Guidance

RISE: Yorkshire and the Humber regional plan summary

Updated 3 July 2026

Applies to England

Summary    

This publication is a concise edition of the Yorkshire and the Humber RISE regional plan from the Department for Education (DfE) and sets out how universal 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 strengths, 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 in Yorkshire and the Humber

Yorkshire and the Humber has an educational landscape marked by diversity and distinct local contexts. Strong practice exists across the region, yet outcomes remain mixed, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) learners, English as an additional language (EAL) pupils, and certain geographic areas such as coastal communities and post-industrial towns.

While some trends are evident across the region 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. Yorkshire and the Humber’s national priorities will focus on:

Reception year quality

Strengthening early language and sharing best practice; focused support where it matters most; improving transition into reception and strengthening leadership and early years expertise.

Inclusive mainstream

Encouraging the growth of high-quality SEND provision, including new inclusion bases; supporting workforce development and strengthening inclusive practice while reducing the number of children and young people missing education.

Attendance

Promoting effective use of DfE data tools; strengthening secondary transition so that children establish strong attendance routines through their secondary schooling, supporting disadvantaged pupils and maximising the impact of Yorkshire and the Humber’s attendance and behaviour hubs.

Attainment, with a focus on English and maths

Improving outcomes for pupils facing the greatest barriers – thereby raising attainment for all pupils, bringing consistently good primary practice to all schools across the region and building momentum throughout key stage 3 to improve outcomes in key stage 4.

What RISE will deliver in Yorkshire and the Humber

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

Reception year quality

RISE support for reception improvement.

• Improve early language provision by increasing Nuffield Early Language Intervention uptake, sharing effective practice through regional networks, using reception networks to spread strong approaches, and encouraging schools to use Compare Your GLD reports to refine provision.

• Target areas and pupil groups with the largest gaps, aligning hubs and CPD to strengthen systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) implementation, improve alignment between language, phonics and writing, and support earlier SEND identification, while building sustainable capacity.

• Improve transition through better information sharing, earlier family engagement and earlier identification of need, with nurseries, schools and stronger practice hubs working together to secure smoother starts and sustained progress.

• Raise the profile of reception in whole‑school improvement by promoting NPQs, using reception network lead schools to showcase strong practice, and developing case studies that build leaders’ understanding of high‑quality early years provision.

Inclusive mainstream

RISE support for inclusive mainstream education.

• Work with local authorities to develop SEND provision and inclusion bases aligned with local strategies, sharing effective practice through regional networks and using RISE advisers to quality‑assure proposals and accelerate progress across all 15 partnerships.

• Strengthen workforce capability by promoting the national £200m SEND teacher‑training offer and embedding learning from national programmes, with RISE, RIIA and local partnerships sharing evidence and inclusive practice through a regional adaptive‑teaching network.

• We will improve primary to secondary transition to maintain mainstream support for SEND pupils, highlight effective practice through RISE and Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance (RIIA), and work with behaviour and attendance hubs to support schools with high absence, suspensions and exclusions.

Attendance

RISE support for improving attendance in schools.

• Increase use of View Your Education Data (VYED), attendance baseline improvement expectations (ABIE) and banding insights to target pupils missing 5 to 15% of school, supported by a regional data network and attendance conversations that identify vulnerable groups, challenge responsible bodies and secure improvement actions.

• Ten hubs will deliver intensive support to selected schools and a wider universal offer through open days and thematic sessions, strengthening leadership and systems and spreading effective attendance practice to more than 300 schools each year.

• Improve key stage 3 attendance by strengthening year 7 transition by promoting effective practice through a regional KS3 network, such as early family engagement and strong induction and using DfE data tools to identify at‑risk pupils early.

• Use attendance data to identify trusts and local authorities with the greatest scope to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, combining targeted support, attendance conversations and hub‑led peer learning to strengthen strategy and parental engagement.

Attainment, with a focus on English and maths

RISE support for improving attainment in schools.

• Provide focused support on disadvantaged, EAL, mobile and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) pupils by working through local authority partnerships and regional networks to identify slowing progress and share effective practice, reducing variation in experiences and outcomes.

• Strengthen key stage 2 outcomes through raising attainment networks and local authority partnerships, linking leaders with maths and English hubs to share effective teaching and early gap identification, supported by targeted data‑led conversations and scaling strong literacy practice.

• Establish a regional key stage 3 network aligned with the RISE key stage 3 alliance to support schools where progress dips, focusing on curriculum refinement, consistent pedagogy and sustained literacy and numeracy, supported by parental engagement and stronger key stage 2 to key stage 3 collaboration.

Regional themes

Three cross‑cutting themes underpin delivery across Yorkshire and the Humber.

• Strong leadership, developed through NPQs, teaching school hubs and emerging RISE networks, will build the confidence and capacity needed to drive improvement, with leaders supported to use high‑quality evidence, strengthen reception‑to‑key stage 4 progression and steward inclusive practice in areas with significant SEND and attendance pressures.

• Managing surplus places is increasingly important as falling birth rates reshape pupil numbers, and strategic work with local authorities will protect educational quality, maintain financial sustainability and ensure mainstream capacity can meet growing SEND and early years needs.

• Deepening local partnerships will ensure every school benefits from coordinated support, with 15 local authority‑based partnerships aligning priorities across trusts, dioceses, hubs and wider services, and strengthening multi‑agency collaboration in areas with entrenched disadvantage or limited specialist provision.

RISE universal school improvement architecture

The Yorkshire and the Humber approach is based on a simple principle: excellent practice should be shared across the whole system. The region’s improvement architecture enables strong practice to spread quickly and consistently – the ‘Yorkshire and Humber Way.’

A connected structure links 15 local authority partnerships, DfE‑funded hubs and regional networks, ensuring every school can access universal, targeted or specialist support. Partnerships anchor the system, aligning schools, trusts, local authorities, dioceses and hubs.

The region will better align teaching school hubs, stronger practice hubs, curriculum hubs and research schools with new networks from universal projects (phonics, adaptive teaching, GRT inclusion, attendance) to address priorities, reduce duplication and spread effective practice.

National RISE developments – reception networks, attendance and behaviour hubs, key stage 2 networks and the key stage 3 Alliance – will be integrated to blend national expertise with local coherence.

The ambition is a connected, equitable system where:

• all schools are in strong partnerships
• networks drive shared priorities
• school visits spread practice
• leaders can navigate clear support pathways
• activity follows a shared engagement framework

The Regions Group will oversee RISE universal to keep the system connected, evidence‑informed and responsive through ongoing monitoring and quality assurance.