Guidance

Regional plan for East of England: summary

Updated 3 July 2026

Applies to England

Summary    

This publication is a concise edition of the East of England regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) regional plan from the Department for Education (DfE) setting out how RISE will be delivered locally to improve outcomes for all children and young people.

It translates the RISE national priorities into a clear local approach, builds on existing strength, and aligns with wider local strategies.

The plan:

• supports collaboration across schools, trusts, local authorities and wider partners
• aims to strengthen relationships with the wider system
• provides a practical framework for improving practice, building capacity and sharing learning

Delivering RISE depends on collective effort, with all partners focusing on what matters most, using evidence well and contributing to a more connected, confident and resilient system. 

Regional focus for East of England

The East of England is a diverse region, home to over 2.7 million children and young people. It includes prosperous urban centres with strong links to London, alongside rural communities, market towns and extensive coastline.

Some areas face significant deprivation, where limited transport reduces access to education and employment. Key stage 2 outcomes in the region are among the lowest nationally.

While key stage key stage 4 performance is stronger, a substantial attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers persists. Reception good level of development (GLD) data shows the gap starts early.

Reception-year quality

We will ensure every child has the strongest start. We will raise the proportion of 5‑year‑olds achieving a GLD from 68.7% in 2025 to 75% by 2028, giving more children the solid foundation they deserve.

Inclusive mainstream

We will champion high‑quality, local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision so that every child can learn, thrive and succeed close to home. We will work with local authorities to reform their SEND arrangements in line with the vision set by the Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper. We will draw on the expertise of advisers to ensure that proposals are ambitious, inclusive, and high quality.

Attendance

We will work with schools and partners to raise attendance across our region. By 2028, we will narrow the persistent absence gap for pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils (15% in primary and 20.3% in secondary in 2024 to 2025) so that our region is better than national for disadvantaged pupils (12.4% for primary and 16.9% for secondary in 2024 to 2025). We will also increase the proportion of all pupils attending school more than 95% of the time and reduce the number of pupils who severely absent to pre-pandemic levels.

Attainment, with a focus on English and maths

Together we will raise outcomes for all and close gaps in achievement at all key stages. Our aim is that by 2028, attainment will have increased to at least pre-pandemic levels at key stage 2 (this was 63.6% for reading, writing and maths combined in 2018 to 2019) and the disadvantaged gap will be narrowed significantly.

We will have a particular focus on improving attainment more rapidly in the areas that are furthest away from this aim, including Central Bedfordshire and Norfolk.

What RISE will deliver in the East of England

To achieve our regional focus ambitions we will carry out the following activities:

Reception year quality

RISE support for reception improvement.

We will signpost to resources so that early years settings and schools can embed and strengthen practice, drawing on evidence-based approaches, including promoting use of DfE’s writing framework, prioritising resources on supporting children facing disadvantage and supporting transition into reception. We will do this by making more deliberate use of our disadvantage network and our reception-year network.

We will encourage partnerships between early years settings and schools, using the family hub model to test and implement different approaches to transitions, including for children with SEND.

Where a school’s GLD performance data is a concern, we will hold structured conversations about reception quality with their responsible body.

We will support schools to embed evidence‑based approaches to early communication and language development, working closely with English hubs and family hubs.

High‑quality reception case studies will be used to model effective practice, and we will actively promote the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) to help schools strengthen provision and narrow early language gaps.

Inclusive mainstream

RISE support for inclusive mainstream education.

We will work with local area partnerships and our Regional Innovation and Improvement Alliance (RIIA) Improvement East to improve the capacity, quality, and strategic coherence of inclusion bases across the region.

We will ensure that planning for inclusion bases forms a core part of local SEND reform plans to meet the needs of pupils. We will work closely with stakeholders to progress plans at pace.

We will promote collaboration across the system by supporting schools to join or form strong trusts. We will encourage schools to work together locally to reduce pupils needing to travel long distances to access specialist provision.

We will use universal RISE to strengthen peer‑to‑peer learning through conferences, networks, and shared resources.

We will gather examples of effective approaches across the region and share these through our networks, including Improvement East, driving alignment, peer learning, and system coherence.

We will work with Improvement East go to embed inclusive mainstream and consistent practice as shared regional priorities, and channel departmental guidance and RISE resources through their networks to ensure consistent messaging and shared tools across local authorities and trusts.

We will share best practice on partnership working to reduce suspensions and exclusions.

We will provide support to, and challenge schools with high exclusion rates including through expert guidance, behaviour reviews, and signposting to leadership support.

When moving a school to a new trust, or identifying a responsible body to provide RISE support, we will prioritise organisations who have evidence of strong inclusive practice.

We will also pay close attention to data from schools that indicate poor inclusion. We will follow up with responsible bodies where there is data or intelligence that suggests that off-rolling may be taking place.

Attendance

RISE support for improving attendance in schools.

We will provide clear guidance on how schools should access, interpret and act on their data, including understanding which schools are performing well and how to connect with them for peer learning.

We will encourage schools to identify emerging concerns quickly and intervene early to support children and families where needed, through structured attendance conversations. We will support and challenge responsible bodies whose attendance falls below that of similar schools.

We will strengthen school capability and severe absence practice by working directly with selected schools, building regional practice groups and applying test and learn approaches from the Severe Absence Project.

We will promote full use of DfE tools such as View Your Education Data (VYED), the Banding Tool, and the Similar Schools Attendance Tool, helping schools benchmark performance and learn from higher‑performing peers.

We will create stronger regional peer-learning networks that unite schools, trusts and local authorities with similar contexts, to drive practical action.

We will deliver a clear, tiered attendance and behaviour hub programme, providing targeted support for priority schools, offer high‑quality CPD, host open days, and provide clear, accessible best‑practice resources and universal access to guidance, templates and webinars.

We will provide practical tools that support the early identification of pupils and families who may need additional help, using data to guide and personalise interventions, offering examples drawn from effective practice in coastal and rural areas.

We will encourage the development of deeper partnerships with community organisations, early help teams and other stakeholders to widen the support available to children and families.

We will promote consistent multi-agency alignment by clarifying expectations of local authority roles, developing shared protocols where possible, and supporting leaders to understand how to navigate and apply expectations regardless of county boundaries.

Attainment, with a focus on English and maths

RISE support for improving attainment in schools.

Together with our networks, we will identify barriers affecting disadvantaged pupils and share best practice across the system, including KS3 approaches that build strong foundations during and after transition.

We will promote effective literacy and numeracy routines, successful transition models, parental engagement strategies and programmes that raise aspirations, improve attitudes to learning and strengthen pupils’ sense of belonging.

Through our networks, we will host regional conferences to connect practitioners and promote the sharing of best practice (including promoting the DfE writing framework).

We will ensure schools in need receive additional English hub and maths hub support to strengthen early reading, fluency, phonics and mathematical confidence, and work together with our hubs to share best practice.

We have established the Central Bedfordshire Education Leadership Improvement Partnership to address the significant challenge of raising key stage 2 attainment in the area. If this approach proves successful, it could be adapted and applied to other areas.

When we are responsible for decisions on structural change for schools, our framework for decision making will prioritise trusts with a track record for improving attainment.

We will hold detailed attainment discussions with responsible bodies that are underperforming to review performance at key stage 2 and key stage 4, identifying where further support is needed and drawing on strong practice from high-performing schools.

We will use the new trust standards referenced in Every Child Achieving and Thriving to hold trusts to account and support their self-improvement.

Regional themes

The plan sets out 4 cross-cutting themes, which underpin RISE delivery in the region.

Parental and community engagement – strengthening how schools, trusts and local partners engage parents and carers and collaborate within communities.

Strong system leadership and governance – developing schools and trust leaders, governing bodies and trustees, and championing diversity.

Networking and collaboration – promoting strong partnership working, as leadership beyond organisational boundaries is essential to underpin the delivery of our priorities.

Technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and school-level data – making the best use of technology to enhance how data is used to inform decision-making, identify priorities and drive improvements.