Education Recovery Package – FAM school census return
School Led Tutoring 2021/22
School-led tutoring is 1 of 3 subsidised tutoring options that are available through the national tutoring programme. The national tutoring programme supports disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils from year 1 to 11 to catch up on missed education due to COVID-19.
School-led tutoring is available for eligible state-funded schools and academy trusts based on the number of pupil premium students. This payment is ring-fenced to fund locally sourced tutoring provision for disadvantaged pupils. This could include using existing staff such as teachers and teaching assistants or external tutoring resources such as private tutors or returning teachers. The grant gives schools and academy trusts the flexibility to use tutors with whom they are familiar.
Find out more about school-led tutoring grants.
School-Led tutoring grant is provided for around 60% of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium – exact details on school-level funding can be found here: School-led tutoring: conditions of grant. Schools are free to choose which pupils, and how many pupils, can be suitably supported within the funding available. In making those decisions, schools will want to make use of the guidance available on best practice for tuition around group sizes and our recommendation that pupils receive 15-hour blocks of tuition: School-led tutoring grant.
The DfE advise that it’s also worth remembering that in addition to School-Led tutoring funding, schools can also access tuition support for pupils via the other pillars of the National Tutoring Programme – Tuition Partners and (if eligible) Academic Mentors. Access Tuition Support for your School | NTP. Together, these three tutoring routes provide schools and academy trusts with the choice and flexibility to access a range of tutoring provision that meets the diverse needs of their pupils aged 5-16. The DfE encourage schools to use a combination of these routes to meet these needs and to access the maximum available funding.
School Led Tutoring and FAM school census items
If a pupil has not received or is not in receipt of school-led tutoring since the beginning of the autumn 2021 term, the fields must be left ‘blank’ on the census return.
If the census shows this field as blank for all pupils, this will trigger 4007Q which will be accepted by the Department if a ‘confirmed as correct’ notepad entry has been provided on COLLECT.
Once a pupil starts tuition, the school will then record them as being in receipt of School-Led Tutoring in the next school census, along with the number of hours they have received to date. In each school census thereafter, schools should record the cumulative number of hours that pupil has received since the start of the academic year 2021/22.
The DfE will use the information collected from the school census returns
- to allow the department to understand the impact this programme will have in future years
- for monitoring purposes to ensure that funding is being used to support pupils as intended.
School Led Tutoring Grant
Eligible schools will receive the School-Led Tutoring grant via their regular scheduled ESFA payments. Information about school level allocations can be found at School-led tutoring: conditions of grant and allocations page.
So that the DfE can accurately recover any unspent funding and understand how schools are supporting their pupils, there are two key, compulsory data collections that schools must complete during the academic year:
- the school census – this must be completed once a term
- a School-Led Tutoring: Year-End Statement by the end of July 2022.
The DfE have provided a tracker and calculator tool to help schools track information during the academic year and it will help in completing and returning their mandatory School-Led Tutoring: Year-End Statement to the EFSA by the end of July 2022. The tracker and calculator can be found here, along with guidance on how to use it: School-led tutoring: guidance and tracker tool.
Use of the tracker and calculator tool is entirely voluntary. The tracker and calculator tool can be downloaded and used offline by schools if they want to. If schools already have their own methods of collating information about School-Led Tutoring, there is no need to use, or switch to, the tool. The tracker and calculator tool does not need to be returned to DfE at any point. It is for school’s own internal use if helpful to them.
The school-led tutoring grant is paid in advance and must be spent on school-led tutoring only. The DfE will recover any overpayments at the end of academic year 2021/22. They will use the data from the ESFA online form to calculate the total amount of overpayment and, if necessary, recover this, where a school or academy trust has:
- funded less than a school’s anticipated hours of tuition
- delivered the expected hours of tuition below the average £18 hourly rate
Further information can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-led-tutoring-grant
The school-led grant condition of funding and the school allocations can also be found on School-led tutoring: conditions of grant.
Further information about School-Led Tutoring is also available here: School-Led Tutoring – NTP (nationaltutoring.org.uk) and School-Led Tutoring FAQS (NTP).
School Led Tutoring – tuition hours
The funding allocations are based on packages of tuition delivered in 15-hour sessions for each pupil. Research shows that frequent sessions lasting up to an hour over a sustained period of weeks has greater impact on pupil progress. Schools can have discretion over the hours of tuition that each pupil receives. However, they should consider how this will be reported in the end of year return.
School-level allocations and the anticipated number of tutoring hours to be delivered can be found here: School-led tutoring: conditions of grant and allocations.
In all cases, in the census, schools should record the actual number of hours that they deliver for each pupil using school-led tutoring funding, whether this is more or less than 15 hours. If the pupil is unable to attend the tuition, the school must not include the hours on the school census return, regardless of whether this is due to a covid related absence or not.
Where a group of pupils are taught for 1 hour, on the census each pupil would have 1 hour recorded against them.
In the census, schools should only record the hours of tuition that is delivered using school-led tutoring grant funding. Whilst school-led tutoring is part of the overall NTP offer, there are other ways in which the hours delivered by ‘Tuition Partners’ and ‘Academic Mentors’ are recorded and so these additional hours must not be counted in the census.
The DfE found 100+ hours for one pupil to be unusual and therefore schools should check they have not included the hours from other NTP routes as described above. If the pupil has genuinely received 100+ hours of tuition schools should return this in the census.
Unfortunately, the requirements in the CBDS only allowed for 99.99 and the DfE acknowledge that it is too late for software suppliers to change their systems for the spring school census. However, for such cases the school can manually change the number of hours in COLLECT.
Please note the number of hours are cumulative and therefore schools should return the number of hours the pupil has received since the beginning of the autumn term. In the summer census, schools should return the number of hours they have received since the beginning of the autumn term up to census day.
Schools should not complete school-led tutoring unless the pupil has received this provision, even if they plan to provide the tuition after the spring school census day. Any school-led tuition provided after the spring school census day should be returned in the summer school census.
School-led tutoring: guidance and tracker tool
Details for schools, academy trusts and local authorities on the expectations and conditions attached to school-led tutoring funding.
School Led Tutoring FAQs Spring Census;
Q. a school recorded a pupil in the autumn census as being in receipt of school led tutoring but they have not yet received any tutoring, should they record the pupil in the spring census as being in receipt of school led tutoring with 0 hours?
A. No, if they have not received any school led tutoring then they should not be recorded as such, they should not be flagged as being in receipt of tutoring.
Q. Do schools need to deliver tutoring in 15-hour packages?
A. The funding allocations are based on packages of tuition delivered in 15-hour sessions for each pupil. Research shows that frequent sessions lasting up to an hour over a sustained period of weeks has greater impact on pupil progress. Schools can have discretion over the hours of tuition that each pupil receives. However, please consider how this will be reported in the end of year return. School-level allocations and the anticipated number of tutoring hours to be delivered can be found here: School-led tutoring: conditions of grant and allocations. The Department for Education will recover funding if a school or academy trust has delivered below the expected number of total hours. Further guidance on this overpayment process can be found here: School-led-tutoring-grant – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Q. if schools provide tutoring to additional pupils not covered by the grant, as the grant is for around 60% of pupil premium pupils, should these pupils also be recorded in the census? e.g. a school has identified 50 pupils for funding via FAM at 15 hours each but will be supporting 100 pupils, using a combination of FAM funding and school’s own funds.
A. For pupils where the school have used entirely their own budget to provide tutoring, this is entirely fine, but none of this activity should be recorded in the census as it does not reflect activity funded by School Led Tutoring funding.
Q. if a pupil is absent, can a school still claim the hours the pupil would have received for the FAM tutoring hours for that day? The school is concerned about the financial impact of having additional teaching staff in to run the sessions if the pupils are not there.
A. Schools should enter the number of hours delivered in the census – so for example, if they only delivered 5 hours (even if they paid a tutor for 6), they should record 5. The DfE are in discussions with HMT about whether schools can record the hours they paid for, so full 6 hours, in their Year-End Statement.
Q. If tuition was for 3 pupils and one was absent, the lesson was still delivered. Can schools put the hours in for the absent pupil?
A. No the hours for this tuition would not be included on the school census if the pupil is absent.
Q. can schools include ‘tuition partners’ or ‘academic mentors’ in the census? or is it just school led tutoring?
A. schools should only record school led tutoring under the FAM section of the census.
Q. Will the hours collected in the summer census be the total for the academic year up until that point, or only the hours since the spring census?
A. The number of hours returned in the summer census will be the hours since the beginning of the term.
Q. are the school led tutoring hours for the school census hours offered to the pupil or actual hours they have done? For example, a 1 hour group session for 4 pupils is 1 hour each, not 15 mins each pupil?
A. It’s the hours they have done. The number of hours would be one hour for each pupil.
Q. A pupil who had 0.5hrs for FAM has generated an error, is 0.5hrs allowed? Is this an incorrect trigger that will disappear when COLLECT opens properly?
A. Yes, COLLECT will be corrected prior to the census going live.
Q. I understand that the DfE expects that a school will provide up to 15 hours of tutoring per pupil across the academic year. If a school has already provided more than 15 hours for a pupil, should they record the actual hours provided or just enter the maximum 15 hours for which they will be funded? Is there a maximum figure allowed in COLLECT?
A. The school should record the number of school-led tutoring hours they have received since the beginning of the autumn term. Schools MIS will allow for 99.99 hours, if a pupil has genuinely received 100+ hours then the school can amend the number of hours in COLLECT. DfE advise 100+ hours for one pupil would be unusual and therefore schools should check they have not included the hours from other NTP routes (tuition partners or academic mentors).
Q. A school has employed 2 staff specifically to provide school led tutoring. If a child is in a group of 4 for an hour should they be recorded as receiving 1 hr tutoring or 15 minutes? Do we record hours actually received irrespective of what they were scheduled to receive e.g. if a pupil misses a session due to illness?
A. Where a group of pupils are taught for 1 hour, on the census each pupil would have 1 hour recorded against them.
Further FAQs on school led tutoring can be found on the National Tutoring webpage;
https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/schools/school-led-tutoring/frequently-asked-questions/
School Led Tutoring FAQs from Autumn Census;
Q. a school will commence delivering school-led tutoring after census (as training is only available from November) so should all pupils be left blank on the October census?
A. Only those pupils who are in receipt or have had school-led tutoring since the beginning of the autumn term should have data returned for them on autumn school census. If no pupils have received any yet these fields should be left blank. Please note for such cases query 4007 will trigger.
Q. For those schools who are waiting for the funding to arrive in their budgets before commencing with the student led tutoring, do they still tick the ones they intend to support or leave blank until those students officially receive that support?
A. Only those pupils who are in receipt or have had school-led tutoring since the beginning of the autumn term should have data returned for them on autumn school census. If the pupil/s have not received any yet these fields should be left blank.
Q. Where teachers have yet to complete training and tuition isn’t starting until after half term, if the pupil cohort has been identified should they be recorded in the census as being in receipt of FAM?
A. Only those pupils who are in receipt or have had school-led tutoring since the beginning of the autumn term should have data returned for them on autumn school census. If the pupil/s have not received any yet these fields should be left blank.
Q. what about the pupils that received this in the Summer Term just gone? Are these being counted anywhere?
A. The school-led tutoring did not come in until the beginning of the autumn term so any provision provided in the summer term was not school-led tutoring so should not be counted.
Q. Can the school-led tutoring take place at the same time as regular lessons, in focused groups, or does it have to be outside of the regular school day?
A. Schools have flexibility on when the tuition takes place. Please refer to the school-led tutoring grant guidance on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-led-tutoring-grant
16 to 19 tuition fund & repeat of final year of programme funding (secondary schools)
Q. Does the same apply for post 16 tuition fund as with the school-led tutoring, in that pupils should only be flagged for the Autumn census if they are receiving, or have received support through this, or should it be flagging pupils that schools expect to be supported by the post 16 tuition fund?
A. Only students who are receiving or have received support through this should be flagged on the autumn census.
School census administrators should initially liaise with school finance officers or headteachers to determine school’s funding situation.
Recovery Premium Funding
Purpose: In February 2021, the government announced a one-off recovery premium as part of its package of funding to support education recovery.
The recovery premium provides additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021 to 2022 academic year. Building on the pupil premium, this funding will help schools to deliver evidence-based approaches for supporting disadvantaged pupils.
Eligibility: All schools that are eligible for pupil premium are eligible for recovery premium. The recovery premium will be allocated using the same data as the pupil premium. This means the following pupils will attract recovery premium funding to schools:
- pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM)
- pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
- children looked after by local authorities and referred to as looked-after children (LAC)
- post looked-after children (post-LAC)
Further information including funding allocations per pupil can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recovery-premium-funding/recovery-premium-funding
What is the difference between school-led tutoring and pupil premium recovery funding?
The recovery premium funding is a one-off payment as part of its package of funding to support education recovery. Schools should spend this premium on evidence-based approaches to support pupils. In line with the Education Endowment Foundation’s pupil premium guide, activities should include those that:
- support the quality of teaching, such as staff professional development
- provide targeted academic support, such as tutoring
- deal with non-academic barriers to success in school, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support
Like the pupil premium, schools can:
- spend the recovery premium on a wider cohort of pupils than those who attract the funding
- direct recovery premium spending where they think the need is greatest
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recovery-premium-funding
School-led Tutoring is being introduced as part of the National Tutoring Programme in 2021/22. Eligible state-funded schools and academy trusts will receive a ring-fenced grant to source their own tutoring provision for disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils who have missed the most education due to COVID-19.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-led-tutoring-grant
updated 20/01/2022