Government is set to launch a pilot of new “school profiles” and consult on plans for RISE improvement teams to issue targeted support to schools with “concerning” attainment levels this year.
The plans have been revealed in its response to a consultation on school accountability reform, which opened earlier this year.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Every child deserves a brilliant education – and that means a system that’s relentlessly focused on strong accountability that puts children first.
“We will use every lever we can to boost the life chances of our children and ensure aspiration is not just the preserve of some, but the right of each and every young person.”
Here’s what you need to know…
1. School profiles go-ahead …
The Department for Education confirmed it will go ahead with plans to develop online “school profiles to provide parents and the public with clear, reliable information” across a range of performance indicators.
A pilot version will be tested this academic year, with “the aim for the service to be launched publicly in 2026-27”.
DfE said profiles will “help parents make decisions about schools”. They will feature the “most recent” performance data and “be closely integrated with Ofsted’s point-in-time report card[s]”.
Further data will be provided to recognise “the breadth of what a school does across a range of criteria, including achievement and attendance”.
Officials will investigate how information, “like provision for pupil wellbeing and a school’s enrichment offer”, will be included. They will also “explore ways” to demonstrate inclusivity within local communities.
Worries over “teacher workload and wellbeing, primarily regarding the possibility of schools being required to input data into school profiles themselves” were aired during the consultation.
DfE stressed it “will assess whether there would be any data entry requirements on schools and, if so, how this could be done in a proportionate way”.
2. … and a new online platform for schools
Sector feedback to the consultation also “highlighted the value of using data to support collaboration and improvement”. To support this, a separate digital “service for schools will be developed”.
Accessed via a log-in, it will provide “data insights into their performance” information and allow benchmarking and comparisons with other schools. This will enable “more data-driven self-improvement”.
It will also “facilitate the sharing of best practice, collaboration, and connections with higher-performing schools”. DfE plans to pilot it this academic year, before launching in 2026-27.
As the new tools will carr out the “functions of Compare School and College Performance and Analyse School Performance and more, our intention is both legacy services will be discontinued, but only once the new services are implemented to a sufficient standard,” government added.
3. Profiles for post-16 schools to be explored
DfE added it considers it “important for there to be coverage of 16-18 institutions”, including FE colleges.
It will undertake “further research in 2025-26 to explore how best to introduce similar profiles” for them, the response said.
4. RISE assessments for special measures schools
Under the new Ofsted framework, schools can fall into two categories of concern – ‘special measures’ and ‘requires significant improvement’ (formerly ‘serious weaknesses’).
Twenty-four per cent of respondents to the consultation opposed plans to continue with structural intervention – either academisation or re-brokerages – for special measures schools.
Among other things, they highlighted “the need to consider individual school contexts, including leadership tenure, funding issues, existing support mechanisms, and the demographics” before taking such action.
They also stressed “the negative impacts of structural intervention on staff wellbeing and stability”.
Government confirmed the “default” position will be for schools in special measures to face structural intervention (be it academisation or rebrokering if the school is an academy).
But government said RISE teams should “assess the school’s overall situation, considering Ofsted gradings and the broader context, to develop a comprehensive improvement plan that sets the school on a positive trajectory”.
And government acknowledged that “intervention can have an impact on staff workload and wellbeing and [it] will continue to work with the sector to mitigate this”.
Schools will be ‘special measures’ if they receive an ‘urgent improvement’ rating – the lowest grade possible – for leadership and at least one other area. A school would also be in ‘special measures’ if it got an ‘urgent improvement’ grade for leadership and safeguarding was ‘not met’.
5. RISE help after ‘requires significant improvement’ inspections
Government confirmed it will also proceed with plans for schools ‘requiring significant improvement’ to “normally undergo structural intervention until September 2026, while RISE teams build capacity”.
Targeted RISE support will then become “the default”, with structural intervention applied if schools have not achieved the ‘expected standard’ in all inspection areas after 18 months.
Schools will be ‘requires significant improvement’ if they get an ‘urgent improvement’ in any area other than leadership or a safeguarding ‘not met’.
They will also fall into the category if they have an ‘urgent improvement’ for leadership only and are meeting safeguarding standards.
The government will also amend coasting rules so those previously in a category of concern that have receive a ‘needs attention’ grade for leadership and governance in their report card are eligible for intervention.
6. Fears RISE teams will push for academisation
In all, 66 per cent of consultation respondents agreed with the proposal for RISE support to be the “default” for schools ‘requiring significant improvement’ from next September, while 14 per cent disagreed.
A “recurring theme in the responses was the urgency and speed of improvement needed for schools in this category”.
Unions, teachers and the National Governance Association “highlighted concerns about off-rolling of pupils with special educational needs and the challenges of achieving meaningful, lasting change within an 18-month timeframe”.
There were “mixed views on the role and influence of RISE advisers in relation to maintained schools, with a nervousness the policy may result in increased pressure for voluntary academisation”.
7. Intervention in ‘stuck schools’
The government will also go ahead with updating the definition of ‘stuck’ to include those rated ‘needs attention’ for leadership and governance, under the new report card framework, and previously graded below ‘good’.
They will receive “bespoke, targeted RISE intervention” and be given “two years in which to achieve ‘expected standard’ ratings in all [Ofsted inspection] areas”, or face structural intervention.
For schools already considered stuck where their latest inspection was under the soon-to-be-replaced framework, the two-year period will start from the date report cards are introduced.
8. ‘Informal’ attainment checks this term
DfE added that while Ofsted “should remain the principal trigger for the department’s accountability responses”, it’s important for those “with the very lowest levels of pupil attainment” to benefit from targeted RISE help.
As a “first step”, it will begin “informal engagement with some schools that have low or concerning attainment to understand more about their performance and provide opportunities for them to learn” from others this term.
RISE teams will meet with them to “discuss their attainment trends and agree actions, including how they will work with hubs, higher performing schools and other sources of well-evidenced support, such as regional networks”.
Ministers will also consult this autumn on further options to use the school improvement teams to address low attainment. This will help set the measures used to determine eligibility.
They will “ultimately seek to identify a metric that contextualises performance using prior attainment, while noting that there will be no secondary progress data in 2025/26”.
9. Wellbeing charter updates
The government’s consultation response also revealed that it is “working with the sector” to update its wellbeing charter, a set of commitments signed up to by 4,100 schools and colleges.
It hopes the changes will improve how the document “supports school leaders to remove workload and wellbeing barriers, develop supportive wellbeing cultures, and retain the best staff”.
DfE will work with the Improving Education Together partnership – which includes unions, employer representative bodies and officials – to “explore further opportunities to support headteachers, particularly in the context of inspection visits and outcome”.
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