Multi-academy trusts are delivering the vast majority of school support being provided through a flagship government improvement programme.
Data obtained by Tes reveals the organisations providing support in the first stage of the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) programme along with the “stuck” schools they have been matched with.
Out of 215 “stuck” schools, 159 had been matched with an organisation as of July this year, and RISE advisers had selected 124 organisations to help them.
RISE advisers, appointed by the DfE to deliver school improvement, are initially focusing on “stuck” schools - those with an Ofsted rating of “requires improvement” that were previously rated less than “good”.
The large MATs providing RISE support
The trusts chosen to provide support range from some of the biggest MATs in the country to single-academy trusts.
REAch2 Academy Trust, Delta Academies Trust, Lift Schools, the Harris Federation, Unity Schools Partnership and Ark Schools are all among the chosen supporting organisations.
In the first 159 partnerships, there are 26 trusts involved that run 20 or more schools, and another 38 trusts with between 10 and 19 schools.
Three single-academy trusts have been selected, as well as 22 trusts with five or fewer schools.
Most of the RISE advisers, who match schools with organisations, come from MAT backgrounds.
Leora Cruddas CBE, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “We have long advocated using the expertise in trusts to support improvement in the wider schools sector and RISE can enable this.
“Our collective agency and commitment to improve all schools so that children receive a high-quality education matters. Ultimately, we see the benefits of all schools being in a strong trust.”
Who else is delivering help?
Six maintained schools and three other organisations have been chosen to provide support through RISE. These other organisations are the Education Exchange, HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning) and Haringey Education Partnership.
Most organisations only working with one school
The data also shows that of the 124 supporting organisations involved, 100 are helping just one school.
However, Greenshaw Learning Trust is supporting five, while the Education Exchange and REAch2 are each supporting four.
‘Stuck’ schools getting help by phase
Of the first 159 schools to get a supporting organisation, 80 are secondaries, 68 are primaries, eight are special schools, and there are also two university technical colleges (UTCs) and one all-through school.
The majority of schools receiving support are academies. The 126 academies matched with a supporting organisation include the two UTCs and four free schools.
RISE support by region
When comparing regions, the North West has the most “stuck” schools in the first 159, with 28 schools getting a supporting organisation in place up to July; followed by 23 in the South East, 21 in the East of England and 20 in the East Midlands.
There are 17 “stuck” schools with a supporting organisation in place in both the South West and West Midlands and 16 in Yorkshire and the Humber, the data shows.
The region with the fewest “stuck” schools is London, where four schools have been partnered with a supporting organisation.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “No child should spend their time in a school that is consistently underperforming, and our RISE teams, made up of education experts with a track record of improving schools, are providing the catalyst needed to drive up standards in all corners of the country.”
Fears about transparency
“Stuck” schools will get two years of support through the RISE programme. After this they could face structural intervention if their next Ofsted report has any grades below the “expected standard” in Ofsted’s five-point scoring system in its new report-card inspections, which are due to start in November.
Earlier this year trust leaders raised concerns about the transparency of the RISE process. One leader told Tes at the time that they were worried some schools may end up just deciding to join their supporting organisation as they face pressure from repeated Ofsted monitoring inspections.
When Tes asked in May whether there was a tendering framework to decide how supporting organisations are chosen, the DfE did not answer. The department was asked again for this article and had not commented by the time of publication.
After revealing the 215 “stuck” schools receiving targeted RISE support earlier this year, the DfE this week said the teams will reach 377 schools this academic year.
It also announced a plan to extend the remit of the RISE teams to also work with schools where attainment is identified as low or concerning.
The DfE is planning to launch a consultation to establish what metrics should be used to identify the schools whose performance means they should face intervention.
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