Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has taken steps with relevant authorities to provide out of hours academic tutoring provision in state schools in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.

The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023.

The principal objective of the NTP is to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. In the 2023/24 academic year, schools are required to consider offering tutoring to all of their pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium. The department is continuing to recommend that schools use pupil premium funding to cover their contribution to the cost of tutoring. Pupil premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. This represents a 10% increase in per pupil rates from 2021/22 to 2024/25.

The department is committed to the objective that tutoring should be embedded across schools in England following the final year of the NTP. The department will expect tutoring to continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using their core budgets, including pupil premium, to provide targeted support for those children who will benefit.