Charity, overseen by some of the best-connected people in education, already advertising for staff to work on DfE-funded National Tutoring Programme

A well-connected charity appears to be so confident of being funded by the government to provide “catch-up” tutoring for disadvantaged pupils that it is already advertising for people to work on the scheme.

The Brilliant Club, which for eight years has been providing PhD researchers to work in schools in a bid to increase the number of disadvantaged pupils going on to leading universities, is seeking to broaden its work by getting involved in the government’s National Tutoring Programme.

Announced in the summer by the Prime Minister, this is a £350 million scheme which aims to provide small group tuition to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds during this academic year, with the aim of narrowing attainment gaps which may have grown during the coronavirus crisis. It is overseen by the Education Endowment Foundation.

The Brilliant Club’s advert says it is seeking to employ “up to 12” people to work as “programme officers”, on £30,073 a year, as part of its involvement in the National Tutoring Programme, which is to be called the “Brilliant Tutoring Programme”.

All of which might seem unremarkable. Except that the identity of the organisations which are to be funded by the scheme have yet to be announced. Indeed, on the website which has been set up to provide detail on this National Tutoring Programme offer, it is stated that the “list of approved tuition partners” will not be unveiled until October 31^st.