Tutor Trust are delighted to be referenced very positively in the ‘State of the Nation 2017’ report from the Social Mobility Commission.  The report was launched in Westminster today by its Chair, Rt Hon Alan Milburn.

This year’s report has a particularly strong focus on the role that education can play in tackling what the Education Secretary, Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, has called a “social mobility emergency”.  The report also highlights the wide geographical divide that exists between London and the rest of the country on educational performance and wider measures of social responsibility. 

As an innovative and multi-award-winning charity that is proud to be born-and-bred in the North of England, Tutor Trust offers an important solution to the challenge of social mobility in the Northern Powerhouse area.  Indeed, the Co-Founders of Tutor Trust, Abigail Shapiro and Nick Bent, were recently invited to present their work to the Education and Skills Review of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, which is chaired by George Osborne.

Tutor Trust is a registered charity, founded in Manchester in 2011.  Since 2015 we have also served Leeds and this week we are launching Tutor Trust in Liverpool as well.  Our initial funding came from the Education Endowment Foundation, because of our commitment to raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils, closing the attainment gap and raising aspirations.  In autumn 2016, Tutor Trust won the national prize for ‘Best New Charity in Britain’ at the Charity Times Awards and the ‘Best Partnership’ prize at the Spirit of Manchester Awards.  In June 2017, Tutor Trust won the top ‘Spirit of Community’ award from Yorkshire Bank. 

Today’s report from the Social Mobility Commission states (page 100):

“The region [North West England] has the lowest proportion (60 per cent) of children on free school meals in ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ secondary schools. It is widely acknowledged that getting all disadvantaged children into ‘outstanding’ schools will not be sufficient to close the attainment gap since many more tailored interventions are needed – most importantly, sustained exposure to excellent teaching.

“The Tutor Trust is a local charity making an important contribution in this area by providing university students as academic tutors for disadvantaged children in 300 schools in the Manchester area. There is strong evidence in the schools being supported that this has accelerated children’s learning.”

Co-Founders Abigail Shapiro and Nick Bent commented:

“Educational inequality is particularly acute in Britain.  The percentages of looked after children and pupils on free school meals who secure the basic qualifications necessary to give them decent chances and choices in life are shockingly low.” 

“Tutor Trust democratises one-to-one tuition and helps tackle educational inequality.  We serve disadvantaged pupils by supplying schools with first class academic tutors - university students, recruited and trained by us.  We are unique - Britain's only professional, not-for profit tuition service for state schools in challenging communities.   We have delivered over 75,000 hours of tuition across Greater Manchester and Leeds over the last five years, and this week we begin recruiting our first cohort of tutors in Liverpool.

“This endorsement of our work by the Social Mobility Commission is a great accolade for our whole team and for the excellent work our tutors do in schools every day.  We are delighted to receive such a positive mention in this important report, which only strengthens our resolve to work in even more schools providing tutors to more pupils to help all young people reach their potential, no matter what their background is.”