I thought I’d share a few thoughts on today's report from the Public Accounts Committee and my organisation's response.

The report is focussed on education recovery in schools in England on the impact of the pandemic on the attainment gap, and what the National Tutoring Programme is doing to address that, is an interesting read and makes some strong recommendations.

We know that schools continue to face challenges with budgets, and, whilst the Department for Education’s recent announcement about next year’s NTP subsidy was a positive one (it will now be 50%, double the original proposed subsidy of 25%), there is still a way to go. We are doing all we can to enable schools to access our high-quality tuition for the pupils that need it, and we know that it is going to be needed for a long time to come. In fact, in its oral evidence to the PAC, representatives from the DfE said that the Department should be able to reduce the disadvantage gap at least as quickly as it had done in the 10 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it ought to set itself the challenge of going as fast, or faster, in closing the gap as it had done previously. But as the PAC report notes: ‘This would mean potentially taking as much as another decade to get back to the position before the pandemic.’

Whatever happens, and whatever pace the DfE sets for this, The Tutor Trust is in this for the long-haul. Whether that’s 10 years, five or 15, before the ‘disadvantage gap’ is back to where it was, we’ll be here to support those young people whose families do not have the means to give them private tuition.

Today, at our annual Summer Reception, a celebration of the year’s successes, we will reiterate our commitment to partner with schools across our city regions to deliver high-quality tuition to boost pupils’ academic attainment, so that they can achieve their potential in school, and beyond. And, thanks to our very generous funders, we’ll continue to do all we can to make sure schools are able to access our tuition, even when their budgets are squeezed.

You can read the full report here: Education recovery in schools in England.