Areas of the country that were targeted for extra education funding through government intervention programmes actually saw progress scores decline, a new analysis has found.
Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) and Opportunity Areas (OAs) have seen a fall in average progress scores since the initiatives were launched, according to new findings from .
It found that, on average, OAs and additional PEIAs saw Progress 8 scores decrease between the time they started up and the most recent GCSE exams last year.
However, on average, the OAs and PEIAs saw some increases in key stage 2 outcomes.
The original 12 OAs were announced in 2016, and ran until 2022. They were introduced by then education secretary Justine Greening and were part of a plan to improve social mobility through education.
In 2022, these areas then became PEIAs, along with an additional 12 areas. Funding for PEIAs ended in March this year.
The national picture
On average, there were small improvements in Progress 8 scores in OAs between 2016 and 2019. However, when Progress 8 scores were available again after the pandemic, scores for OAs in 2022 were lower and dropped slightly in each year, FFT found.
The average Progress 8 score in OAs fell from -0.15 in 2016 to -0.22 in 2024.
In the other 12 PEIAs that had not been OAs, Progress 8 scores were slightly higher after the pandemic than they had been previously. However, on average they then fell more sharply from an average of -0.22 in 2022 to -0.31.
Nationally, has remained at -0.03 across all state-funded schools.
Individual areas
At an individual level, half the OAs saw Progress 8 scores increase or decrease by 0.01 or less, FFT found. Oldham and Doncaster saw the biggest positive changes, with an increase in score of 0.18 and 0.22 respectively from 2016 to 2024.
Over the same time period, Hastings (-1.01), Blackpool (-0.59) and West Somerset (-0.56) saw the largest falls in Progress 8 scores.
Smaller changes are observed for the other PEIAs that were not OAs first, as they are only measured from 2022. In seven out of 12 additional PEIA areas, the Progress 8 score changed by less than 0.05 between 2022 and 2024.
Progress 8 fell in 10 PEIA areas over this time. The biggest falls were in Halton (-0.27) and Liverpool (-0.21).
Progress at KS2
At KS2, six OAs saw the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths increase between 2017 and 2024, and six saw it decrease.
Outcomes increased in opportunity areas at KS2 from 2017 and 2019. They started at a lower level in 2023 when KS2 results were published again, but increased on average in 2024, however, changes were small.
None of the 12 additional PEIAs saw a decrease in the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard between 2023 and 2024.
Did OAs and PEIAs work?
FFT warned that OAs and PEIAs also aimed to improve things such as teacher recruitment and retention, which this analysis does not examine.
“We therefore can’t draw any conclusions from this as to whether opportunity areas or education investment areas ‘worked’ as a policy,” statistician Katie Beynon said.
The PEIAs were part of a wider education investment area (EIA) scheme introduced by the Conservative government. In total, 55 areas were designated as EIAs, which meant they were eligible for things such as higher retention payments for teachers, and multi-academy trusts could apply for more funding to improve capacity to support schools in these areas.
However, research from 2022, when EIAs were first announced, suggested targeting the EIA scheme at the local authority level was a “very blunt tool” as local authority was a poor predictor of a school’s need for support.
