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

The National Tutoring Programme subsidy ended in 2024. DfE's January 2026 AI tutoring announcement funds tool development, co-created with teachers, with trials from autumn 2026 and tools by the end of 2027, aimed at up to 450,000 FSM-eligible pupils in years 9 to 11. No recurrent delivery funding stream is attached, and DfE concedes the current evidence for AI tutoring is limited. EEF evidence shows human tutoring yields about five months' progress. Charities like Action Tutoring and companies like Third Space Learning run blended human-and-AI pilots without a national commissioning route.

The attainment gap widened after the pandemic and tutoring is the best-evidenced remedy. Tools without a funded entitlement leave disadvantaged pupils out, because their schools cannot buy delivery, and the 450,000-pupil ambition stays on paper.

A pupil-premium-linked tutoring entitlement for disadvantaged key stage 3 and 4 pupils, commissioning blended human-and-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 after the pandemic and tutoring is best-evidenced, and the subsidy ended in 2024 with tool development carrying no recurrent delivery funding.