Tutoring: The New Landscape

The report reveals that 30% of young people in the UK had private tuition, up from 27% pre-pandemic. This is the highest level since 2005, when it stood at 18%. There are stark regional disparities in the use of private tuition, with 46% of pupils in London having ever had private tutoring, compared to 21% in Wales and 16% in the North East. Paying for private tuition on top of a child’s standard schooling is growing increasingly popular. But its use is creating a two-tier system, with wealthier families able to pay to secure their children advantages that poorer families simply cannot afford. For almost two decades, Sutton Trust research has highlighted the growth of private tutoring, access to which is heavily skewed towards the wealthy. But many state schools are now also offering tutoring to pupils via the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), a major government initiative announced in 2020 to help pupils catch up and recover from disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report takes a closer look at this new landscape for tutoring in the aftermath of the pandemic, both private and school-based, using the latest data from the Ipsos Young People Omnibus and the COSMO (COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities) study. This data is used to conduct the most detailed examination to date of who is receiving private tuition and whether school provision via the NTP is helping to level the playing field. The report also looks at options for the National Tutoring Programme in the long-term, to ensure it’s delivering for the poorest young people.