Excellence in Cities 

Background to Excellence in Cities initiative 

In March 1999 the Government launched Excellence in Cities in England to try to resolve the educational problems of inner cities that successive governments have failed to resolve. It is intended to raise standards and transform the culture of low expectations and achievement. £200 million was spent on it in 2001-02, with £300 million in 2002-03. It now covers 58 local authority areas, with 96 action zones tackling smaller pockets of deprivation in towns and suburbs. In summer 2001, the percentage point increase in pupils achieving five GCSEs at A*-C in Excellence in City schools was almost double that of schools not in the programme.

Only 33% of inner-city pupils get 5 or more GCSE A*-C grades (or vocational equivalent. Nationally, 46% reach that level. Results have improved by around 1% a year for the past 3 years. 13.5% of all inner city secondary schools have been identified by OFSTED so far as having serious weaknesses or requiring special measures compared with 5.4% nationally. 

The programme has seven main strands:

• In-school learning mentors
• Learning support units for difficult pupils
• Programmes to stretch the most able 5 to 10% of pupils
• City learning centres to promote school and community learning through state-of-the-art technology
• Encouraging schools to become beacons and specialists
• Action zones, where a cluster of schools work together

The strategy focuses on six large conurbations - Inner London, Birmingham, Manchester/Salford, Liverpool/Knowsley, Leeds/Bradford. 

Excellence in Cities aims to:

• radically expand and recast the specialist and beacon school programmes with a special emphasis on the inner cities through new twinning and designation arrangements. The number of specialist schools will rise to at least 800 nationally by 2002/3. A target of 1000 beacon schools by 2002 has been set, with priority to be given to inner city areas so that every community has a beacon of excellence
• extend opportunities for gifted and talented children with special programmes for the highest performing five to 10% of pupils in each secondary school, including university summer schools and the introduction of new 'world class' tests
• launch a new network of learning centres, in the inner cities, developing existing schools as centres of excellence with modern ICT facilities, pioneering new approaches to learning and greatly extending opportunities after school and in the holidays; they will establish strong links with neighbouring schools; They will also provide local sites for the University for Industry and provide assistance with business links and skills training. The first 30 learning centres will be up and running in the target areas by September 2000 with more to follow in the succeeding two years
• encourage setting by schools to meet individual aptitudes and abilities
• give a new emphasis to literacy and numeracy teaching and ensure better transition from primary to secondary school, in particular for pupils not up to standard at the end of primary school; expand the number o summer schools and after-school programmes
• introduce a scheme of low-cost home computer lease for pupils and adults who face particular disadvantages.

• strengthen school leadership, with new measures to recruit and train successful teachers and headteachers, and to strengthen school governing bodies through a one-stop shop to recruit and place governors with skills and vision in inner city schools
• turn around the weakest schools. Every failing school will be improved, closed or given a fresh start under a new headteacher with a successful record. Weak schools will be twinned with successful schools. Using national data, the DfEE will monitor on a regular six-monthly basis the 200 lowest-performing secondary schools
• modernise LEAs, ensuring that each has an effective strategy for school improvement, and accelerating the inspection of inner city LEAs. Inspections in all target areas will be underway by April 2000. The Government intends to intervene decisively where LEA services are failing, using contractors where necessary
• tackle disruption in schools more effectively by ensuring that every school has access to a Learning Support Unit where children can be referred when necessary, and by giving the strongest support to headteachers and teachers in establishing high expectations and standards
• provide a 'learning mentor' for every young person who needs one, as a single point of contact to tackle barriers to pupils' learning
• introduce new, smaller Education Action Zones (later renamed EiC action zones) to focus on low performance in small cluster schools
• provide subsidised loans to teachers for the purchase of computers.

(Excellence in Cities, DfEE)

A full copy of this document is available on the Standards Site at
www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/excellence

The key elements are: 

Learning mentors: access to full-time learning mentors for pupils who need them in EiC areas. Their role is to tackle barriers to learning wherever they arise (in school or beyond). The initiative began in September 1999

Learning centres: a network of school-based learning centres, usually based in specialist schools, to act as centres of excellence. These will provide state-of-the-art ICT-based learning opportunities for pupils at the host school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools and for the wider community. The first 30 were scheduled to be in place by September 2000

Learning Support Units: these are to tackle disruption, and will be shared between schools. Pupils with problems can be taught there until they are ready to return to the classroom

Measures to promote better teaching, leadership and governorship: these are to be set in inner city areas including better recruitment, training and retention. It will include a one-stop shop to recruit and place governors with skills and vision in inner city schools

New smaller Education Action Zones: to tackle small clusters of failure (later renamed EiC action zones)

Extended opportunities for gifted and talented pupils in inner cities through in-school programmes and extension activities beyond schools (eg in learning centres and through university summer schools. This began in September 1999. 

Specialist and beacon schools: these are to be radically expanded with a particular focus on those serving inner city areas. 

(Source: Annex 1, Schools Plus)

Excellence in Cities projects:

On 30 April 2003, in the House of Commons, Damian Green asked the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many excellence in cities projects in England (a) opened, (b) closed and (c) were operating in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority.

David Miliband responded:
The EiC programme was launched in 1999-there were no programmes running in either 1997 or 1998. No EiC partnership has closed. The programme was introduced in three phases.

Phase 1 began in September 1999 with 25 LEAs. These were Knowsley, Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Bradford, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield, Birmingham, Camden, Corporation of London, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, Westminster.

Phase 2 in September 2000 extended the programme to 23 additional authorities: Halton, Rochdale, Sefton, St. Helens, Wirral, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland, Kingston upon Hull, Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent, Leicester, Nottingham, Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Ealing, Bristol.

Phase 3 in September 2001 again extended the programme to include 10 additional authorities: Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Oldham, Barnsley, Doncaster, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Luton, Enfield, Hounslow.

September 2001 also saw the inclusion of Excellence Clusters in the programme to tackle smaller pockets of deprivation. Further Clusters have since been established in the following authorities:
2001 - Lancashire (2), Tameside, Cumbria, Kirklees (2), Walsall, Coventry, Croydon, Portsmouth, Kent.
2002 - Thurrock, Barnet, Durham, Cheshire, Derby, Buckinghamshire, Hillingdon, Lancashire, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Peterborough, Stockport, Wigan. In addition Preston Education Action Zone transformed to a cluster.
2003 - From September further clusters will be created in the following authorities: Kent (3), Lincolnshire (3), Northamptonshire, Essex, Derbyshire, Havering, Bexley, Swindon and North Lincolnshire. The current Phase 2 Solihull Partnership will convert to a cluster. In addition ,five Education Action Zones will transform into clusters: Croydon (New Addington), Grimsby, Herefordshire, Trafford and Weston.
2004 - In January a further six Zones will transform into clusters: East Basildon, East Brighton, Halifax, Plymouth, Thetford and Wigan.

(Education Parliamentary Monitor, 5 May 2003)

News update

Excellence in Cities praised by Ofsted

A multi-million pound scheme to improve inner-city schools has significantly raised exam results, contradicting research that suggested the scheme had made little difference. The Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme was criticised after a government-commissioned evaluation by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found there was no evidence it improved GCSE grades in English and science.

But an Ofsted report in December 2005 said that the £386 million scheme was highly successful and had contributed to a steady improvement in GCSE results. Schools increased the proportion of pupils who gained five A* to C grades by 5.2 percentage points over the past three years, narrowing the gap with other schools from 10.4 to 7.8 points.

Inspectors said the EiC initiative had improved social inclusion and standards in England's poorest areas since its launch in 1999. In eight out of 10 EiC schools visited, the leadership and management were highly effective and had made the most of their extra money, an average of £120 per pupil a year. However, improvements had been hampered in a few schools because of weak leadership and poor coordination.

The Ofsted report, based on visits in autumn 2004 and spring 2005 was more positive than the NFER study, which tracked the EiC scheme up to 2003. The Department for Education and Skills said the NFER's findings were "out of date" and the EiC was an "indisputable success".

EiC: Managing associated initiatives to improve standards is available from www.ofsted.gov.uk

EiC: The national evaluation is available from www.dfes.gov.uk

(TES, 2 December 2005)

Excellence in Cities slashes truancy rate

A flagship government strategy designed to improve schools in deprived inner-city areas has made a significant impact on reducing truancy and raising educational attainment.

Research into the Excellence in Cities (EiC) initiative also found that while it had boosted maths results, it had not improved the performance in English and science of children aged 11 to 14.

The study was carried out by researchers from the National Foundation for Educational Research, the London School of Economics and the Institute of Fiscal Studies. The researchers concluded EiC had helped promote a positive ethos towards learning and improved pupils' motivation and behaviour.

A large part of the success was put down to mentoring. The report said, "Teachers and senior school managers felt that learning mentors were improving self-esteem and confidence and helping some pupils to re-engage with education."

Excellence in Cities:the national evaluation of a policy to raise standards in urban schools is available from www.dfes.gov.uk

(New Start, 2 December 2005)

Primary schools involved in the Excellence in Cities programme are helping pupils achieve their potential, according to a report. However, inspectors said that a minority of teachers were reluctant to accept that higher standards were achievable. The study, from the Office for Standards in Education, found that the Government programme has helped most schools involved raise expectations and broaden the range of experiences available to pupils. Where it was most effective, it has raised self-esteem among disadvantaged youngsters.

Inspectors, who visited 28 primaries, found that results at key stage 2 were improving at a higher rate in EiC primaries than in other schools nationally, and attendance has improved at five times the national rate since 1998.

(TES, 17 December 2004)

Pupils' pride, not progress, improves inner cities

The Government's main programme for improving inner-city primary schools in England is increasing the self-esteem of pupils rather than their academic results, a report by Ofsted has found. Behaviour and attendance improved in the 1,104 primaries taking part in the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme. But more than a third of schools failed to monitor pupils' progress in class properly.

One in seven was hostile to a requirement that they identify gifted and talented pupils for more challenging work, believing that this undermined equal opportunities. Instead, they spent funds allocated for the top 5 per cent of pupils on equipment and books that could be used by all children.

The Government has spent more than £1 billion on the EiC policy since its introduction as a secondary schools programme in 1999, and plans to spend another £700 million by 2006. It was expanded to include primary schools in 2000; the Government has spent £178 million on them.

(The Times, 16 December 2004)

Multi-million pound government initiatives to raise school standards in deprived areas are of dubious benefit, and can even be counter-productive, according to research. Labour has spent hundreds of millions of pounds since 1997 on schemes such as Excellence in Cities and education action zones, but the Cardiff University study found the money has been poorly targeted, with the schemes reaching only a small proportion of the people they were supposed to help. It said that in some cases the initiatives, designed to help schooling in pockets of deprivation, have compounded the problems they were designed to overcome.

Chris Taylor, co-author of the study, suggested it was wrong to tackle the wide-spread problem of deprivation by focusing efforts and money on small areas. "The idea that problems exist in a particular area is wrong," he said. "Problems are spread more widely and levels of disadvantage change over time."

Programmes have focused on short-term goals and improvements have been patchy. Inspection and research evidence showed action zones met few of their original objectives such as to be test beds for innovation. In some, educational attainment actually fell as a result of the Government's intervention, the study found. At the initiative's height there were more than 73 large zones covering more than 1,400 schools but their number shrunk to six after the Government decided to phase them out. They have been replaced by 130 smaller EiC action zones, mostly in urban areas, which typically involve one secondary and a cluster of primaries. The study found the requirement for areas to bid for money had forced them to emphasise their problems, such as domestic abuse and violence, reinforcing negative perceptions that hamper their recovery. It also accused the Government of ignoring historical evidence that shows area-based initiatives reach as few as one in five of the most disadvantaged children.

The promise and perils of area-based initiatives: the UK experience, by Sally Power, Gareth Rees and Chris Taylor is available from PowerS3@cf.ac.uk

(TES, 22 April 2005)

Education charity set to run second EiC action Zone in Leeds

Leeds-based education charity Learning Partnerships has been asked to set up a second Excellence in Cities (EiC) action zone by the Department for Education and Skills. Learning Partnerships aims to raise the profile of literacy in the local community, make learning fun, and ensure that children have someone to read with and have access to books outside of school.

The zone will cover six primary schools in Beeston and Holbeck, and will be funded by Education Leeds, an organisation which runs support services for schools on behalf of Leeds City Council.

There are now 102 EiC action zones (formerly called small education action zones) across the country.

(Regeneration & Renewal, 23 January 2004)

More information on Learning Partnerships

Excellence in Cities should do better, say inspectors

Three of the Government's key initiatives to help pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are failing to put enough emphasis on raising achievement, education watchdogs warned in October 2003. While promising work can be found in 'excellence clusters' and city learning centres - both part of the Excellence in Cities programme - as well as the second round of education action zones (EAZs), inspectors said progress was not quick enough.

A report produced by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofted) earlier in 2003 found the programmes were having inconsistent impact on attainment. Three subsequent reports published in October drew many of the same conclusions.

England's chief inspector, David Bell, said attendance, behaviour and attitudes to education were improving in excellence clusters but the pace of change was too slow. He said more needed to be done on all three programmes to make sure that work contributed more "consistently and rapidly to the overall aim of tackling barriers to achievement in disadvantaged areas".

City learning centres, set up in 2002, were beginning to become established but were failing to focus on raising attainment and improving teaching. While EAZs also demonstrated some innovative strategies, they lacked focus on the central objective - to raise attainment.

Graham Lane, chair of the Local Government Association;s education committee, said: "I think certainly in the case of city learning centres, it's too early for assessment. You will need three to four years before you can expect to see progress. There is already hard evidence that pupil attainment and attendance and teacher retention have improved in schools in the education action zones compared to the borough averages."

The three reports - Excellence clusters: the first ten inspections, Excellence in Cities: city learning academies and Education action zones: tackling difficult issues in round two zones - are available at www.ofsted.gov.uk.

Excellence in Cities 'fails to lift city schools'

Tony Blair's flagship policy for transforming standards in inner-city schools has produced little or no improvement in pupils' results despite hundreds of millions of pounds in spending, according to a study by the Office for Standards in Education.

The Excellence in Cities programme (EiC) was launched personally by the Prime Minister in 1999 but the inspection service says there is little evidence so far that inner-city schools are closing the gap in achievement with pupils in more privileged areas.

One source told The Times: "It has had an effect but it's not on attainment. It's mainly been on changing attitudes of disadvantaged kids, basically making them feel better about underachieving at school.

"The impact has been better on younger pupils than older ones, but the wide gap in achievement still remains. The effects have been pretty negligible."

The policy has achieved benefits by improving behaviour management of difficult pupils, reducing expulsions and cutting truancy in schools working against entrenched social problems.. But it concludes that: "the impact on the programme of achievement is more variable".

Improved classroom standards were evident among younger pupils in primary schools but much less visible among secondary children.

The report will be embarrassing for ministers who have invested huge sums of money and political capital into a programme that now covers a third of the country's secondary school pupils.

(Times, 27 May 2003)

The Government reacted angrily to claims by Ofsted that its flagship programme to transform standards in inner city schools is ineffective. A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills immediately dismissed the reports. She said: "It is totally ridiculous to suggest that EiC has had no impact. The facts speak for themselves. Standards in EiC areas have improved faster than elsewhere in the country."

She admitted that improvement had been uneven, saying: "They have improved most in areas where they have been set up the longest. In [EiC areas in] inner London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool, GCSE standards have improved at almost double the rate of the rest of the country."

Phil Street, chief executive of national education charity the Community Education Development Centre, agreed that EiCs have had a positive impact. He said: "The local EiC programmes have been good at focusing on key areas and helping gifted students while creating a better environment for all students to succeed. In general they are much more targeted and much less bureaucratic than Education Action Zones.

(Regeneration and Renewal, 30 May 2003)

• Between 1999 and 2001 the proportion of children achieving level 5 or above in key stage 3 in English rose by about 2.5% in Excellence in Cities areas compared to 0.5% elsewhere.
• Where the EiC scheme had been in place from September 1999, the proportion of pupils gaining five or more A-C* grades at GCSE rose by 2.9% from 1999-2001, compared with 2.1% elsewhere.
• Where the EiC scheme had been in place from September 2000, the proportion of pupils gaining five or more A-C* grades at GCSE rose by 1.3% from 2000-2001, compared with 0.7% elsewhere.

The final wave of Excellence in Cities zones was launched in March 2002. The six zones launched by Schools Standards Minister Stephen Timms bring the total to 100, targeting individual secondary schools and their feeder primaries. They are in Blackpool, Doncaster, Enfield, Hounslow, Luton and Sandwell. Each zone will receive £250,000 a year for three years, and the education  department has agreed to match-fund private sponsorship. The zones aim to improve exam results and tackle pupil disaffection. 

The scheme now covers 58 local authorities and one third of English secondary school pupils, and will have a budget of £300 million by 2003/4. Many of the large education action zones are expected to become Excellence in Cities zones when their statutory lifespan ends. 

(New Start, 22 March 2002)

The Government's flagship Excellence in Cities initiative has given a significant boost to schools in some of the country's most deprived areas.

As ministers unveiled the first annual report on the programme, union leaders admitted that hundreds of schools had benefited from extra funding and staff.

Early findings indicated that exam results in the areas covered by the scheme are improving more quickly than in others and that the numbers leaving with no qualifications had dropped twice as fast.

Launching the report at the end of January 2001, school standards minister Estelle Morris announced an expansion of the mentor element of the scheme that aims to give demanding pupils one-to-one attention. She said an annual budget of more than £1000 million would be used to double the number of paid learning mentor posts in secondary schools from 1,500 to 3,200 by 2004, while 900 would be appointed to primaries by the end of this academic year.

City learning centres are to get an extra £150,000 to bring in internet and video technology.

Growth of programme

• September 1999: Phase One covers secondary schools in 25 local education authorities.
• September 2000: a further 22 areas join up, along with primary pilots in Phase One areas. 
• September 2001: a further 10 areas to join. Programme will then cover more than 1000 schools - about a third of all secondary-age pupils in the country.

(TES 26, January 2001)

This evaluation looks at the history of the Excellence in Cities programme to date, providing examples of activities taking place around each of its key strands: learning mentors, learning support units, extended opportunities for gifted and talented children, a City Learning Centres network, EiC action zones, Beacon schools, and specialist schools. It also provides evidence of the measurable impact of the initiative. Emerging statistical data shows that Excellence in Cities programmes are beginning to have a beneficial impact. Most schools are using the additional resources well, and the work of learning mentors has been particularly encouraging. In terms of impact on attainment, the performance tables for 2000 and 2001 show that on average results are improving faster in EiC schools than elsewhere, particularly at key stage 3 where many of the partnerships have targeted their resources.  Action for the future includes publishing examples of good practice to share across all EiC partnerships. 

Contact DfES Publications on 0845 60 222 60 or visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/excellence. 

Rural and seaside towns plus former mining areas are to be included in the Government's Excellence in Cities programme after an analysis confirmed that low-achieving schools were not confined to the inner city.

From September 2001 smaller pockets of deprivation will get extra funds to help them raise standards, provide extra challenges for gifted children and tackle problems such as truancy.

Burnley, Dewsbury, Walsall, Croydon, West Cumbria, Folkestone and Portsmouth will be the first areas to benefit from the expanded scheme which will also give them funds to tackle specific local problems.

(TES, 20 October 2000)

Fourteen small education action zones started in September 2000 as part of the Excellence in Cities programme to raise standards of education in the most deprived urban areas.

The new small zones are in Birmingham, Camden, Haringey, Islington, Knowsley, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Southwark. Each zone is concentrating on a secondary school and its feeder schools and is targeting improvements in exam results.

DfEE contact: Cath Rouke, EIC Project Team: cath.rouke@dfee.co.uk

Government schemes for gifted youngsters at comprehensive schools are being filled by middle-class children, research has found.

Schemes for gifted and talented pupils have been running in six inner-city areas since September 1999 as part of the Excellence in Cities programme. The initiative was extended to cover 23 more authorities in September 2000. It now involves more than 800 secondaries representing around 20% of secondary schools in England.

According to a study by King's College London, middle class children are coming under tremendous parental pressure to qualify for the scheme. Interviews with 45 children from eight London schools revealed all the pupils on the programme came from middle-class homes.

In a wider trawl, the researchers interviewed more than 450 11-year-olds and their parents to gauge the pressures on pupils as they made the transition to secondary school. Middle class girls were much more anxious about their performance than middle-class boys.

(TES, 15 September 2000)

The Government is taking on 800 new "learning mentors" over the next two years.  They will be staff 
with full-time troubleshooting roles in 450 schools covered by Labour's "excellence in cities" initiative, 
designed to raise standards in urban areas. They will not teach, although most are expected to be qualified teachers. 
Mentors will work to help children who have problems at home and save classroom teachers from the 
combined roles of counsellor, social worker and financial advisor. Ministers hope the appointments will help raise standards and help to cut truancy, arguing that many teachers are diverted from the blackboard to sort out their pupils' problems. But they also hope the mentors will help the brightest children by showing them how to make the best 
use of their abilities. 

( Independent, 9 December 1999)

IBM's £1 Million for Beacon Schools 

IBM is investing £1 million over the next two years in new technologies in Beacon Schools. Initially 50 Beacon schools will benefit and the programme will ultimately be available to more than 1,000 Beacon schools across England. 

"IBM's Reinventing Education Programme will mean that teachers will be able to share lesson plans and activities and spread good practice between Beacon schools and other schools in their areas," said Estelle Morris at the launch of the project. 

IBM launched the Reinventing Education grant programme in 1994, and to date has invested over £40 million worldwide. The objective is to improve student achievement by using IBM technology and  expertise as part of a comprehensive strategy for lasting change  in education systems. Evaluation of the first Reinventing Education projects has shown that IBM's technical expertise, deployed in collaboration with local education leadership, can make a unique and significant difference to schools. 

(DfEE Press Release, 2 December 1999)