If you've heard of the National Tutoring Programme, you probably know two things: it existed, and it doesn't any more. What you might not know is what happened next - and why it matters for your child.
The NTP was the largest tutoring initiative in UK history. Its sudden end in 2024 created a gap that, according to the latest research, is now widening the inequality between children from affluent families and everyone else. Understanding this context helps explain why affordable tutoring matters more now than at any point in the last decade.
What the National Tutoring Programme was
The NTP was launched in November 2020 as part of the government's response to the pandemic. The logic was straightforward: school closures had caused children to fall behind, and the evidence showed that tutoring - particularly one-to-one and small-group tuition - was among the most effective interventions for helping them catch up.
The programme provided subsidised tutoring to schools across England, delivered through three routes: tuition partners (external organisations approved to deliver tutoring), school-led tutoring (where schools recruited and managed their own tutors), and academic mentors (full-time tutors placed in schools).
Over its lifetime, the NTP delivered tens of millions of hours of tuition. At its peak, it reached hundreds of thousands of pupils, with a deliberate focus on disadvantaged children - those eligible for free school meals and Pupil Premium funding.
The programme wasn't perfect. Early years were plagued by logistical challenges, uptake varied enormously between schools, and there were legitimate questions about whether the tutoring was sufficiently targeted at the children who needed it most. But the overall evidence was positive. Research from the Sutton Trust found that the NTP significantly expanded access to tutoring for pupils from low-income families - a group that had historically been locked out of the private tutoring market by cost.
The EEF's own evaluations confirmed what the broader evidence base already showed: small-group tutoring in schools, when well-delivered by trained tutors, produced measurable improvements in attainment. A separate EEF-funded trial of the Tutor Trust - a charity delivering affordable small-group tutoring in disadvantaged schools - found three months' additional progress in maths for Year 6 pupils.
Why it ended
The NTP was always time-limited. The government's position was that the programme had served its purpose as a pandemic recovery measure and that schools should now fund tutoring through existing Pupil Premium budgets.
The problem with that argument, as the Sutton Trust has repeatedly pointed out, is that Pupil Premium funding is being squeezed. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Pupil Premium funding is approximately 14% lower in real terms than it was in 2014-15. And Sutton Trust polling found that 47% of school leaders were using Pupil Premium money to plug gaps in their general budgets - the highest proportion since the question was first asked in 2017.
In other words, the government told schools to fund tutoring from a pot that was already shrinking and being diverted to cover basic operational costs.
What happened next
The impact was swift and measurable.
Polling conducted for the Sutton Trust by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that after the NTP ended, 58% of schools reduced their tutoring offer compared to the previous year. More starkly, 37% of school leaders stopped offering tutoring entirely.
The most recent Sutton Trust data, published in February 2026, paints a sobering picture of who's affected:
- Only 23% of pupils from the least affluent backgrounds received private tutoring in 2025, compared to 30% from the most affluent.
- In London, 45% of pupils had received private tutoring. In the rest of England, just 27%. In Wales, 24%. In rural areas, only 19%, compared to 33% in urban areas.
- School-based tutoring - which had been the primary route through which disadvantaged children accessed tuition - has declined dramatically. Only 20% of pupils received tutoring through their school in 2025.
The tutoring gap is an inequality gap
Private tutoring in the UK is, and always has been, distributed unequally. Families with higher incomes can afford £30-£50 per hour for a qualified tutor. Families on median incomes struggle. Families on low incomes simply can't.
The NTP briefly disrupted this pattern by providing subsidised tutoring through schools, directed at the children who needed it most. Its end has returned the market to its default state: tutoring for those who can pay, and nothing for those who can't.
This matters because the evidence on tutoring effectiveness is not neutral on who benefits most. The EEF consistently finds that children from disadvantaged backgrounds - those eligible for free school meals - tend to benefit more from tutoring than their better-off peers. The Tutor Trust trial found that FSM-eligible children showed at least as much benefit as non-FSM children, with some indication they may have benefited more.
In other words, the children who most need tutoring, who would benefit most from it, and who were finally getting access to it through the NTP, are now the least likely to receive it.
What the government is doing (and not doing)
In February 2026, the Department for Education announced a pilot scheme for AI tutoring, planned for 2027, targeting up to 450,000 children eligible for free school meals in Years 9-11.
This is notable for two reasons. First, it's aimed at secondary school pupils, not primary - meaning it won't help younger children at the critical stage when foundational skills are being built. Second, it relies on AI rather than human tutors. While AI tutoring tools are developing rapidly, the current evidence base for AI-delivered tutoring is thin. Johns Hopkins researchers have noted that "the most effective models use human tutors" and that even in AI-assisted programmes, "the human tutor is driving the instructional process."
There is currently no government plan to restore funded human tutoring in primary schools.
What this means for your family
If your child attends a state primary school, the practical implications are:
Your school may no longer offer tutoring. If it was available last year through NTP funding, it may have been cut. Ask your child's teacher directly whether any tutoring provision remains.
If your child is eligible for Pupil Premium, the school can use that funding for tutoring - but they may be prioritising other uses. You can ask how Pupil Premium is being spent and whether external tutoring could be commissioned. At £5 per lesson, Bell.Study is one of the most cost-effective options a school could deploy.
If you're paying privately, you're in the minority. Only around a quarter of UK pupils receive private tutoring, and the proportion is much lower outside London and among families on lower incomes. If you can afford tutoring, your child has an advantage that most of their peers do not.
Affordable alternatives exist. The end of the NTP doesn't mean the end of tutoring - it means the end of subsidised tutoring through schools. The private market continues, and new models are emerging that make tutoring accessible at price points that weren't previously possible. Read our guide to tutoring costs in 2026 for a full comparison.
In the meantime, there are free resources that can help. Bell.Study offers 27 free curriculum-aligned games covering maths, English, and science for KS1 and KS2. Our free SATs practice tool uses real past paper questions. And you can browse the full national curriculum to understand exactly what your child should be learning at each stage.
Why we built Bell.Study
Bell.Study exists because we believe the end of the NTP doesn't have to mean the end of access.
The evidence is clear: small-group tutoring with qualified teachers delivers four months' additional progress per year for primary school children. It's particularly effective for disadvantaged pupils. And it works just as well online as in person.
The only barrier is cost. And at £5 per lesson - with qualified, DBS-checked primary teachers - that barrier is gone.
Every lesson at Bell.Study is live, taught by a real teacher, in real time. Groups of two to five children. English reading, GPS, and mathematics across KS1 and KS2. No subscriptions to forget. No algorithms pretending to be teachers. Just qualified professionals doing what they trained to do, at a price that reflects what we believe education should cost.