NEU comments on DfE changes to National Tutoring Programme

Commenting on the DfE’s announcement about changes to the National Tutoring Programme, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union said:

“The Government’s recognition that additional funding is needed for schools to continue to offer tutoring is welcome. Our members have been clear that the tapering of funding for the National Tutoring Programme will have meant that schools couldn’t continue to offer it.

‘However, funding 50% of tutoring costs does not resolve the problems. There are still many schools which will not be able to match the Government’s contribution or will have to cut existing provision in order to do so.  The additional funding announced today does not compensate for Government's neglect of its own adviser's recommendations for education recovery. It has provided only a third of the funding that Sir Kevan Collins said was needed, leaving schools to pick up the rest from ever diminishing budgets.

‘The Government must now recognise the difficult position in which schools have been placed. If it considers that additional provision is needed, then it must fund it appropriately”.