Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will enable and support local authorities to deliver an equivalent to the National Tutoring Programme.

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support for those pupils who need the most help to catch up and will seek to stimulate a longer term supply of high quality and low cost tutoring for the future.

The Department’s delivery partners for the NTP, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and Teach First, have set out the processes for delivering and accessing tuition support for the academic year. Information is set out on the NTP website: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs. Both the EEF and Teach First have a wealth of knowledge and experience in education and the education training sector. They will work to scale up the provision of tutoring whilst remaining strongly focussed on issues of quality and accessibility.

If local authorities wish to become an approved tuition partner to provide high quality tutoring, they can apply through the open competition overseen by the EEF. Local authority maintained schools, like all schools, will be able to see the approved list of tuition partners available to them, additionally, if they meet the necessary criteria, they will also be able to apply for an academic mentor. The Department will work with our delivery partners and other partners, including local authorities, to ensure that there is as good an offer as possible across all regions.