A government consultation on the broadening of its RISE school improvement teams鈥 remit has been delayed. RISE targeted support has only been given to 鈥渟tuck鈥 schools, those rated 鈥榬equires improvement鈥 following an earlier below-good inspection grade. But in published in September, the government said it would begin 鈥渋nformal engagement鈥 with those deemed to have 鈥渓ow or concerning attainment鈥. The DfE added it would also sound out the sector over the autumn on 鈥渇urther options鈥 to use the teams to address poor outcomes. But this week, the department confirmed the consultation has been pushed back to this term. Details will be 鈥渟et out in due course鈥. Government papers said the informal engagement would involve RISE teams meeting with low-attaining schools to 鈥渄iscuss their attainment trends鈥. They would then 鈥渁gree actions, including how they will work with hubs, higher performing schools and other sources of well-evidenced support, such as regional networks鈥. This was described as a 鈥渇irst step鈥, before the launch of the consultation. ‘Not right’ to wait for Ofsted inspection 鈥淥fsted should remain the principal trigger for the department鈥檚 accountability responses,鈥 the documents added. 鈥淚t is, however, important that schools with the very lowest levels of pupil attainment benefit from rapid access to the kind of intensive support the department is providing through the targeted RISE programme.鈥 In these cases, the DfE said, it did 鈥渘ot think it is right to wait for a change in the school鈥檚 Ofsted report card to take action in schools where children are being let down鈥. FFT Datalab previously examined the number of schools with Progress 8 scores of less than -0.5 in each of the past three years to understand how many could fall within the scope of the low-attainer push. In all, 277 fell below the threshold. Of these, 163 (59 per cent) were among the 20 per cent most disadvantaged in the country.