Tutoring is the single best-evidenced tool we have for closing the attainment gap

Name: Impetus
Price range: $

Half

Nearly half of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds leave education without the basic English and maths they need to access apprenticeships, further study and most skilled jobs.

40%

They are 40% less likely than their better off peers to pass their GCSEs that are crucial for progression into higher and further education and into employment.

4 months

Tutoring is the single best-evidenced tool we have for closing this attainment gap, with an average impact of four months’ additional progress over the course of a year.

Parents and the general public strongly support tutoring, but unequal access to tutoring is actually widening the attainment gap – schools and colleges are having to cut back on tutoring while affluent families are investing in private tutors like never before.

Effectively deployed, tutoring reduces pressure on teaching staff and helps leaders address a wide range of challenges. It can improve student motivation, increase attendance and reduce the chances of young people becoming NEET.

Together with Action Tutoring, Get Further, The Tutor Trust and Public First, we are calling on all political parties to commit to a Tutoring Guarantee – a national state-funded tutoring offer that will give young people a fair opportunity to learn and succeed, regardless of their background or where they live.

Implemented well, the educational and economic impact is projected to exceed the cost by at least £6.58 for every £1 spent.

Frequently asked questions

Access is unequal, and that inequality is growing. While 77% of parents want to see more tutoring, only 15% of school leaders planned to offer it without dedicated external funding, and 58% reported providing less tutoring than the previous year. At the same time, the proportion of families paying for private tutoring has grown from a fifth to a third of students in under 20 years, so unequal access is widening the attainment gap rather than closing it.

No, the aim is the opposite. Effectively deployed tutoring is designed to reduce pressure on teaching staff rather than add to it, helping school leaders address a wide range of existing challenges. Tutoring can also strengthen the pipeline into teaching itself, as today's tutors often become tomorrow's teachers.

The Covid-era National Tutoring Programme is a case study in what to avoid. Its impact was undermined by unclear goals, a lack of targeted focus on the students who most needed support, cumbersome administration, limited data for evaluation, and an unpredictable funding mechanism, resulting in a 40% underspend in 2022/23. A future Tutoring Guarantee would put schools and colleges in the driving seat, with stable multi-year funding and practical support to commission high quality provision, rather than being run from the centre.

Our detailed Policy Brief sets out nine design principles for tutoring that works:

Target tutoring to close the attainment gap
Support tutoring from age 5 to age 19
Focus on English and maths
Fund at least 15 hours of tutoring per student
Deliver tutoring in groups of no more than four
Help schools and colleges commission high quality tutoring, in-house or external
Make it a fully funded, multi-year offer
Require accountability without excessive bureaucracy
Harness the potential of AI for the most disadvantaged students

Download the full policy Brief

AI has real potential to support human tutors and provide some personalised help, but the evidence for standalone AI tutoring tools is still in its infancy. A Tutoring Guarantee would help schools and colleges build the capacity to use AI well, including through independent product checks, training and guidance, so disadvantaged students don't miss out on the benefit of working with a human tutor.

Tutoring has long been a feature of some of the highest performing education systems, particularly in East Asia. In the United States, more than half of state governments now fund tutoring, and the federal government recently announced a further $130 million investment in high impact tutoring programmes.