Guidance

RISE: South West regional plan

Updated 3 July 2026

Applies to England

Plan purpose

The regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) regional plan sets out how universal RISE will be delivered locally to improve outcomes for all children and young people.

By bringing partners together around the 4 national priorities, it provides shared direction, coherence and a practical framework for strengthening practice, building capacity and supporting sustained improvement.

The regional plan aims to:

• Translate national priorities into a clear local approach, ensuring evidence-informed work on reception-year quality, inclusive mainstream provision, attendance and attainment.
• Build on existing strengths, complementing practice already underway across schools, trusts and local authorities – adding value, not duplication.
• Align with wider local strategies, recognising statutory and place-based responsibilities and stepping back where local authorities are best placed to lead.
• Support and connect school and trust improvement, enabling collaboration on shared challenges and rapid spread of learning.
• Strengthen relationships across the wider system, including early years, health and care, recognising that progress – especially on inclusion – depends on multi‑agency effort.
• Provide a clear line into national reform, including developments to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision and the national priority on mainstream inclusion.
• Embed RISE within regional delivery, ensuring activity is coordinated, coherent and impactful.

Delivering RISE depends on every part of the system working with purpose. No single organisation can deliver improvement at the scale required.

The regional RISE plan calls on all partners to:

• bring their strengths, insight and leadership
• focus on actions that make the biggest difference
• share, test and refine practice quickly
• use evidence well
• contribute to a more connected, confident and resilient improvement system

This is not about doing everything. It is about doing what matters most, doing it well, and doing it together – so every child and young person can thrive.

Foreword by South West Regional Director

I am delighted to present the South West RISE Regional Plan, which outlines our strategy for enhancing education and outcomes for young people across our region. 

There is much to celebrate and take pride in across the South West. There is excellent practice in our schools, trusts and local authorities. Despite the size and geography of the region, there is a high level of connectivity, collaboration and sector-led partnership. The region has a rich historical and cultural heritage, with exciting and ever-broadening opportunities for young people. The South West is at the forefront of technological, industrial and environmental developments, including the renovation of the Plymouth docks, the Eden project, Spaceport Cornwall, the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre, the construction of Hinkley Point C and the Bridgwater ‘gigafactory’, to name a few. 

Alongside these opportunities, however, sit real challenges. By the end of key stage 2, pupils achieve less well across reading, writing and maths (RWM) than in any other part of the country and children experiencing disadvantage or with special educational needs (SEN) continue to face significant barriers at all phases of their education. There are pockets of deprivation alongside areas of affluence: parts of Bristol and Plymouth in particular face acute urban deprivation, while other areas face issues of rural or coastal isolation that affect pupil mobility, access to resources and staff recruitment in schools. We are committed to tackling these challenges.  

This plan embodies the voices of our partners, including local authorities, trusts, dioceses and schools. It captures the diversity of our region and the strength of our shared ambition to make changes for all the young people we serve, but particularly those that most need this change.

Collectively, we are committed to rapid, meaningful and enduring change for our region. I invite you to read on, and to join us on this endeavour. 

Lucy Livings

Regional Director, South West Region

Meet the South West RISE advisers

We are pleased to introduce the first South West RISE regional plan. We feel incredibly excited and privileged to be working with fellow education professionals across our region. We recognise both the opportunity and the responsibility that our roles bring and are committed to doing not just our collective best, but making the South West the best region for children to go to school: where children feel a strong sense of belonging to their schools and communities; where children love learning and going to school; where we have the highest expectations and ambitions and where all children, no matter their background or where they come from, have equitable opportunities to achieve and thrive. 

There is much to do, and the challenge for us is to ensure that RISE delivers where other initiatives have failed. We also know that the successes of the RISE programme must be sustained and meaningful, impacting not only the current generation of children but those that follow. In the South West this will be possible not only because the RISE programme is different to what has come before – at its core, RISE represents collaboration, sharing, and meaningful, lasting change over time – but also because we all have a shared grit and absolute determination to deliver for the children that we serve.

As a dedicated team of 7 RISE advisers for the South West, with diverse education and leadership backgrounds, we are pleased to collaborate with you and support the delivery of the RISE programme: 

• Joe Ambrose
• Jonathan Bishop
• Alison Fletcher
• Chris Gould
• Mike Ion
• Siobhan Meredith
• Jo Stoaling

We are proud of everything that has been achieved so far through the RISE programme – but we know we have so much further to go, and we are excited about everything we can achieve as we work in partnership with you across the South West. 

Please reach out to us by contacting: southwest.riseregionalmailbox@education.gov.uk.

Regional focus for South West

We have engaged extensively with partners across the South West to agree what the RISE national priorities mean for our region through engagement with all local authorities, dioceses, trust leaders and maths, English and teaching school hubs. In addition, we have drawn on data to identify regional focus areas: Explore our statistics and data.

While there are trends evident across the South West as a whole, we recognise that there will be variation at school level. Local contexts and individual school circumstances will continue to inform how these priorities are addressed in practice. The South West’s national priorities will focus on:

• Reception-year quality: raising good level of development (GLD) outcomes for pupils eligible for free school meals, strengthening early years teaching and focusing support in geographic areas of concern.
• Inclusive mainstream: improving inclusive practice and transitions, building an evidence‑informed system that enables more children to attend local schools and enhancing local capacity in areas that most need it.
• Attendance: improving persistent absence rates for high-risk pupils and securing stronger attendance in the key stage 2 to key stage 3 transition period.
• Attainment, with a focus on English and maths: closing the gap for disadvantaged pupils across the region and improving key stage 2 outcomes for all.

The South West is England’s largest region, home to around 5.8 million people and more than 760,000 pupils in state-funded schools. The region is made up of long stretches of coastline, large rural areas, and urban centres such as Bristol, Plymouth and Swindon. While the region is a leader in industries such as advanced manufacturing, clean energies, and defence, and contains areas of affluence, not everyone is benefiting equally. There is a reliance on lower paying sectors and part-time employment across large parts of the South West.

Pupil numbers in primary schools are declining and are forecast to continue to fall over the next 3 years. Secondary pupil numbers have increased since 2022 to 2023 but are forecast to decline after 2027 to 2028. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is below the national average, but this figure varies significantly between local areas: Bristol and Plymouth have particularly high levels of disadvantage across both primary and secondary phases. There have been significant increases in the number of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) in both state-funded primary (up 37%) and secondary (up 46%) schools since 2021 to 2022. 

The South West has strong foundations of collaboration across schools, trusts and other partners, reflected in a growing family of sector-led regional networks and examples of highly successful and innovative place-based work, notably in Plymouth. However, we know that the impact of such collaboration is not yet being seen consistently across the region.

The next chapter of the regional story is to build upon these foundations of collaboration to secure greater impact for children and young people across the 4 national priorities. To do this, and in addition to those specific ones set out below under each priority, 2 key activities will be:

Working through Team South West Regional school improvement architecture to ensure that the universal offer across the South West:

• is coherent and joined up
• has a sharp focus on evidence
• supports effective implementation in line with the principles of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)’s guide to Implementation
• is focused on those parts of the region where it is most needed

Supporting effective and impactful sharing of strong practice relating to the 4 RISE national priorities from across the South West and beyond. The South West’s family of sector-led networks and RISE discovery mornings (focused events where schools with strong practice open their doors to colleagues to share their work so that others can learn from this) will be key forums for this sharing. We will work closely with network leads to ensure a coherent and coordinated offer across the networks.

Two short-term actions will be:

• Working with Team South West to produce a single, comprehensive overview of the universal support offer for academic year 2026 to 2027.
• Reviewing and developing the discovery morning format to ensure it is optimised to support effective implementation of learning by participants in academic year 2026 to 2027.

Across all priorities and activities, we will learn and refine through monitoring, review and follow up to ensure that activity translates into measurable impact. We will seek to identify the practices, conditions and approaches that have contributed to success, or that may be hindering progress and to capture and share these insights, ensuring this feeds into our future approach.

Reception-year quality

RISE support for reception improvement.

Overview

GLD outcomes in the South West are relatively strong, with the region performing above national average and third highest nationally for all pupils, and with good outcomes for pupils with SEND. The majority of South West local authority areas are 6 or fewer percentage points away from the 2028 ambition of 75% of children reaching GLD at the end of reception, although there are some outliers.

For pupils eligible for free school meals, however, the picture is a stark contrast. In 2025 the South West region had the largest GLD gap between free school meal eligible and non-free school meal eligible children, with outcomes for eligible pupils varying widely across the region. These children are not having as positive a start to school in the South West as they are in other parts of the country.

We know that to further their learning in all areas, children first need secure foundations in personal social and emotional development (PSED), communication and language and physical development. The South West’s individual early learning goal (ELG) data indicates static trends in some of these key areas – a concerted focus on improving these outcomes for children will have the highest impact on increasing reception-year outcomes.

Regional focus for South West on reception-year quality

Focus 1: learn from what works to raise GLD for pupils eligible for free school meals

We will identify and share proven interventions and practice, where the context and demographics mirror South West areas of greatest need. We will use both outcomes and contextual data to highlight schools and trusts with strong, effective practice to share.

Focus 2: strengthen early years teaching

To address improving weaker ELG outcomes, we will focus on developmentally appropriate, personalised teaching and early years programmes that develop personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and professional development improving the quality of the reception year.

Focus 3: focus on areas of concern

We will focus on geographical areas where GLD outcomes are below the national average or where results are static or declining in key ELG areas.

Proposed strategies to address reception-year quality in South West region

Activity 1: learn from what works

We will:

• Use GLD, ELG and contextual data (such as percentages of pupils with free school meals, SEND support and English as an additional language) to identify local authorities, trusts and schools that are successfully improving outcomes for children eligible for free school meals, learn from successful practice and share what works.
• Identify outstanding examples of developmentally‑appropriate early years pedagogy so that we can share this widely.
• Work with newly appointed lead schools to roll out the RISE reception networks’ support offer and ensure this is well-aligned and complemented by wider activities (e.g. the support offers from English, Maths and early years stronger practice hubs, RISE Discovery Mornings and other South West networks).
• Work with Somerset research school, Wiltshire Council and the Bristol stronger practice hub to understand and share learning from the Cracking Communication project (an EEF ‘Evidence into Action Partnership’ which aims to support leaders and teachers to implement evidence-informed practice, improving communication and language outcomes).
• Learn from Swindon’s 4‑year improving GLD trend and share their focused, responsive support approach which has also supported closing the gap between free school meals and non-free school meal pupils.
• Ensure South West‑specific challenges (such as falling rolls, small rural/coastal schools and geographical isolation) are recognised within this work, to maximise impact.

Activity 2: ensure reception-year quality is a leadership priority

We will:

• Promote a deeper understanding of developmentally appropriate early years pedagogy and knowledge of proven programmes at all leadership levels through South West networks and our direct engagement with trusts and local authorities.
• Work with teaching school hubs, and other providers, to drive engagement with existing and new early years professional development programmes such as:
  • Online Early years child development training
  • The National Professional Qualification (NPQ) in Early Years Leadership
  • Reception quality webinar series
• Share the offer of universal access to proven programmes such as the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) with leaders, ensuring that every reception class can offer focused support to help children develop vocabulary, listening, and speaking skills

Activity 3: support smooth transition into reception

We will:  

• publish and share best practice for schools, from schools that effectively support children into reception. This will showcase effective practice from primary schools across the country, including how schools use home visits.
• Identify and share examples of best practice in reception-year parental engagement.
• Work with the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs in Plymouth and Bristol, as both areas show sustained GLD improvements, with Plymouth achieving some of the region’s highest GLD outcomes for free school meal eligible children, to understand and share learning from their effective transition work.

Activity 4: maximise the effective use of data

We will:

• Encourage schools, trusts and local authorities to actively use newly available early years data to compare performance, identify strong practice, and drive improvement.
• Leverage the impact of South West networks, connecting them with Department for Education (DfE) data experts so that these early years data tools are clearly spotlighted, understood and widely used.
• Continue conversations with sector leaders about their GLD data and how they have used ‘Compare Your Good Level of Development’ reports to drive improvement, focusing priority conversations where the data suggests there are challenges and greatest potential for improvements.
• Use data to identify schools and areas that would most benefit from the extended maths and English hub reception offers, and work with hubs to promote and signpost this support.

Inclusive mainstream

RISE support for inclusive mainstream education.

Overview

The South West’s coastal geography and tourism-based economy create a veneer of affluence that obscures significant local deprivation. The region has the lowest density of children nationally and a sparse maintained special-school network, with one specialist setting for every 248 km² compared with 121 km² nationally. This limited capacity contributes to the South West having the second-highest proportion of children attending independent special schools, highlighting gaps in sufficiency and preventing children from being educated in local settings.

Although the proportion of children receiving SEND support or an EHCP is broadly in line with national patterns, the South West has the lowest EHCP assessment timeliness of any region. These delays create a growing backlog, risk masking the true level of need and can leave pupils without timely support, increasing the likelihood of unmet need and early disengagement.

Reflecting this, outcomes for children and young people with SEND vary widely: some areas show stable attendance and inclusive practice, while others – particularly coastal and rural communities – experience higher absence, suspensions and permanent exclusions.

This is especially true for secondary age pupils receiving SEND support who experience disproportionately negative outcomes in the South West. Stronger performance in parts of the region shows that more consistent, inclusive practice is achievable.

Regional focus for South West on inclusive mainstream

Focus 1: improve consistency and quality of inclusive classroom practice

We will strengthen inclusive classroom practice by improving teacher confidence in meeting diverse needs and ensuring consistent, high-quality support for all, but especially secondary pupils in receipt of SEND support.  

Focus 2: build an evidence‑informed, inclusive system that enables more children to attend their local good schools

We will develop high-quality, evidence-led alternatives – such as inclusion bases – so that more pupils can thrive in their communities and reliance on independent special school placements is reduced.

Focus 3: strengthen the key stage 2 to 3 transition pathways

We will improve key stage 2 to 3 transition for pupils with SEND through earlier planning, clearer continuity of support and more consistent expectations across phases. This will boost engagement, inclusion, and a stronger sense of belonging.

Focus 4: build capacity in high-risk coastal areas

Across all activities, we will focus support on coastal areas with high suspensions, persistent absence and early disengagement for pupils with SEND. Learning from Mission Coastal will help strengthen practice and improve the consistency of support available in these localities.

Proposed strategies to address inclusive mainstream in South West region

Activity 1: strengthen inclusive pedagogy and workforce confidence

We will:

• Drive regional access to the national £200m SEND training offer, working with the Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance (RIIA) as a key delivery partner to strengthen inclusive pedagogy.
• Promote the South West SEND learning academy, hosted by the RIIA, to support more consistent inclusive practice across the region through aligned professional learning and communities of practice.
• Promote training opportunities through the SEND learning academy, teaching school hubs and other continuing professional development (CPD) providers, supported by regional SEND specialists, to improve everyday practice, reduce escalation and increase mainstream capacity.

Activity 2: create an evidence‑led framework to inform the development of inclusion bases

We will:

• Promote a discrete, funded RIIA programme for targeted and volunteer trusts to work with sector specialists to develop metrics, methodologies and evidence‑informed models that assess the efficacy and impact of inclusion bases and create a blueprint for future provision.

• Share the learning from this RIIA programme so that the subsequent evidence base can be used to inform future development of high-quality inclusion bases and support greater consistency across areas experiencing the greatest challenges.

Activity 3: strengthen transition pathways to reduce absence, suspensions and disengagement for children with SEND

We will:

• Signpost and promote high‑performing local area partnership practice, including use of the South West Inclusion Charter and self‑evaluation tools, to help local authorities, schools and trusts review and strengthen key stage 2 to 3 transition within a consistent set of inclusive expectations.
• Support settings, including those in high‑risk coastal areas, to develop stronger, more consistent transition pathways through earlier planning, continuity of support and simple, replicable processes, and champion the RIIA’s annual local area partnership peer reviews as a mechanism for assessing and improving transition arrangements and embedding sustainable inclusive practice.

Attendance

RISE support for improving attendance in schools.

Overview

Across England, attendance has shifted markedly since the pandemic, with more pupils missing some school and a small but significant group missing very large amounts of learning.

The South West region broadly mirrors these national patterns: overall absence and persistent absence remain worse than pre-pandemic levels, the proportion of pupils attending almost every day has fallen, and more children are missing 5 to 15% of sessions – often driven by a mix of illness, termtime leave, and sporadic disengagement.

In the South West, overall absence at the primary phase is in line with the national average, while the region performs better than the national average for the primary rate of persistent absence. At the secondary phase, however, overall and persistent absence rates are elevated:

• Secondary persistent absence rates are the worst nationally for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND support and EHCPs.
• The attendance drop off between key stage 2 and key stage 3 is stark, dropping from 94.1% in year 6 to 88.7% – by year 8, the second sharpest decline of any region nationally.
• Within this key stage 2 to key stage 3 drop off, disadvantaged pupils – especially white British boys – show the most significant dip, with an average attendance of 85.3% by year 8.

Regional focus for South West on attendance

Focus 1: improve persistent absence rates for high-risk pupils

We will embed evidence-based strategies to reduce persistent absence rates for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND support and EHCPs. We will support schools to use data effectively and create sustained capacity to self-assess, benchmark, and respond to attendance challenges through the effective use of data tools.

Focus 2: secure stronger attendance in the key stage 2 to key stage 3 transition period

We will focus on reversing the sharp attendance decline from key stage 2 to key stage 3, with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged white British boys. We will do this by supporting schools to build a strong sense of identity and belonging for all pupils, engage early and meaningfully with feeder schools and improve inclusive cultures in mainstream schools. We will identify and share learning about best practice during this transition period.

Proposed strategies to address attendance in South West region

Activity 1: roll out of attendance and behaviour hubs.

We will:

• Signpost the attendance and behaviour hubs offer to schools and responsible bodies, to maximise the impact of the hubs’ high-quality, evidence-based professional development and implementation support through focused CPD and open mornings.
• Work with our hub lead schools to ensure that support is directed to schools where it is most needed and to create connections between schools that will actively collaborate to support one another in improving attendance.
• Work with our regional attendance adviser to support and challenge the hubs to deliver support that is effective, high quality and demonstrates impact, and to ensure that the offer across hubs is well-aligned and complemented by wider activities (for example discovery mornings and South West networks).

Activity 2: learn from what works

We will:

• Use data to identify local authorities, trusts and schools that are successfully improving attendance, particularly relating to our focus areas, learn from and share what works.
• Use channels such as South West networks to spotlight effective working with wider agencies such as health, social care, and youth services, which is essential to support pupils with poor attendance and address the complex barriers they face.
• Work with our regional attendance adviser to ensure that best practice sharing across the region has a clear emphasis on our focus areas and parts of the region where data indicates improvement needs are greatest.

Activity 3: maximise the effective use of data

We will:

• Encourage adoption and effective use of the DfE attendance data tools so that schools, trusts and local authorities can sharpen strategies and focus attention on high need, high impact areas. This will specifically include the similar school comparison report and year 6 transition data report.
• Strengthen key stage 2 to key stage 3 transition by demonstrating how use of the year 6 transition data report can build earlier family engagement and start to create a sense of belonging at secondary level.
• Identify barriers to engagement with the data tools and follow up with additional support and greater opportunities for sector-led learning and sharing where engagement is low.
• Support schools to understand and make effective use of their artificial intelligence (AI) powered attendance baseline improvement expectation (ABIE) by running briefings at the South West attendance network and through direct engagement with school and trust leaders.

Activity 4: ensure attendance is a leadership priority

We will:

• Work with the South West family of networks to promote attendance as a strategic priority at every level of school and trust leadership.
• Use data to target engagement, support and challenge with trusts and local authorities at leadership level across the region, exploring those schools performing well and less well on attendance compared to their similar schools and the reasons for this.
• Support trusts and local authorities with poor attendance to review their attendance strategies at regular intervals.

Attainment, with a focus on English and maths

RISE support for improving attainment in schools.

Overview

The South West shows a mixed attainment picture compared with national trends. There are strong and improving outcomes in the early years, which contrast sharply with persistently weak results by the end of key stage 2, where the South West remains the lowest-ranked region for pupils achieving the expected standard in RWM. The data here suggests both maths and writing are areas of relative weakness, although maths outcomes in the South West have improved from 3 percentage points below the national average in 2023 to 1 percentage point below in 2025, a promising and more rapid improvement trajectory than nationally.

At key stage 4 the South West performs slightly above the national average on the attainment 8 measure, and the percentage of pupils achieving grade 5 and above in English and maths GCSE has gradually improved over the past 3 years with the most recent data bringing this metric just above the national average.

Disadvantaged pupils are the most concerning demographic, performing below national averages at the early years and at key stage 2 and key stage 4. The starkest gap for disadvantaged pupils in the South West is in key stage 2, where only 41% meet the combined measure for the expected standard for RWM - the lowest rate in the country. At key stage 4, a smaller but still significant and stubborn gap exists between the national average and disadvantaged pupils in the South West. We know that gaps that open up at Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) persist and grow and that, currently, key stage 3 sees engagement decrease with disadvantaged children falling further behind. The South West has a high concentration of coastal and rural areas and we know nationally that disadvantaged pupils in these areas perform less well. Data also indicates a correlation between the coastal and rural context and some of our lowest performing areas.

Regional focus for South West on attainment

Focus 1: improve key stage 2 outcomes for all

We will improve key stage 2 outcomes by prioritising stronger maths and writing performance, addressing the South West’s weaker combined RWM results. We will focus on sustaining recent gains in maths and sharpening the focus on writing to close the gap with national averages. We will maintain a dual focus on longer-term incremental improvements in teaching alongside practical strategies to accelerate pupils’ progress and maximise attainment.

Focus 2: close gaps for disadvantaged pupils across the region

We will break the link between background and future success by accelerating progress for disadvantaged pupils across all phases. We will work to strengthen key stage 3 practice, aligning with the key stage 3 alliance and our regional attendance strategies, and to understand and address the factors that contribute to lower outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in coastal and rural areas, focusing support on these parts of our region.

Proposed strategies to address attainment in South West region

Activity 1: embed the South West attainment task force

We will:

• Embed the newly established South West attainment task force. The task force has already successfully delivered a programme of support for raising year 6 attainment in 2026, and will build on this to design a support offer for academic year 2026 to 2027 aimed at improving maths and English outcomes, with a particular focus on key stage 2 and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. This support will focus on practical strategies that rapidly accelerate pupils’ progress and maximise attainment and will be delivered in partnership with established networks and hubs, ensuring a clear and coordinated offer for teachers and leaders.

Activity 2: strengthen and expand access to sector‑led support

We will:

• Work with maths and English hubs to extend the reach of their support, identifying areas of low engagement and using data to signpost support where it will have the greatest impact. While the attainment task force focuses on practical strategies for raising attainment, the hubs have a strong emphasis on longer term, incremental gains in teaching quality, drawing on their deep pedagogical expertise. By embedding evidence-informed approaches, sustained professional development, and consistent teaching practices, this will help build enduring capacity in the system and support continuous improvement in outcomes.
• Work with the RISE key stage 3 alliance to build on strong sector-led models to share learning, drive innovation and spread best practice – for example through our South West family of networks – and support schools to develop excellence in key stage 3.

Activity 3: learn from what works

We will:

• Use evidence and structured, data-led conversations to identify local authorities, trusts and schools that are securing strong outcomes, and to understand the factors behind underperformance, learn from and share what works.
• Identify where schools rigorously track pupil outcomes to ensure children achieve the expected standard across all 3 subject areas in the combined measure and share these strategies so that they can be applied where the need is greatest.
• Work with schools, trusts and local authorities to better understand and address the factors driving lower educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in coastal and rural areas, including drawing on learning from Mission Coastal to inform improvement in the South West’s coastal areas.
• Connect high-performing schools and trusts with lower attaining ones that share comparable contexts to support improvement – for example through roundtables and other structured events that bring leaders together to analyse need, share insights and agree focused action.
• Encourage and support schools to make effective use of data tools to self-identify improvement needs and sources of support, such as the one-stop-shop digital platform for schools that will be launched in 2026 and other evidence-based resources such as the South West Social Mobility Commission’s equity scorecard.

Regional themes

Delivery of the activities set out in the regional focus section will not be possible without a set of enabling themes that underpin all priorities. These are:

Theme 1: system leadership

Why this matters

Strong and effective system leadership is crucial to making progress against the national priorities. Ultimately, the difference will be made by those with direct responsibility for the decisions that affect pupils’ daily experience in education.

What this includes

Supporting the pipeline of strong school and trust leaders across the region, for example through the following. - Encouraging the take up of NPQs and other professional development opportunities delivered by teaching school hubs and other providers. We will work with partners to ensure such opportunities are widely accessible and aligned to regional priorities. - Celebrating and supporting the significant impact of other leadership programmes, including the highly acclaimed work of the Reach Foundation: SW100, West100 and Leading Trusts. Over the past 4 years, 76 leaders have completed the SW100, and 25 of those have gone on to become headteachers (33%). Across the first 2 cohorts of West100, 8 out of 34 leaders (24%) have already progressed into headship. - Creating the conditions that support and enable collective and collaborative system leadership for school and trust executive leaders and governors/trustees, for example through our support for and brokering of robust peer review, mentoring and coaching, learning sets, the thriving South West family of networks for school and trust leaders, and RISE discovery mornings. - Investing in strategic partnerships with local authority and diocesan education leaders, for example through termly Regional Director roundtables and ongoing dialogue at local level. - Building a regional culture of collective responsibility, ensuring that high-performing areas contribute to improvement in areas with persistent challenges.

Theme 2: financial sustainability

Why this matters

Schools’ financial sustainability is a key foundation for the successful delivery of our broader school improvement priorities. We also know that falling pupil rolls are a particular issue facing many schools in the South West, especially rural and small primary schools, and that this has a significant impact on budget setting for schools across the region.

Many schools are working to reprioritise their budgets, and while this may be challenging, schools will not be making these decisions in isolation. The department is providing a comprehensive suite of initiatives to support them. In the South West, we will work closely with schools to ensure that funding is deployed as efficiently and effectively as possible, so that schools are best placed, financially, to focus on pupils’ experience and outcomes.

What this includes

Strengthening financial leadership and the sharing of good practice, by supporting a range of opportunities for school and trust business leads to connect and collaborate.

Building stronger relationships with school business professionals (SBPs) through engagement with sector-led networks across the South West, including (but not limited to) the South West CFO and School Business Leaders Network, and using these forums to highlight effective financial management and innovative approaches across the sector.

Engaging with the SBP policy team to promote initiatives such as the qualification bursaries and regional in-person training sessions and encouraging SBPs across the region to attend or apply.

Maintaining clear signposting to DfE guidance and support through Maximising value for pupils, to help schools and groups seize opportunities to maximise value from every pound in 4 key areas: commercial spend; assets, including reserves; workforce deployment; and developing capabilities, including digital and technology. The new programme will build on the tools and services we already offer, providing an expanded level of support in the form of benchmark data, toolkits, commercial offers, capability building, case studies, and investment in areas such as technology.

Increasing targeted school resource management adviser support across the region, prioritising support for schools and trusts most likely to benefit, enabling more school business leads to benefit from the programme’s guidance and best practice sharing.

To support strategic planning at a local level, the department will work with the sector to develop a decision-making framework for the use of mainstream school space through demographic change. This will ensure that the department is balancing the opportunities created by the current fall in birth rates – including delivery of priorities such as support for children and young people with SEND, school-based nursery provision and Best Start Family Hubs – with a collective view on the long-term risks.

The department is committing to learning from strong local area approaches as we develop a framework that will embed best practice across the system and ensure the mainstream school estate remains resilient and flexible to changing local demand. The department is committed to co-creating this framework with the sector and will engage with key stakeholders throughout 2026, with a view to publishing a framework in autumn 2026.

Theme 3: local partnerships and place-based working

Why this matters

Delivering against the national priorities confidently, sustainably and in a way that reflects the strengths and realities of our local systems requires all partners within those systems – schools, trusts, local authorities, dioceses and other key partners (for example in health and social care) – to come together to take collective action, showing civic leadership beyond organisational silos.

The South West already has examples of established place-based models that have proven impact at delivering improved outcomes for children (such as Plymouth – see the case study for more information), as well as newer place-based partnerships that are embedding.

What this includes

Supporting effective partnership working between local partners, through being active in facilitating, brokering and participating in partnership groups through the engagement of our school’s delivery teams. Universal RISE Grant funding is already being used to support place-based working across the region (in Bristol, Torbay, Dorset and Somerset). We will continue to support such examples of place-based partnership working, including through available sources of funding.

Championing the principles of transparency (typified, for example, through data sharing across partner organisations), collaboration and shared accountability for the quality of education and experience of children and young people in a local area, as being key features of effective local partnership working.

Supporting innovative examples of place-based working, such as the Reach Foundation’s Cradle to Career partnership model, sharing lessons and examples from effective models.

Theme 4: innovation and technology

Why this matters

We live in a time of huge innovation, with rapid advancements in the use of data and technology, particularly AI, that have huge potential to transform educational outcomes.

For the South West, with a dispersed school population and large rural and coastal areas, digital technology provides the opportunity to strengthen teaching quality and improve inclusion, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, overcoming barriers of distance and geographical isolation. National policy now provides clearer direction, training routes and evidence frameworks to support safe and effective adoption. 

We want to build on this in the South West, and will work with sector partners to develop and champion opportunities to leverage the potential of developing technologies, and other examples of innovation in delivering the best for children in the region.

What this includes

Championing the effective use of digital data tools: AI is already powering DfE data tools, providing new insights into school performance and enabling schools to understand contextual performance and identify sources of strong practice from which to learn. The RISE digital platform that will be launched in 2026 will build on this. We will encourage and support the effective use of this data by schools and trusts.

Promoting the effective use of assistive and AI‑enabled technology so more children with SEND can participate fully in mainstream classrooms. This includes helping schools understand how these tools can remove barriers for pupils with literacy, communication, attention or processing difficulties, while supporting engagement, adapting the curriculum and personalising learning. This work will be strengthened through national and regional initiatives (for example. BETT, EdTech Demonstrator Schools and other specialist hubs), enabling schools and system leaders to build confidence, share effective practice and embed technology as a routine part of inclusive, high‑quality teaching.

Supporting the development and sharing of regional expertise in the effective use of AI in schools. We are already investing in the development of the RISE digital and AI hub, a collaborative initiative bringing together schools and multi-academy trusts across the Southwest to share emerging practice and evidence the impact of AI and digital skills in education.

Working with colleagues in the sector to explore and test other opportunities for innovation, taking an evidence-informed approach to what works and sharing lessons.

Ambitions

The department will monitor our progress against the following RISE national priorities and regional theme ambitions in the South West region over the next year.

Coherent regional offer

• By July 2026: Team South West shares an overview of a coherent and aligned support offer for the region, with a clearly set out offer for academic year 2026 to 2027.

Discovery Mornings

• By July 2026: a revised model for discovery mornings is in place, that supports effective implementation of learning by participants
• By April 2027: over 20 discovery mornings are delivered, covering all national priorities and focused in South West areas of need.

South West family of networks

• By July 2026: the offer from the South West family of networks is captured within the overview of the regional support offer for 2026 to 2027
• By April 2027: strong practice is shared regionwide across the South West family of networks, with increased engagement in networks from areas that are underperforming.

Reception-year quality

• By September 2026: five RISE reception networks are established and are delivering effective and impactful support to schools and trusts, with good engagement across all parts of the South West
• By September 2026: English and maths hubs have expanded regional reception support, delivering training, specialist input, and showcase events, with schools engaged in Mastering Number, phonics, early language, and reading-for-pleasure programmes.
• By April 2027: proven interventions and high-performing schools/trusts with comparable contexts are identified and practice that improves GLD outcomes for free school meal eligible children is actively shared across the region.
• By April 2027, reception-year quality and developmentally appropriate pedagogy are regularly considered in leadership forums and their importance is reflected in school and trusts’ improvement strategies.
• By April 2027: focused areas show improvement in GLD and specific ELGs where performance was previously below national averages or static.

Inclusive mainstream

• By April 2027: there is broad regional engagement with the national SEND training offer and the South West SEND Learning Academy, enabling consistent access to high‑quality inclusive pedagogy training across all local authorities and trusts.
• By April 2027: an interim evidence summary and emerging findings from the ‘Evidence-informed inclusion bases’ project are shared across regional networks to guide future design and investment decisions.
• By April 2027: annual RIIA SEND peer reviews incorporate a specific focus on transition effectiveness and inclusive practice, with findings fed back into regional improvement work.
• By April 2027: the South West Inclusion Charter provides coherence and consistency as all local areas use the charter and self‑evaluation tools to guide practice and improve transition arrangements.

Attendance

• By July 2026: 100% of the first 3 cohorts of schools with highest absence rates are matched with attendance and behaviour hubs’ enhanced support offer.
• By July 2026: attendance and behaviour hubs have hosted 22 open days as a part of the regional support offer.
• By April 2027: attendance and Behaviour hubs are embedded in the region, with schools receiving tailored guidance, mentoring, and peer support. Early evidence shows improvement in attendance in schools receiving Enhanced Support and those engaging in the regional support offer.
• By April 2027: increased engagement with DfE data tools by schools and trusts, with evidence that this is leading to data-informed refinement of attendance strategies.

Attainment

• By May 2026: the South West Attainment Task Force delivers a programme of impactful support aimed at improving year 6 outcomes in 2026.
• By July 2026: the South West Attainment Task Force shares a plan for a support offer for academic year 2026 to 2027 focused on practical strategies for improving attainment, with a focus on key stage 2 and disadvantaged pupils.
• By July 2026: the work of the RISE Key Stage 3 Alliance is integrated into the regional offer.
• By April 2027: increased engagement with sector-led partners, including strong engagement with maths and English hub programmes and with the South West Attainment Task Force’s support offer. Early evidence of reduced attainment gaps for disadvantaged pupils and improving outcomes for all at key stage 2.

How these ambitions relate to ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’

Reception-year quality

• The Best Start in Life Strategy sets out our national ambition for 75% of reception children to achieve GLD by 2028. We have agreed bespoke GLD targets for each local authority.
• Best Start Local Plans will outline how local authorities will deliver these ambitions across the full early years system (health, family services, education, childcare providers, Stronger Practice Hubs, schools and the wider community).

Inclusive mainstream

• A national ambition for a more inclusive mainstream system so that more children can be educated in a local mainstream school with timely, flexible and accessible support.
• The RISE regional plan sets out how RISE teams will deliver this through increased inclusion base provision in schools and strong local partnership working to support children with additional needs.

Attendance

• A national target to raise attendance by 1.3 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, reaching over 94% by 2028 to 2029 (equivalent to 20 million additional days in school).
• Every mainstream school will be set an Attendance Baseline Improvement Expectation (ABIE), which sets out expected improvements to support national progress.

Attainment

• The national ambition for the share of pupils achieving the expected standard in key stage 2 reading, writing and maths to rise above the 2019 peak (65% overall; 51% disadvantaged) by the end of this Parliament.
• In the South West, our ambition is for key stage 2 outcomes to reach 64% for all pupils and 47% for disadvantaged pupils by the end of this Parliament.

RISE universal school improvement architecture

The RISE: South West page has a range of school improvement resources, including access to RISE Hubs, networks, and practical tools to support your improvement journey.

The South West will develop, steward and continuously improve a coherent school improvement architecture to support RISE. By architecture, we mean the combination of DfE-funded and -endorsed hubs, networks and alliances, alongside the governance, operational and communication structures that connect them and enable consistent, high-quality support for all schools. 

For clarity, the South West adopts the following shared definitions: 

• hub: a DfE-designated school, selected through a criteria-based process, delivering against a defined methodology and theory of change
• network: a recognised (but not designated) sector-led group focused on collaboration, best practice sharing, peer support and communication
• alliance: a nationally constituted, DfE-initiated, time-limited group of sector leaders brought together around a specific priority

The region benefits from a long-standing culture of collaboration, strong place-based partnerships and mature sector-led networks. RISE builds on this, providing a unifying framework that brings greater coherence and rigour to existing activity, while enabling new national developments to be integrated smoothly.

Core regional expectations 

Enabling structures that connect the system and reach all schools 

We will continue to build on existing regional and sub-regional structures to ensure clear communication, strong engagement and consistent alignment with RISE priorities across all schools, trusts and local authorities. 

Key enabling structures include: 

• Team South West (representatives from RISE hubs, networks and other delivery organisations, dioceses, local authorities and DfE)
• strategic partnerships with local authorities, the RIIA, and diocesan education teams
• place-based partnership forums

These structures will: 

• provide clear and consistent communication routes about RISE
• build engagement across schools and other key partners
• act as two-way channels for feedback, enabling schools and system leaders to shape delivery
• connect effectively with national alliances and DfE programmes, ensuring regional activity is aligned with national expectations and evidence

Regional delivery architecture

Working through Team South West, we will steward a coherent delivery architecture, ensuring it is accessible, well-connected and aligned to RISE priorities. 

Established delivery organisations include: 

• English hubs, maths hubs and teaching school hubs
• Early years stronger practice hubs
• South West family of sector-led networks and trust learning sets
• research schools
• National Institute of Teaching
• other hubs (for example music hubs) and communities of practice (for example the South and West Association of Leaders in Special Schools (SWALSS))

National developments will be incorporated coherently, including: 

• RISE reception networks
• RISE attendance and behaviour hubs reaching full maturity
• RISE KS3 alliance

Together, delivery and enabling structures will form a high-quality architecture that supports the 4 national RISE priorities in a consistent and sustainable way. 

Future architecture 

The vision for the South West universal school improvement architecture is to be a connected, place-informed and evidence-led system, where every school can access support aligned to need, phase and priority and experience RISE as a coherent and joined-up offer. In the future state: 

• hubs provide depth and expertise against specific priorities
• networks provide breadth, reach and peer learning
• national alliances act as time-limited accelerators for system improvement
• enabling structures ensure coordination, communication and accountability, avoiding duplication and strengthening coherence

Inclusive reach will be ensured through effective and aligned communications, proactive outreach to schools with lower engagement and higher need, and flexible delivery models that reflect local context. 

Insight, feedback and impact 

The region will maintain a strong focus on insight, quality and impact by: 

• using data indicators and feedback loops via our enabling structures to monitor progress and refine delivery
• maintaining alignment with national evidence, guidance and evaluation frameworks
• building shared accountability across partners, with transparency about what is working and where further improvement is needed

Transition plan 

To move from the current landscape to the future architecture, the South West will: 

• map existing hubs, networks and partnerships to identify strengths, gaps and engagement cold spots
• establish or strengthen networks where national developments require new infrastructure (for example the key stage 3 Alliance)
• sequence implementation to align programmes and activities across regional delivery components and reflecting national timelines and capacity
• review and develop communications channels to enable more aligned and coherent communication of support opportunities

Governance and operational delivery 

A South West RISE regional delivery partnership will be established to drive progress in the national priority most urgent for our region: attainment.

This partnership will bring together representation from, for example, local authorities, dioceses, trusts, hubs, network leads, the South West attainment task force and/or RISE advisers.

The group will provide strategic oversight and direction on the focused attainment work for the region, ensuring this is evidence-informed, designed to support implementation and evaluated for impact. The partnership will also ensure joined-up working and coherence with other appropriate universal RISE partners.  

Team South West will remain the forum through which all delivery organisations are connected across all national and regional priorities across the South West. It will ensure wider activity is well coordinated, transparent and clearly signposted across the South West’s universal architecture. 

We will actively invite schools, trusts, local authorities, dioceses and sector leaders to contribute to shaping and strengthening the architecture over time.  

For leaders, universal RISE is experienced through participation in hubs and networks aligned to the 4 priorities, supported by RISE advisers who help coordinate activity and avoid duplication.

Email us at: southwest.riseregionalmailbox@education.gov.uk

Case study: working across an area in Plymouth

Background

Children’s outcomes in Plymouth have been transformed over the past few years. In 2019, Plymouth secondary outcomes were the lowest in the South West, with average A8 at 43.7 compared to 46.8 across the South West region and 46.7 nationally.

Working together: the Plymouth challenge

The Plymouth challenge united city partners under an independent chair and secondary headteachers, bringing together multi-academy trust (MAT) CEOs, council representatives, Plymouth education networks, and support from the department and civic leaders.

Regular meetings and a shared, place-based strategy enabled the Plymouth challenge to create clear structures for collective improvement and more coherent regional working. Local leaders also noted that introducing a small number of strong trusts streamlined the system compared with the previous 17 secondary schools across 13 trusts.

Impact

Following the challenge, the city has seen steady gains in outcomes relative to the national average.

Attainment 8 is now close to the local and national averages, at 45.7 compared to 46.2 across the South West and 46 nationally.

Outcomes for disadvantaged children have improved from over 5 points behind the national average in the 2018 to 2019 academic year, to within 0.6 points in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.