ASCL responds to changes to National Tutoring Programme

Responding to the DfE’s announcement about changes to the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), Julie McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We welcome the fact that the government subsidy for the NTP is not going to be reduced next year by as much as was initially planned. As school leaders have repeatedly warned, this would likely have forced many schools to cut or entirely abandon NTP provision.

“The government claims this change will enable more schools to deliver tutoring. We hope this is true. The fact remains, though, that schools which struggled to afford 40% of the cost of tutoring this year aren’t going to find it any easier to afford 50% next year. ASCL has suggested several times that schools should be able to access their allocated NTP funding without having to top this up from their own extremely stretched budgets. It’s disappointing that the government has again chosen not to make this simple change which would, in our view, enable many more schools to access the programme, and many more pupils to benefit from it.”