Advocate For The Extension Of Funding For Tutoring: Email Your MP

Ahead of the Autumn Statement on 22 November, we invite you to join us in advocating for the extension of tutoring funding. With enough support and political pressure, a national tutoring offer could become a long-standing intervention within our country’s education system. A more equitable educational landscape where tutoring is accessible to all could be a positive legacy to come out of the pandemic.

Please feel free to use the template below. Make sure you tailor the sections in bold/italics and include the hyperlinks to further reading for maximum impact. You can find your local MP’s email address here.

MP Letter Template:

Dear [MP’s name],

My name is [name], and I [explain your current/former role in education and where you work(ed). E.g “I am a Maths Teacher at [name of school]”]. Ahead of the Autumn Statement, I am writing to ask for your help in making the case for the extension of small-group tutoring funding for schools and colleges. 

Since the pandemic, schools and colleges have received funding to deliver tutoring to support children’s academic recovery via the National Tutoring Programme or the 16-19 Tuition Fund. Tutoring has been demonstrated to be a high-impact, cost-effective intervention, which an evaluation from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has shown has an average impact of four months’ additional progress over the course of a year. 

Prior to the pandemic, families on low incomes were systematically priced out of tutoring support if their child fell behind. The Sutton Trust has shown that since this funding for tutoring has been introduced, the gap in access to tutoring between rich and poor families in England has all but disappeared. Tutoring is not only highly impactful but also hugely popular with both parents and pupils. Recent polling undertaken by Public First found that: 

• 77% of parents supported an expansion of tutoring provision.
• 73% of parents supported state-funded tutoring for all pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

[Insert personal reflections about the impact of tutoring/the attainment gap and/or other relevant reflections here. E.g. “I have seen for myself the transformative impact tutoring can have through my role as/at [role and/or school/college/sixth form]”.

Despite this, funding for both the National Tutoring Programme and 16-19 Tuition Fund is currently due to finish in August 2024. We know that the impact of Covid-19 has cast a long shadow over young people, and this is still being felt. Removing funding at this stage risks losing the valuable infrastructure that has been built to provide tutoring to young people to help them succeed. Moreover, we know it is the most disadvantaged young people who will lose out if this support is withdrawn.

Whilst funding for tutoring was designed to help with the immediate effects of the pandemic, the potential of state-funded tutoring in schools and colleges goes much further than education recovery. A nationwide offer of access to tutoring for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds has always had the potential to play a fundamental part in the strategy to tackle the country’s longstanding attainment gap. Tutoring is one of the most transformative tools within education, with the potential to close the disadvantage gap and break down barriers to opportunity that stop our young people from succeeding. 

With your help, a more equitable educational landscape where tutoring is accessible to all could be a positive legacy to come out of the pandemic. Please do let me know if you will be able to help make the case for this within Parliament.

Best wishes,

[Your name]

[Your address and postcode. PLEASE NOTE: It is important to add this as many MPs will not respond to a letter without confirmation that you are their constituent].