No funded successor to the National Tutoring Programme to deliver AI-blended tutoring to disadvantaged pupils

The NTP subsidy ended in 2024. DfE's January 2026 AI tutoring announcement funds tool development (co-created with teachers, trials from autumn 2026, tools by end-2027, aimed at up to 450,000 FSM-eligible pupils in years 9–11), but there is no recurrent delivery funding stream attached, and DfE concedes current evidence for AI tutoring is 'limited'. EEF evidence shows human tutoring yields ~5 months' progress; charities like Action Tutoring and companies like Third Space Learning are running blended human+AI pilots without a national commissioning route.

The attainment gap widened post-pandemic and tutoring is the best-evidenced remedy. Building tools without a funded entitlement repeats the edtech pattern: products exist, disadvantaged pupils, whose schools cannot buy delivery, do not benefit, and the 450,000-pupil ambition remains a press release.

A pupil-premium-linked tutoring entitlement for disadvantaged KS3/4 pupils, commissioning blended human+AI tutoring only from validated providers, with an EEF-run stepped-wedge evaluation as it scales.

// State-led: Instrument: pupil-premium-linked statutory tutoring entitlement with national commissioning and recurrent DfE funding.

The attainment gap widened post-pandemic and tutoring is best-evidenced, yet the NTP subsidy ended in 2024 and tool development carries no recurrent delivery funding for disadvantaged pupils.