Guidance

National Tutoring Programme (NTP) grant funding: conditions of grant for 2022 to 2023 academic year

Updated 16 May 2024

Applies to England

1. Aim

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) provides primary and secondary schools with funding to spend on targeted academic support, delivered by trained and experienced tutors and mentors. This is in accordance with section 14 of the Education Act 2002, in the form of the school-led tutoring grant for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

On 31 March 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) announced plans to simplify the programme for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. These plans involve providing £349 million of core tutoring funding directly to schools and giving them the freedom to decide how best to provide tutoring for their pupils.

As a result, in academic year 2022 to 2023, schools will receive the NTP grant funding for all 3 routes of tuition: tuition partners, academic mentors and school-led tutoring via this grant.

1.1 Eligible use of funding

This NTP grant funding is only for expenditure on tutoring.

It should entail staff costs of delivering tuition only and cannot be used to cover costs such as:

• diagnostic tools
• room hire
• equipment
• laptops
• transport
• stationery
• record keeping

You can read more about how to use the grant in the National Tutoring Programme: guidance for schools, 2022 to 2023

This funding cannot be used for tutoring outside of the National Tutoring Programme, as set out in the guidance, for example paying for tuition via non-accredited Tuition Partners.

1.2 Duplicate funding

Those that are delivering tutoring via their current staff should ensure that the provision of tuition is treated as additional to any staff member’s core roles and responsibilities. Schools must ensure NTP funding is used only for tutoring activity. Only additional eligible costs incurred and not covered by other funding may be met using this grant.

1.3 School eligibility for funding

All state-funded primary, middle and secondary schools, and academies in England with pupils in years 1 to 11 who are eligible for the pupil premium (PP) will receive an NTP grant. This includes:

• primary, secondary and all through local authority-maintained schools, academies and free schools
• local authority-maintained special schools
• special academies and free schools
• non-maintained special schools
• independent special schools, where the placement is funded by the local authority
• pupil referral units
• alternative provision academies and free schools
• local authority-maintained and academy hospital schools

1.4 Pupils eligible for support

The NTP grant is to provide targeted academic support. It is for schools to determine which pupils should receive tutoring. Our guidance sets out that schools should prioritise their PP cohort to receive tutoring, in line with the NTP’s objective of supporting disadvantaged pupils, and may also consider offering tuition to other pupils, where appropriate.

1.5 Funding allocation

For the 2022 to 2023 academic year, funding allocations are calculated based on the number of pupil-premium eligible pupils each school has. Mainstream schools receive a minimum of £162 per PP pupil and non-mainstream schools receive a minimum of £423.

Schools eligible for the higher, non-mainstream funding rate:

• local authority-maintained special schools
• special academies and free schools
• non-maintained special schools
• independent special schools, where the placement is funded by the local authority
• pupil referral units
• alternative provision academies and free schools
• local authority-maintained and academy hospital schools
• SEND units and resourced provision within mainstream schools
• virtual schools, where the LAC attends a specialist setting

2. School contribution to tutoring costs

2.1 Mainstream schools and non-mainstream schools

NTP funding can be used to pay for 60% of the total cost incurred by your school to deliver tutoring. This is subject to the maximum hourly per-pupil rate that applies to all NTP tutoring you provide, to ensure the cost of tutoring is not excessive.

The hourly per pupil rates are:

• mainstream schools: £18 of which the DfE subsidy will be £10.80 (60%)
• non-mainstream schools: £47 of which the DfE subsidy will be £28.20 (60%)

This means that for mainstream schools we would expect schools to contribute the remaining £7.20 and for non-mainstream the remaining £18.80.

2.2 Independent special schools

Funding for PP grant eligible pupils placed by local authorities in independent special schools (ISSs) will be paid directly to the local authority.

Where possible, we expect local authorities to pass on NTP funding to applicable ISSs to enable them to provide tutoring for eligible pupils. Local authorities may also, if they wish, retain this funding to organise tutoring for these pupils themselves.

Funding should not be passed to non-maintained special schools, maintained special schools or special academies as these receive their own NTP allocations.

When transferring funding to ISSs, local authorities are expected to:

• identify PP grant eligible pupils
• inform the ISS who the PP grant eligible pupils are when passing on the funding and that this funding is ring-fenced for tutoring
• inform the ISS whether the NTP funding is for mainstream, SEND or both
• pass on the payment as promptly as possible, ideally in one instalment

Local authorities will need to include information about the tutoring delivered by ISSs in their year-end statement. This will include:

• the names of all ISSs they have transferred NTP funding to and the amount transferred to each ISS
• the total hours of tutoring delivered by ISSs they have transferred NTP funding to

Local authorities will also need to report on any NTP funding spent centrally in their year-end statement. This will include:

• the total amount spent on tutoring
• the total number of hours delivered
• the total number of pupils tutored

The ISS should decide how best to use the funding to provide tuition support for pupils, in line with the guidance provided. It will be the responsibility of the ISS to work with local authorities, where necessary, to decide which PP grant–eligible pupils will be supported and what constitutes a suitable tutoring offer for those pupils.

ISSs will not need to complete a year-end statement, but should inform local authorities how many hours of tuition they have delivered using the grant.

2.3 Virtual school heads

We expect local authorities to pass the NTP funding for looked-after children (LACs) to their virtual school head (VSH). The VSH should decide how best to use the funding to provide tuition support for the pupils they are responsible for, working with relevant schools as necessary.

It is the responsibility of the VSH to:

• decide which LACs to support, how many hours tuition they will receive, and in which subjects - we expect that this will be decided in close co-operation with appropriate schools, as necessary
• comply with the data collection requirements by completing the mandatory year-end statement
• pay for tuition costs that are not covered by the 60% NTP subsidy

We understand that, in some cases, VSHs will want the flexibility to pass on funding directly to the relevant schools, which will be able to arrange tuition provision locally. Schools may also choose to provide NTP tuition for LACs, using the funding provided. However, in such cases, it is important to remember that the VSH will still need to fulfil the responsibilities outlined.

All local authorities, via their VSHs, will be required to complete and return their year-end statement to ESFA; detailing how much tuition has been delivered to their pupils using the NTP funding provided to them.

2.4 Funding arrangements in future years

In the 2023 to 2024 academic year schools may use the NTP grant to cover a maximum of 25% of the cost of tutoring, subject to any other applicable funding rules. Funding allocations for the 2023 to 2024 academic year will be published in 2023.

As the subsidy reduces schools and academy trusts will need to factor in increasing contributions to NTP tuition from other budget sources such as pupil premium funding.

2.5 Payment schedule

This grant will be paid through ESFA as part of our scheduled payments to schools. There is no requirement for schools to apply for this funding.

DfE will recover any unspent grant funding. Any grant recovery will be offset against future funding, where appropriate.

This grant will be paid in 3 payments to schools during academic year 2022 to 2023 on the following schedule.

For maintained schools, payments will be sent to local authorities on the last working day of each month in:

• September 2022
• December 2022  
• April 2023  

For academies payments will be made in:

• October 2022  
• January 2023 
• May 2023

2.6 Return of data

For all tutoring delivered in the 2022 to 2023 academic year, you must record the total cost you incur, and the number of tutoring hours delivered, which you will be required to share with DfE via your year-end statement in summer 2023.

If your hourly rate (total cost incurred divided by number of hours delivered) is £18 or less (£47 or less for non-mainstream schools), we will cover 60% of the cost you have incurred.

If your hourly rate is greater than £18 (or greater than £47 for non-mainstream schools), we will cap your return at the relevant maximum rate.

These hourly per-pupil rates apply to all tutoring you deliver, whether this is through:

• your existing staff
• new staff you bring in specifically to provide tuition
• academic mentors
• tutors engaged via a tuition partner

We will not provide any subsidy beyond your funding allocation, although you may provide and fund more tutoring in your school if you wish.

The subsidy for the 2023 to 2024 academic year will be 25%. Full guidance on funding arrangements for next year will be published in summer 2023.

2.7 Overpayments

Any funding that has not been spent at the end of the academic year will be recovered by DfE, in line with the conditions set out in this condition of grant and related documents.

Schools cannot carry forward funding into future academic years.

We’ll use data from the year-end statement to reconcile this grant. We’ll calculate any overpayment and, if required, recover this funding from academy trusts or local authorities on an annual basis.

This will also be the case where a school has chosen not to use the NTP grant funding. If a school does not submit the data above, we’ll recover the full allocation.

2.8 Specific conditions for local authorities

Local authorities must comply with the following with respect to this grant:

The local authority is required to distribute the fund to all eligible schools for which it is responsible.

Local authorities must comply with condition 1 above, irrespective of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share.

This grant is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of an individual school’s budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee for schools or the special school’s protection (also referred to as the minimum funding guarantee).

Local authorities will be required to certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools and that it has been spent in line with these conditions of funding.

2.9 Variation

The basis for allocation of this grant may be varied by the Secretary of State for Education from those set out above.

3. Record keeping

Schools and academy trusts are required to keep records of all payments related to the NTP grant. These must be kept available for inspection, either as part of a spot check on the grant expenditure or as part of an audit.

3.1 Further information

Books and other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts shall be open to inspection by the Secretary of State for Education and by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The Comptroller and Auditor General may, under section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983, carry out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the recipient has used its resources in discharging its funded activities.

Schools and local authorities shall provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether they have complied with these conditions.

Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State recovering funding.