Stuck schools will be held accountable even if support brokered for them by the government RISE teams fails to turn them around. The improvement divisions will instead be charged with making 鈥渟ure delivery is happening鈥 and 鈥渕onitoring plans鈥, Department for Education director general John Edwards has clarified. Speaking at the on Thursday, he said: 鈥淭he current responsible body [the school鈥檚 trust or council] is accountable for the improvement. The responsible body owns the improvement journey, and this is a process of providing support packages to enable that to be accelerated.鈥 He said this was a 鈥渟tarting principle鈥 that has 鈥渂een really important鈥 for education secretary Bridget Phillipson. John Edwards Earlier this month, 45 new advisers were announced to join the 20 who have been in post since the start of February. The expanded team will start working with more than 200 schools deemed 鈥渟tuck鈥 for receiving a 鈥榬equires improvement鈥 Ofsted grade following an earlier below-good judgement. But when the government unveiled plans for the RISE teams towards the end of last year, there was confusion around where accountability will sit for ensuring the improvement works. Slides shown during Edwards鈥檚 talk show that once a school becomes eligible for support, the RISE teams will assess its 鈥渃apacity to improve鈥. If they鈥檙e thought to need help, they will be matched with a 鈥渉igh-quality organisation and be considered for funded intervention鈥. An improvement plan will then be 鈥渃o-constructed鈥 with the responsible body. ‘Responsible body owns the improvement journey’ Edwards stressed during the event that the 鈥渞esponsible body owns the improvement journey鈥, and that it will have to ensure the plan 鈥渂ites鈥. 鈥淭he RISE advisers鈥 job is not to deliver the improvement; [their] job is to engage in that matching process, making sure we’ve identified the right areas that need support and making sure delivery is happening.鈥 There is no public understanding of how improvement organisations are chosen. Edwards said they will look at data, inspection outcomes and 鈥渦nderstand where the best evidence of provision is鈥 to choose organisations. 鈥淲e also use our intelligence on capacity. Then there are also particular specialists, so we will be drawing on local knowledge we have. 鈥淪o, it’s a combination of the sort of empirical data that comes from outcomes, of the outcomes we see in Ofsted inspections, but also from our local knowledge and understanding. Please make contact with your regional team, particularly if you feel you’ve got someone to tell us about your capacity.鈥
vg 15 May 2025 I would love to know what their definition is a stuck school is. Our local academy in 2023 was given a requires improvement foster rating but the results since their visit have gone from bad to worse with vulnerable pupils doing even worse and kids that don鈥檛 fit the academy norm having their parents still told that some Kids are better suited to home education. It鈥檚 an absolute tragedy. Teachers are leaving in their droves but no one cares but according to the list they aren鈥檛 on the stuck school .