Open letter to the new Labour Government

Dear Prime Minister

Firstly, congratulations on your party’s success in Thursday’s general election.  I hope you have had time to celebrate, and to reflect on what that outcome means.

It is an immense honour to step into a role which will see you and your Cabinet influencing and steering the lives of almost 67 million people. You have a mandate from the electorate to make things better and I believe you are determined to fulfil your promises to make a positive difference to people’s lives.

I am the Chief Executive of Tutor Trust - an established education charity in the north of England which aims to transform lives through tutoring. I am writing to you, and your Cabinet, with an appeal to support the next generation to have the very best start in life. Our organisation has worked with young people in the north of England for over a decade, striving to be part of a more equitable education system and close the attainment gap between disadvantaged young people and their wealthier peers, currently at its highest level for a decade.

I am appealing to you to put tuition firmly on the agenda in schools and to include any additional measures needed to support all pupils to achieve their potential, not just those who are fortunate enough to access private tuition.

Working together to break down barriers

Your manifesto pledges to break down barriers to opportunity. and I am making a direct appeal to you to prioritise shrinking the gap in learning outcomes between students in the North and South of the country. We’re pleased you want to raise school standards by recruiting more high-quality teachers. This will go a long way to improving the educational attainment of young people who have been drastically affected by the pandemic and its aftermath, but pairing this promise with an investment in tuition will go even further.

Evidence of tuition's impact

I know you will be aware that the evidence shows that one-to-one and small group tuition can be highly effective in supporting learning, and that targeting support towards disadvantaged pupils in particular may help close attainment gaps.  The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) (which ends next month) played a huge role in giving schools the funds to be able to access targeted tuition programmes for their young learners. In fact, tuition in schools and its ability to nurture and encourage the most challenged young people to embrace a subject and learning in general, has very real economic outcomes. A report from Public First in January this year shows that the NTP has contributed more than £4.3 billion to the economy.

During the life of the NTP, Tutor Trust supported some 25,000 young people in secondary and primary schools across Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Merseyside, with the vast majority of those programmes funded by schools using their NTP budget.

During that time, we supported young people to boost their grades in SATs and GCSEs, to improve their attendance and to drive teacher recruitment, by inspiring our tutors to go into teaching and make their career in the classroom.

As a charity, we’re fortunate enough to have incredibly generous funders who allow us to provide tuition in schools at reduced rates and, in some cases, even for free, for those schools whose budgets are stretched. The long-reaching impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis means that we still have a lot of work to do and are in this for the long haul. To support young people at the scale that’s required, we need to have a commitment from the government to enable them to access high-quality and impactful tuition.

You have the power to positively influence the futures of millions of young people who do not, as yet, have the power to vote. The changes you can implement now to support their learning – and future life opportunities – are beyond politics, it’s about creating a legacy that might not be felt during your time in office, but which will be a valued gift to the next generation.

We look forward to working together with you to continue to transform the lives of young people across the North of England.

Yours sincerely

Ed Marsh

CEO, Tutor Trust