-term contribution to closing the attainment gap.

Next steps

The NASUWT will monitor developments of the NTP, as well as its use in schools, regarding both effectiveness and appropriateness. The Union will continue to engage with the Government and bodies who are involved in the delivery of the NTP, to seek answers to the questions it has regarding the programme.

The NASUWT will continue to raise concerns with the Government over the need for a wider, more encompassing strategy to address the full spectrum of lost learning, as well as the attainment gap. The Union would argue that while the NTP has a place and may offer value to some schools and pupils, it is not sufficient to address the historical challenges facing disadvantaged pupils that have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pension arrangements

National Tutoring Programme roles

The Department for Education (DfE) has clarified that National Tutoring Programme roles are not teaching roles and are therefore pensionable in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in circumstances where the employer has been accepted into the LGPS.

National Tutoring Programme roles are not pensionable in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). Members carrying out a National Tutoring Programme Role are advised to contact their employer for details of the pension scheme in which they will be automatically enrolled and to contact the pension scheme direct if they have any questions about this.

Members in receipt of a TPS ill-health pension are advised that, even though National Tutoring Programme roles are not teaching roles, they may be incompatible with the continued payment of an ill-health pension and should contact Teachers’ Pensions direct for advice if they are considering undertaking one of these roles.

Catch-up premium roles

Teaching roles funded by the school’s catch-up premium may be pensionable in the TPS, depending on whether their employer is in the TPS. Members who undertake a teaching role in a school which is funded by the catch-up premium should contact their employer to ascertain the details of the pension scheme in which they will be automatically enrolled.

Members should contact Teachers’ Pensions direct if they believe that they have been enrolled in an inappropriate pension scheme during their employment in a catch-up teaching role.

NASUWT guidance about re-employment in a TPS pensionable role following retirement is available in our National Tutoring and Catch-up: Pension Implications Briefing (pdf) on our England Pensions page. For clarification on the impact on individual pension implications, members should contact Teachers’ Pensions directly.

 


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