A PIONEERING education charity co-founded by Stockton Heath parish councillor Nick Bent is celebrating after scooping a major award.

The Tutor Trust, which aims to 'democratise academic tuition' in Britain through an innovative delivery model, was named as the 'best new charity' at the Charity Times Awards during a prestigious ceremony in London on September 28.

The event was attended by Mr Bent and fellow co-founder Abigail Shapiro.

Both had double reason to celebrate as the following day, September 29, marked five years since Tutor Trust was formally registered with the Charity Commission to become a charity.

Stockton Heath resident and Labour parish councillor Mr Bent said: "It's a rare privilege to be able to turn your ideas into reality, especially when the motivation is to give Britain a fairer future.

"To be recognised as the 'best new charity' in Britain is a huge boost to our work across the north of England and a well-deserved accolade for our whole team.

"Our idea has huge national potential and in the next five years we want to take Tutor Trust into five new cities and also support our tutors into digital skills tuition, modern foreign languages and transition work, as well as boosting our work with looked after children."

After the Tutor Trust became a charity in 2011, initial funding came from the Education Endowment Foundation.

Since then it has recruited and trained more than 1,000 tutors and provided in excess of 50,000 hours of academic tuition to schools.