Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the provision of tutors reaches all pupils that require additional tuition due to the covid-19 outbreak.

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has been developed to support some of our most disadvantaged children and young people who are at risk of falling further behind due to lost time in education.

Our delivery partner, the Education Endowment Foundation, has approved 33 Tuition Partners who offer high-quality, subsidised tuition to schools. There is a good blend of both national and regional providers that can offer support to schools across all regions in England and 16 of the Tuition Partners are national providers. The Tuition Partners offer a variety of tuition models for schools to choose from, including online, face-to-face, small-group and one-to-one tuition.

Schools in the most disadvantaged areas of England have also been supported by Teach First to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide intensive small group and one-to-one tuition.

The Department has undergone an extensive communications and engagement process with schools to ensure that as many as possible know about the programme and understand how to apply.

Tuition has continued throughout the national lockdown, with the majority of Tuition Partners offering online tuition at home. Academic Mentors have also continued to work with pupils in line with their individual school policy. Where it has been appropriate to do so, support has also continued for vulnerable and critical worker children at the school.