Written evidence submitted by the Department for Education (CVD0042)

Spending on catch up premium and the National Tutoring Programme

The government announced £1 billion of funding for 2020/21 to support children and young people to catch up as a result of disruption to their education. This includes a universal £650 million catch-up premium, allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in years Reception through to Year 11.  Further details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium

We will also spend up to £350m on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to provide targeted support for children and young people who have been hardest hit from disruption to their education. This funding supports a range of programmes outlined below.

NTP Tuition Partners and Academic Mentors – support for 5-16 year olds

This programme, which will begin in November 2020, has two pillars:

• NTP Tuition Partners - schools in all regions will be eligible to access heavily subsidised tuition from an approved list of tuition partners.

• NTP Academic mentors: our most disadvantaged schools can apply for support to employ in-house academic mentors to provide small group tuition to their pupils. 

Further information about these pillars can be found here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs

As well as the two strands outlined above, we will also fund:

• Small group tuition for 16-19 years olds in English, maths, and other courses where learning has been disrupted. This funding has been calculated using our existing proxy measure for disadvantage which uses student attainment in GCSE English and maths at the end of year 11. The funding is available on an opt-in basis, institutions need to confirm that they wish to receive it and that they will use it in line with the requirements published on GOV.UK. Further information is here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund

• Reception Year early language programme to provide schools with training and resources to deliver one-to-one and small group sessions designed to improve language skills. Every state funded school with a Reception class is invited to apply for this support, with priority given to schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium#neli

How will pupils be supported?

• There are no pre-set requirements on the level of support any particular pupil should receive, these decisions are most appropriately made by schools depending on the needs of their pupils.

• For the Tuition Partners strand, our expectation is that they will offer a range of different tuition models so schools can access the support that best meets their needs. This includes online and face-to-face, as well as 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 ratios. Whilst schools may choose small group tutoring (with one tutor and three pupils) to ensure that more pupils can benefit, there will be flexibility to choose 1:1 or 1:2 tutoring for specific pupils, for example, pupils with special educational needs, attending Alternative Provision or who may have more specific needs.  

• Schools will make decisions about which pupils require tutoring support, for how long and which model of tutoring to use. To support schools to make the most of the tutoring opportunities, EEF has produced further information to inform decision-making and support quality outcomes: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/resources  

September 2020