16-19 Tuition Fund - Process and Impact Evaluation

Tender description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to alert the market to a proposed process and impact evaluation of the 16-19 Tuition Fund. The evaluation will be used for continuous improvement of the scheme and to measure the impact of the fund. About the 16-19 Tuition Fund Like all learners, students aged 16-19 (in further education and school settings) have had their learning disrupted by Covid-19. In June 2021 DfE announced a package of 'education recovery' measures**See 'links' section of this listing for publication** for supporting learners, including for 16-19-year-olds. This included extending the 16-19 Tuition fund which ran in academic year 2020-21 to the 2021-22 academic year. The 16-19 tuition fund aims to support small group tuition for students aged 16-19 in English, Maths and other subjects that have been disrupted by the pandemic. Students are eligible if they have not achieved a GCSE grade 4 or 5 in English and/or Maths or have a grade 4 or above and are from an economically disadvantaged background. More details on the fund can be found in the 'Links' section of this listing. Process Evaluation The proposed process evaluation will aim to answer the following overarching research questions: 1) How has the Tuition Fund been used by providers? 2) How has the Tuition Fund been supporting eligible learners? 3) How can the Tuition Fund be improved for future years? We expect the process evaluation will use a multi-method approach, including surveys and in-depth interviews or focus groups with learners and providers. Impact Evaluation The proposed impact evaluation will aim to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the impact of the Tuition Fund on educational attainment outcomes in academic year 2021/22? 2) Does the impact of the Tuition Fund vary by type of course? 3) Does the impact of the Tuition Fund differ by learner characteristics? The universality of the 16-19 Tuition Fund makes designing an impact evaluation challenging as there is no significant control or comparison group. In academic year 2020/21, 1,869 out of 2,427 16-19 providers opted into the fund and 558 providers opted out. While it may be possible to construct a comparison group from these 558 providers, this could be difficult because the two groups may not be comparable. We have begun exploring some impact evaluation options and we will be inviting bidders to consider these and propose their own quasi-experimental or non-experimental approaches. We will also ask bidders to build a feasibility testing phase into their proposal, to test the viability of an impact evaluation alongside the process evaluation. For some initial methodological ideas and further information please see the additional information section. Please also see the 'additional information' section for further details, including how we expect to issue the call for competition should the opportunity go ahead, (Note: this will not be through ContractsFinder).