Tutor Trust are delighted to announce that we have secured a £500K contract from the Department for Education in partnership with another Manchester-based charity called TLC: Talk Listen Change.

Tutor Trust is a multi-award winning education charity that specialises in high-quality academic tuition in English, Maths and Science.  TLC: Talk, Listen, Change is a relationships charity with expertise in counselling, family support and other support services that will strengthen inter-generational and other relationships in relation to children’s education. An award-winning charity with over 30 years’ experience in relationship support, TLC re-launched in 2017 and is run by CEO Michelle Hill.  Both charities are based in Manchester. 

The DfE fund which TLC and Tutor Trust jointly applied to is called the Alternative Provision Innovation Fund (APIF), and is designed to pilot new ways of boosting the education outcomes of young people who are not in mainstream schooling.  The fund is overseen by DfE’s Minister of State for Schools, Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP.

Tutor Trust and TLC will be offering a joined-up approach through this project, addressing both the causes and symptoms of under-achievement. The aim is to work together to offer a new kind of intervention to young people, by providing both tailor-made educational and therapeutic intervention for the pupil and their family.

All of us at both Tutor Trust and TLC are extremely excited about this upcoming project, which will get underway during the 2018 autumn term. Tutor Trust Co-Founders Nick Bent and Abigail Shapiro, with TLC Chief Executive Officer Michelle Hill, commented:

"Our collaboration will combine tuition and therapeutic support in a way that could be life-changing for young people in Greater Manchester, and scalable to the rest of the country.  We are thrilled to have the chance to pilot a truly joined-up approach to tackling both the causes and the symptoms of under-achievement and engagement in education.”  

We will be working with five other respected partner organisations in Greater Manchester:

1. Rochdale Virtual School Team
2. The Pendlebury Centre, Stockport
3. Gorse Hill Studios in Trafford
4. Trafford Medical Education Service
5. Tameside Virtual School Team

Tutor Trust will work to provide the usual high quality academic tuition on a one-to-one or small group basis in English, Maths or Science. TLC will provide individual counselling for pupils and parents/carers, as well as group counselling and parenting courses.  Working together, we will support 190 young people across Greater Manchester over the course of this two-year project, with each one benefiting from a personalised educational and therapeutic support plan.  

This is the first time that Tutor Trust has won a contract from a Government Department.  Out of the 296 applications from across England, we were one of just nine successful applicants. The two charities will collectively take on three new members of staff to oversee the project.