An additional 45 regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) advisers will start work this week to help bring support to more than 200 schools, the Department for Education has announced.
There are now 65 RISE advisers in total after the first 20 appointees were announced in February. The programme was initially supporting 32 “stuck” schools but this will now be expanded to more than 200.
The first tranche of advisers were directly appointed but Tes understands that the 45 new recruits all applied for the roles.
The list of new advisers (see box, below) includes 35 people from multi-academy trust backgrounds, four from councils, four current or former heads and two people from consultancies. The vast majority of the first 20 advisers were from MATs.
RISE advisers are being tasked with supporting stuck schools, which the DfE has defined as where a school has received a “requires improvement” rating in its most recent Ofsted inspection and was rated less than “good” in its previous one.
RISE support for ‘stuck’ schools
The DfE said today that dozens of the schools on the list of stuck schools in need of support have been in this situation for more than six years, and 42 of them for more than 11 years. Schools on the list have spent an average of 6.6 years rated below “good” by Ofsted, the department said.
The DfE is establishing a RISE operational stakeholder group, which will advise on the delivery of the programme.
The schools from the initial part of the programme have begun to be paired with supporting organisations. Schools can be eligible for up to £100,000 of RISE support.
The DfE has announced three MATs that will be supporting stuck schools: Mulberry Schools Trust, LEAD Academy Trust and the Northern Education Trust.
The Kemnal Academies Trust has at least one school that is receiving RISE support.
Its chair of trustees, Gaenor Bagley, and CEO, Dr Karen Roberts, said they had found the experience of working with advisers positive.
The DfE originally announced that 600 stuck schools would receive intervention from RISE teams. However, about 200 of these have had a structural intervention since their most recent inspection, so the aim is for the teams to work with about 400 schools initially.
A recent Tes investigation found that more than half of the stuck schools had either moved trusts or improved their Ofsted grade between their past two inspections. Leaders warned that sending RISE advisers into these schools could lead to duplication if they are already receiving support from a new responsible body.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said: “RISE teams have already hit the ground running and, as we deliver on our Plan for Change, I am determined to make sure we lift every school, for every child, up to the standard of the best.”
The programme is backed by £20 million in funding for 2025-26, but funding is expected to continue beyond that.
From next September, RISE advisers are also set to provide support to schools identified as “requiring significant improvement” through Ofsted’s new inspections.
And once the proposed new inspections - which will not have an overall effectiveness grade - are brought in, the DfE is also proposing to move to a new definition of stuck schools. This will be schools with an “attention needed” rating against leadership and governance, which was graded below “good” - or equivalent - at its previous Ofsted inspection.
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