Ensuring every child can leave school and progress in life: Action Tutoring’s response to the Schools White Paper
We welcome the publication of today’s Schools White Paper, ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’. The Government’s commitment to ending the ‘postcode lottery’ for SEND pupils and its radical restructuring of disadvantaged funding represent a significant step toward a more equitable education system. Ensuring every child can leave school and progress in life is exactly what we, at Action Tutoring, strive to achieve.
From our infancy, as a charity, we have committed to supporting geographical areas where the need is greatest. We are proud of the reach our online model has enabled, from Cornwall to Cumbria, and we have seen the difference this investment is making in these communities. Read more about our work to tackle rural educational challenges here and our moves to Rotherham, Hull and Dorset.
We welcome the Government’s commitment to these harder to reach areas through its ‘Mission North East’ and ‘Mission Coastal’ initiatives. We remain dedicated to providing schools with the high-quality, subsidised tutoring capacity required to support these new national targets.
We wholeheartedly support the Government’s ‘generational’ mission to halve the attainment gap by 2030. However, an ambition of this scale cannot be built on top of existing school deficits; for these reforms to take root, the ‘Inclusive Mainstream Fund’ must be treated as a foundation, not a substitute, for a significant uplift in core per-pupil funding
Additionally we urge the Government to ensure that “flexibility” around resource spend does not lead to a dilution of quality, and that it is directed toward evidence-based, high-impact small-group interventions.
We believe that for tutoring to become a permanent engine of social mobility, schools need the long-term financial certainty to plan beyond a single academic year. We call on the Government to ensure that the path to 2030 is paved with sustainable, ring-fenced investment in the children who need it most.
“We have the evidence, the tutors, and the will to close the attainment gap. Now, we need sustained investment to match the Government’s rhetoric.” Jen Fox, CEO, Action Tutoring
