Guidance

School-led tutoring: conditions of grant

Updated 20 April 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 26 June 2023

Information on this page was for the 2021 to 2022 academic year only.

Applies to England

1. Aim

As part of the Department for Education’s (DfE)’s education recovery plan, the Secretary of State for Education is providing financial assistance to eligible local authorities, for their maintained schools, and academy trusts. 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.

This grant will give schools and academy trusts the flexibility in determining how best to provide tutoring intervention to support catch-up for lost education due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

1.1 Eligible use of funding

This grant funding is only for expenditure on school-led tutoring, and cannot be combined with other premiums.

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 school-led tutoring guidance.

This funding cannot be used for the non-subsidised element of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) including costs related to support provided by NTP tuition partners and academic mentors.

1.2 School eligibility for funding

All state-funded primary, middle and secondary schools and academy trusts in England with pupils in years 1 to 11 who are eligible for pupil premium will receive a school-led tutoring 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
• special schools not maintained by a local authority, including independent special schools, where the placement is funded by the local authority
• pupil referral units
• alternative provision academies and free schools
• local authority-maintained hospital schools and academies

1.3 Pupils eligible for support

The school-led tutoring grant is to support disadvantaged pupils in catch-up learning and schools will select the pupils in need of support. This will focus on providing tuition to pupils eligible for pupil premium but also includes pupils with other types of disadvantage or additional needs. This includes special educational needs and disability (SEND) children who have a social worker, previously looked-after children, young carers and other vulnerable pupils.

However, if a school or academy trust feels that a pupil who does not fall into these categories would benefit from catch-up tutoring, the funding can be used to provide this.

1.4 Funding allocation

The school-led tutoring grant in academic year 2021 to 2022 will be calculated based on the number of pupils eligible for pupil premium.

In their September and December 2021 payments, state-funded schools and academy trusts in England received £202.50 per pupil for 60% of their pupils that are eligible for pupil premium, from year 1 to year 11.

From May 2022 until the end of the academic year, funding allocations will be increased by 16 percentage points from 60% to around 76% of pupils that are eligible for pupil premium in years 1 to 11. This is additional funding for schools to deliver tuition within the 2021 to 2022 academic year. The number of pupils will be rounded to the nearest whole number.

In recognition of higher costs, non-mainstream education providers receive £529 per pupil for 60% of pupil premium pupils. From May 2022 the allocations for these education providers will also increase by 16 percentage points from 60% to around 76% of pupils eligible for pupil premium in years 1 to 11.

Providers eligible for the higher rate of funding are:

• local authority-maintained special schools
• special academies and free schools
• special schools not maintained by a local authority, including independent special schools, where the placement is funded by the local authority
• pupil referral units
• alternative provision academies and free schools
• local authority-maintained hospital schools and academies
• SEND units within mainstream schools

2. School contribution to tutoring costs

2.1 Mainstream schools

For 2021 to 2022, the grant provided has been calculated to cover 75% of the cost of tuition, based on an average cost of £18 per hour and a pupil receiving a package of 15 hours of tuition, totalling £202.50 per pupil.

From the £18 average hourly cost, DfE will provide a maximum of £13.50 per hour for tutoring. Schools and academy trusts are expected to contribute the remaining £4.50 from other budgets such as the recovery premium or pupil premium. Schools can, if needed, offer provision at a higher unit rate than £18 but it will not be funded by DfE and the school or academy trust will be responsible for all costs beyond £13.50.

2.2 Non-mainstream schools

For non-mainstream schools and academy trusts, we expect a 15-hour package of tuition to cost £705 per pupil which averages £47 per hour.

We will pay a maximum of 75% of these costs, totalling £529 per 15-hour package, equal to £35.25 per hour. Non-mainstream schools and academy trusts are expected to contribute the remaining £176.25 from other budgets such as the recovery premium or pupil premium.

2.3 Subsidies in future years

In the academic year 2021 to 2022, the grant provided will cover 75% of the average cost of tutoring, based on a 15-hour package at a unit rate of £18 per hour.

In this academic year 2022 to 2023 schools and academy trusts will be provided with a grant to cover 60% of the £18 unit cost.

In 2023 to 2024 the grant provided will cover 25% of the £18 unit cost.

Schools and academy trusts will need to factor in increasing contributions to school-led tutoring from other budget sources such as pupil premium funding over the 3 years.

2.4 Payment schedule

The school-led tutoring 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.

We recommended that schools use the grant to enable as many disadvantaged pupils as possible to benefit from tutoring support. However, if the grant is not used, DfE will recover it as an overpayment.

The school-led tutoring grant will be paid in three payments to schools during academic year 2021 to 2022 on the following schedule.

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

• September 2021
• December 2021  
• April 2022  

For academies payments will be made in: 

• October 2021  
• January 2022  
• May 2022  

2.5 Return of data

All schools must complete the following data returns to maintain eligibility for funding:

• school-led tutoring data in the school census (once a term) 
• an online form which will become available to schools via the ESFA in June that will capture spend and final pupil numbers (once at the end of the academic year)

The form and guidance, including exact timelines, and further assistance will be available in June 2022. All schools will be required to complete the form once they have completed their tuition provision for 2021 to 2022 academic year. The deadline for completion is in September. Schools must return the form even if they have decided not to use the grant.

Further details about what is required from these data returns is in the school-led tutoring guidance.

2.6 Overpayments

Any funding that has not been spent at the end of the academic year will be recovered by DfE.

Schools cannot carry forward funding into future years.

We’ll use data from the ESFA online form 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 school-led tutoring grant funding. If a school does not submit the data above, we’ll recover the full allocation and restrict the school’s future involvement in the school-led tutoring grant.

2.7 Specific conditions for local authorities

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

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

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

3. 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).

4. 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. We will issue a certification form each April.

2.8 Variation

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

2.9 Record keeping

Schools and academy trusts are required to keep records of all payments related to the school-led tutoring 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. Further information

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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