Concerns over catch-up tuition in poorer areas

THE GOVERNMENT’S flagship catch-up programme for pupils affected by months of school closures may not be reaching the most disadvantaged children, the Whitehall spending watchdog has warned.

Fewer than half of the pupils who have started to receive tuition so far are from low-income families eligible for pupil premium funding, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) report which has been published today.

Demand for academic mentors in disadvantaged areas has “outstripped supply”. Hundreds of schools have still not received an academic mentor despite requesting support, the NAO said.

The chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier, claimed said the Department for Education’s (DfE) “failure to do its homework” has hit children who were already disadvantaged “the hardest”.

As part of the Government’s National Tutoring Programme (NTP), academic mentors are being placed in schools serving disadvantaged communities to help provide catch-up support.

Teach First placed mentors in 1,100 schools by February, but it had received requests for mentors from 1,789 eligible schools, meaning more than 600 disadvantaged schools requesting a mentor had not received one.

As part of the NTP, schools are also being offered subsidised tuition from an approved list of organisations offering one-to-one and small-group tutoring.

The NAO report found that of the 125,200 children allocated a tutoring place by February, 41,100 had started to receive tuition – of whom 44 per cent were eligible for pupil premium funding.

“This raises questions over the extent to which the scheme will reach the most disadvantaged children,” the report from the spending watchdog says.

In June last year, Boris Johnson announced a £1bn catch-up fund to help pupils in England. The package included £350m for the NTP to help the most disadvantaged pupils, and £650m for schools to help children from all backgrounds catch up.

A DfE spokesman said the Government has invested more than £2bn to provide pupils with devices for remote education and catch-up plans targeted at pupils who “need support the most”.

He added: “This pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to all areas of life, but we have acted swiftly at every turn to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provide extensive support for schools, colleges and early years settings.”

Teach First said it was “pleased to have contributed to helping to accelerate the learning of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds”.