Most of the families I know don't use tutors much at this age, except for maybe foreign languages and musical instruments. They prefer to save up for the (I)GCSE preparation years, where tutors very often have an important role to play - if you get the right tutors at that stage, they will be very familiar with the particular syllabus for whichever exam the child is sitting, and understand the marking scheme so they can help the child understand whether they're on track for the grade they want, and how to pick up extra marks.
You don't necessarily have to do much or any formal academic work in the early secondary years unless the child is eager to do some exams at an early age. Some academically able kids sit an exam or two at 13 or 14 and then several per year. By spreading them out over a few years, they can reduce stress and achieve better results. But of course there's no need to push kids to do exams early if they aren't champing at the bit and likely to get good results. Some kids, like my eldest, do them late because they aren't academically ready or motivated by 16. It's all about what suits the individual.
One skill which some parents say they wish they had pushed in the early secondary years is essay writing. If you wait until they are 14 and learning, say, the content of geography and English literature IGCSE while also getting to grips with essay writing in parallel, that can be hard work.
There are various approaches to home education, some of which are radically different from school. Neither of my kids (now 22 and 15) did any adult-imposed formal academic work at all, but instead learned what interested them. For them, learning was never work. It would be hard to say how many hours a day they were learning; you might argue that it was all of their waking hours. They ended up covering a range of subjects and acquiring good skills that way. This is called "autonomous education" or "unschooling".