Intervention to help schools rated below 'Good' to start from September

Schools with two or more consecutive Ofsted ratings below ‘Good’ may be matched with a strong multi-academy trust to support their improvement from September, with regulations laid out in Parliament on 30 June to enable this to happen.

The government’s 55 Education Investment Areas have been prioritised as the focus of new intervention powers to help rapidly improve underperforming schools.

Currently only schools with Inadequate Ofsted ratings are eligible for this type of intervention, but 900 schools across the country with consecutive Ofsted ratings below Good will now newly be eligible.

The government will initially look to contact around a third of the eligible schools about potential intervention, on the basis they have a recent Requires Improvement rating from 01 May 2021 or later.

Schools’ individual circumstances including their existing capacity to improve will be considered before intervention goes ahead, but those in Education Investment Areas are expected to be prioritised during the coming academic year.