The cross-party committee of MPs says that delivery partner Randstad is not meeting its targets, and calls on the Government to prove the National Tutoring Programme’s efficacy, or axe the contract signed with Randstad.
School closures had a significant impact on the majority of children’s learning, the report says.
On average, pupils spent just two-and-a half hours learning every day, mental health problems for children rose by 60 per cent, and schools faced a ‘spaghetti junction’ of bureaucracy trying to navigate funding to support the reopening schools and educational recovery.
While £5 billion of extra Government funding for catch-up is welcome, the report warns that it is not being spent wisely.
By not providing support for those most in need, the Government risks ‘baking in’ deepening inequalities between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers.
The Department for Education not only needs to do more on improving young people’s educational attainment, but also to better support their mental health, MPs said.
Key findings:
Regional disparities and learning loss
Disadvantaged pupils could be ‘five, six, seven – in the worst case scenarios – eight months behind’ according to their regional data.
By the second half of the Autumn term 2020, the average learning loss for maths for primary pupils was 5.3 months in Yorkshire and the Humber compared with 0.5 months in the South-West.
By March 2021, the National Tutoring Programme had reached just 59 per cent in the North-East and and the North-West, while it had met 100 per cent of its target numbers of schools in the South-West and 96 per cent in the South-East.
Randstad & the National Tutoring Programme
- The National Tutoring Programme has so far reached just 15 per cent of its overall target and only 10 per cent of the target for the ‘tuition pillars’ of the NTP (52,000 starts against a target of 524,000).
- The Department for Education’s annual report published in December 2021 rated it ‘critical/ very likely’ that the measures to address lost learning will be insufficient. The NAO further reported that the NTP ‘may not reach the most disadvantaged children’.
- On 2 March 2022, Randstad reportedly removed the requirement of reaching 65 per cent pupil premium children from the tutoring contracts with providers.
- Some headteachers described a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’ in navigating the tuition hub and that there was a ‘lack of communication’ with schools about the programme.
Robert Halfon MP, chair of the committee, said, ‘School closures for the majority of pupils was a national disaster for children in terms of their learning loss, their mental health, a rise in their safeguarding risks and damage to their life chances. The education catch-up programme and additional £5 billion of funding provision was of course, hugely welcome. However, there is a real question as to whether it is actually working.
‘Our committee heard that it is not reaching the most disadvantaged children, there are significant regional disparities and there is a real risk of failure through Randstad as the delivery partner. Moreover, it is not reaching the hundreds of thousands of “ghost children” who have not returned to school. Given the increase in children’s mental health problems, more work needs to be done to rocket-boost support.
‘The Government must ensure Randstad shapes up, or boot them out. The catch-up programme must be shown to be reaching disadvantaged pupils and this data must be published. Schools must also be given the autonomy to spend catch-up funding on what they know will be of most benefit to their pupils and there needs to be a step-change and rocket boost of mental health support to schools, including through introducing a social media levy on the profits of social media giants to help fund resilience and online harms training.
‘Catch-up must be for the long-term. If the Department are to make the case to the Treasury that this programme is making a difference, it has to be proven to work. Education has to be the cornerstone to levelling-up and the Department should take every opportunity available to ensure the ladder of opportunity is extended to every child, regardless of their background or circumstances.’
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said, ‘This is a serious warning from the Education Committee that if Government doesn’t provide enough support for disadvantaged young people, they risk baking in the deepening inequalities between disadvantaged children and their better off peers.
‘There is a role for tutoring because so many extra students need individual attention due to Covid disruption, but the catch-up funding should have been allocated directly to schools and colleges not via Randstad.
‘The view of teachers is that they need much more opportunity for children to have time in small groups and more one-on-one time and this requires extra qualified teachers and more curriculum flexibility than the Department for Education has thus far allowed.
‘It’s common sense that tutoring programmes should be led by schools and so it is good to see MPs record that teachers and school staff know their pupils and what interventions are likely to bring the most benefit. DfE needs to heed this and allocate the funding to school budgets in a way that is linked to numbers of children eligible for Free School Meals.
‘Teachers identify counselling and mental health support as key elements in better supporting pupil attendance, so it is essential government fast tracks this as a priority issue.
‘Covid exacerbated problems that were already there for disadvantaged children. The government must now learn its lesson, get its house in order and start listening to the education profession on what is needed for the long term to ensure that no child is left behind.’
Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said, ‘This is an important report from the Committee and reflects our concerns about growing educational inequalities arising from the pandemic and the shortcomings of the government's response.
‘As cited in today’s report, our research shows that there are significant disparities in learning loss, with pupils in the North and the Midlands and those from disadvantaged backgrounds worst affected.
‘There has also been widespread concern around the quality and reach of the National Tutoring Programme under the current provider. We are pleased that the committee has adopted our recommendations for far greater transparency and accountability, to ensure that the programme is able to fulfil its original purpose of helping pupils from the poorest backgrounds and those who have suffered most from the pandemic.
‘The scope and ambition of the Government's wider £5bn catch-up programme continues to fall short of what the evidence tells us is needed. Our research has shown that an education recovery package of £13.5bn is required to support pupils in England. Without significant, sustained investment in education recovery, this generation of pupils is likely to suffer the consequences later in life.’
A Department for Education spokesperson said, 'Tutoring plays an integral role in supporting pupils to catch-up on any lost learning and delivery is on track to meet the ambitious target of teaching two million courses this academic year.
'We continue to work with Randstad to ensure as many children from all backgrounds - in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds - across the country can benefit from high quality tutoring and catch up on lost learning.'
How does the National Tutoring Programme work?
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) launched in November 2020 and was run in its first year by the Education Endowment Foundation.
State-maintained primary and secondary schools could access subsidised tuition for five- to 16-year-olds using tuition partners or academic mentors.
Randstad have been delivering the first two 'pillars' of the NTP since September 2021.
In its second year, schools can choose between three ‘pillars’, or routes:
Tuition partners – the NTP includes a list of approved providers and is subsidising 70 per cent of the costs in 2021-22, 50 per cent in 22-23 and 25 per cent in 23-24.
Academic partners – the NTP recruits academic mentors in eligible schools by local authority area or where there are a higher than average percentage of pupiks eligible for the pupil premium. 95 per cent of the cost to schools is subsidised in 2021-22, 50 per cent in 22-23, and 25 per cent in 23-24.
School-led tutoring – Schools receive a ring-fenced grant from the DfE to fund provision for disadvantaged pupils, through their own staff, supply teachers or private tutors. Funding is allocated per school for around 60 per cent of pupils in Years 1-11 who are eligible for the pupil premium. 75 per cent of the costs are subsidised in 2021-22, 60 per cent in 22-23, and 25 per cent in 23-23.
