A national tutoring programme is failing to help the children who need it most, according to MPs, who say ministers should terminate their contract with the consultancy firm running the scheme unlessit “shapes up”.
A report by the education select committee gives a scathing account of the government’s £5bn national tutoring programme (NTP), which aims to help children in England catch up on learning missed during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
The MPs criticised the “spaghetti junction of funding” that makes it difficult for schools to support tutoring programmes. But they reserved their sternest criticism for Randstad, the Dutch multinational service provider given a contract to administer the scheme by the Department for Education (DfE) last year.
The committee says it has “huge concerns” over Randstad’s ability to meet the targets it was set. The NTP is said to have reached just 15% of its overall target so far.
“The NTP is missing its overall target to deliver tuition to 2 million children. When Randstad appeared before us, they were unable to provide us with figures setting out who was accessing the NTP,” the committee said. “If the NTP is not meeting its targets, the [DfE] should terminate its contract with Randstad.”
MPs said the £5bn funding was not being spent wisely. “By not providing support for those most in need, the government risks baking in deepening inequalities between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers.”
Earlier this month, Schools Week reported that Randstad had removed a requirement to reach 65% of disadvantaged children from its contracts with tutoring providers.
Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the education committee, said: “The government must ensure Randstad shapes up, or boot them out. The catch-up programme must be shown to be reaching disadvantaged pupils and this data must be published.”
The DfE said new statistics about the NTP’s operation would be published on Friday.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said the poor design of the NTP meant ministers were “pouring taxpayers’ money down the drain”.
“Our children have been an afterthought for the Tories throughout the pandemic and are now being neglected in our recovery,” Phillipson said.
Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner, said the report showed the government’s response had been “haphazard, unambitious and mired in bureaucracy”, with deprived and vulnerable children at risk of being left further behind.
“It is time to deliver what was promised after schools reopened post-lockdown and make children’s recovery the priority it should be. That should include being prepared to dismiss those who are being paid millions to run a catch-up plan, if that plan is not doing its job,” Longfield said.
Natalie Perera, the chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, said: “The scope and ambition of the government’s wider £5bn catch-up programme continues to fall short of what the evidence tells us is needed. Our research has shown that an education recovery package of £13.5bn is required to support pupils in England.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We continue to work with Randstad to ensure as many children from all backgrounds – in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds – across the country can benefit from high-quality tutoring and catch up on lost learning.”
Karen Guthrie, Ranstad’s senior programme director for the NTP, said she was “encouraged to see an increase in the number of packages delivered”.
“We are working closely with schools across the country who are best placed to select pupils that need tuition the most. We have been working in partnership with the DfE, schools and tuition partners to look at how we can improve the programme moving forward to best serve the needs of schools,” Guthrie said.
