The Department for Education has said it will ask RISE advisers to help schools identified as having “low or concerning attainment”.

Until now, Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams have worked with schools defined by the DfE as being “stuck”, based on their previous two Ofsted inspections.

But the DfE has now said that, from next September, the teams will also provide 18 months’ support to schools identified as requiring “significant improvement” in Ofsted’s new report-card inspections.

In addition, the department wants RISE teams to work with other schools where attainment is low.

‘Informal’ help this term on low attainment

The RISE teams were created by the government last year to provide targeted support to schools deemed to need it.

They also currently provide broader support across four areas: attainment, particularly in English and maths; inclusive mainstream practice; the Reception year; and attendance.

In its response to a consultation published today, the DfE said this term it will launch “informal engagement with some schools that have low or concerning attainment”.

RISE advisers will meet with these schools to discuss their attainment and agree on actions, including how they will work with hubs, higher-performing schools and other support networks.

Future plans for tackling under-performance

The DfE will also launch a separate consultation later this term on further options for using the RISE service to address low attainment.

It will seek views on which metrics should be used to target schools for support. This metric needs to “contextualise performance using prior attainment, while noting that there will be no secondary progress data in 2025-26”, the DfE said

Interventions to ramp up

The DfE has also confirmed proposals set out in a DfE consultation on school accountability earlier this year, which explored how Ofsted grades would be used under a new inspection framework to intervene in schools.

They come as Ofsted has today announced its final plans for report-card inspections, which start from November. Inspectors will grade schools using a five-point score across six evaluation areas.

Under the new system, where a school has not achieved the “expected standard” in all six areas at its next Ofsted inspection after 18 months of RISE support, the school would have to convert into an academy or move to a different trust.

The DfE is also changing its definition of “stuck schools” to align with the new Ofsted framework.

It initially identified around 400 stuck schools eligible for RISE support based on the definition of being graded as “requires improvement” at their most recent inspection, and below “good” at the inspection before this.

However, under the new inspection system, stuck schools will be those receiving a “needs attention” rating for leadership and governance in successive inspections.

The DfE said structural intervention would happen if, after two years, stuck schools have not been graded as “expected standard” in all areas.

The department said that, through RISE teams and structural interventions, it expects to intervene in twice as many schools as were covered in the two years before these policy changes.

377 schools currently eligible for RISE support

Across the spring, summer and autumn RISE cohorts, 396 academies and local-authority maintained schools have been identified for targeted RISE support. As of 31 July 2025, 377 schools remained eligible.

The DfE published data today showing that, across primary schools being targeted by RISE teams, 43 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2024, compared with a national average of 62 per cent.

And the percentage of pupils persistently absent in secondary schools receiving support stands at 34.9 per cent, compared with the national rate of 25.6 per cent, it said.

School profiles

The DfE also announced today that it is pushing ahead with creating a new school profiles service that aims to provide parents and the public with “clear, reliable information across a range of school performance indicators”.

The department is also creating a new online platform that will enable head teachers to benchmark their school’s performance against other, similar schools - by size or deprivation levels, for example.

Both of these are being piloted this year and will be launched publicly in the 2026-27 academic year.