Education Committee looks into the main obstacles to engagement with the NTP.

Education Committee looks into the main obstacles to engagement with the NTP.

The House of Commons Education Committee took evidence this week on the Government’s ‘catch-up’ programme. Giving evidence were Professor Becky Francis from the EEF, David Laws from the EPI, and Nick Bent from The Tutor Trust.

Much of the session focused on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). Robert Halfon MP, chair of the committee, asked what the main obstacles were to schools engaging in the NTP, questioning if Randstad’s cheaper bid really was ‘value for money’.

Nick Bent said that the offering of the contract to Randstad had been a mistake, as they lack the capacity or competence to deliver the NTP effectively. In particular, Randstad had failed to market and communicate the scheme with schools.

Becky Francis commented on the previous year of the NTP, when the EEF were involved. She said that the EEF knows a lot about what good tutoring looks like, and how it can help support recovery. Like Nick Bent, she said that effective communication with schools is key, as well as addressing capacity challenges, arguing that ‘it is imperative that the tuition provision, if it is to support recovery effectively, remains evidence-led and balances autonomy for schools with that evidence about effective practice.’

David Laws discussed the varying levels of learning loss across the country identified by the EPI, with much greater challenges in the north and Midlands. In addition to this, the learning loss was greatest in disadvantaged areas regardless of the individual pupil characteristics; ‘notably all pupils in more disadvantaged areas have a high likelihood of suffering severe learning loss. It is not only poor children; it is non-poor children in disadvantaged areas.’

Alongside these regional variations in learning loss, uptake of the NTP has differed between the regions. Becky Francis said that, when the EEF were involved in the NTP, their experience was that some regional areas were much more familiar with tutoring than others. In the north, the NTP was going from a standing start, which was then compounded by inequalities in capacity. She noted that in the south west, while the experience of tuition was limited, there was greater capacity which allowed for higher uptake.

Recent figures from Randstad showed that more than 73,000 pupils had enrolled for tutoring this year, against a target of 524,000. But just over 43,000 had actually started tuition. However, they have not yet published regional figures. Robert Halfon highlighted in the committee that figures from July suggest that 46% of schools enrolled on the NTP have a greater than average percentage of pupils receiving pupil premium funding and less than half of pupils tutored by tuition partners were in receipt of the pupil premium.

In Schools North East’s recent ‘State of the Region’ survey, conducted in November, 64% of schools said that they are engaging with the NTP, with the overwhelming majority (80%) of those using school-led tutoring. 35% are engaging with tuition partners, and 26% with academic mentors. While tutoring can be an effective part of education recovery, schools in our region have consistently found it difficult to access the support their students need. Schools North East will continue to lobby for a properly resourced and long-term plan for recovery from the pandemic.