Prove catch-up programme works or cancel it, MPs urge

The government’s multi-million pound catch up programme risks failing pupils who need it the most, a report by the Education Select committee has found.

In its report, MPs on the cross-party Education Select Committee find that delivery partner Randstad is clearly not delivering on its targets, and call on the government to prove the National Tutoring Programme’s efficacy, or else terminate the contract signed with Randstad.

Whilst the almost £5 billion of additional funding provided by the Department for Education is welcome, the report warns that it is not being spent wisely. By not providing support for those most in need, the Government risks worsening inequalities between disadvantaged children and their better off peers. More work needs to be done by the Department, not just on improving young people’s educational attainment, but also to better support their mental health.

The report finds that disadvantaged pupils could be “five, six, seven – in the worst case scenarios – eight months behind” according to their regional data.
    
By the second half of the Autumn term 2020, the average learning loss for maths for primary pupils was 5.3 months in Yorkshire and the Humber compared with 0.5 months in the South-West.
    
By March 2021, the National Tutoring Programme had reached 100% of its target numbers of schools in the South-West, 96.1% in the South-East, but just 58.8% in the North-East and 59.3% in the North-West.

The National Tutoring Programme has so far reached just 15% of its overall target and only 10% of the target for the tuition pillars of the NTP (52,000 starts against a target of 524,000).

The Department for Education’s own annual report published in December 2021 rated it “critical/ very likely” that the measures to address lost learning will be insufficient. The NAO further reported that the NTP “may not reach the most disadvantaged children”.

On 2 March 2022, Randstad reportedly removed the requirement of reaching 65% pupil premium children from the tutoring contracts with providers.

Some headteachers described a “bureaucratic nightmare” in navigating the tuition hub and that there was a “lack of communication” with schools about the programme.

The report recommends that the Department for Education commits to publishing statistics on a half-termly basis on the number of starts under the National Tutoring Programme. This data must include regionality and have regard to disadvantage and special educational needs. If the NTP fails to meet its targets by Spring, the Department should terminate its contract with Randstad.

Teachers and school staff know their pupils and know what interventions are likely to bring the most benefit. The catch-up programme to date has been fragmented, and a complex bureaucratic system for applications, alongside a ‘spaghetti junction of funding’ may have hampered some schools’ ability to access some elements of the Government’s support. The funding schemes should be simplified and merged into one pot for schools to access and spend where the recovery need is greatest. Any future initiatives should direct funding to schools using existing mechanisms for identifying disadvantage such as pupil premium eligibility. Schools should then be held accountable for how they spend their catch-up funding.

The Department should launch a pilot scheme in the country’s most disadvantaged areas to explore facilitating extra-curricular activities such as sport, music and drama. The Government must fast track its commitments to ensuring all schools have a designated mental health lead and all pupils should undergo a mental health and wellbeing assessment to understand the scale of the mental health problem faced.

The Government should introduce a levy on the profits of social media companies and use the revenue derived from this to fund online harms and resilience training for pupils which could be distributed through schools.

The Department must take steps to address the issue of persistent and severe absence by working with schools and local authorities to set out proactive measures to encourage students back to school.