Between April 2011-March 2012, 22 local delivery projects took place in 35 local authority areas of the country, developing local approaches to increasing participation and delivering RPA (raising the participation age).

These projects gave local authorities the opportunity to test different approaches to delivering RPA and to share their learning with other areas to inform preparations across the country in the build up to 2013/2015.

This was the third phase of local work to prepare for RPA. In the previous two phases (2009/10 and 2010/11), local areas trialled one of three models (information, advice and guidance, re-engagement of 16- and 17-year-olds, and local solutions).

In this phase the programme was locally-led. Each area developed their own project to address their local circumstances (rather than delivering one of the three models suggested by the Department). The key purpose of these locally-led projects was for the areas involved to identify their most important challenges, to develop and test specific approaches to address those challenges, and to support local preparations for 2013/15 in the context of an area-wide RPA plan.

The areas selected to continue from previous trial phases were: Wandsworth, East Sussex, Derby, Staffordshire, Barnsley, Swindon, Hertfordshire, Newcastle, Plymouth, Ealing, Worcestershire, Greater Manchester (as a sub-region), and Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire (as a sub-region).

Eight areas and one sub-region were selected to join the existing areas.
The new areas selected to deliver a locally-led delivery project were: Sheffield, City of York, Essex, Medway, Cornwall, Nottingham, Brighton and Hove, Blackburn and Darwen, and Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset (as a sub-region).

Six of the areas also acted as ‘local leaders’ for RPA, taking a greater role in leading the programme and in disseminating learning more widely across the country. These were Barnsley, Derby, East Sussex, Swindon, Plymouth and Worcestershire.

Evaluation

Independent evaluations have been carried out (by Isos Partnership) for both the previous phases of trials. The evaluation reports are available to download from this page.

These reports present the learning from the trial areas, including:

  • supporting young people’s transitions, including activity in Key Stage 3 as well as focusing on supporting transition post‐16
  • developing early identification systems for young people at risk of disengaging, such as ‘risk of NEET’ indicators, so that activity can be targeted and they can be supported to stay in education
  • the role of participation advisers in supporting young people to participate
  • transforming jobs without training into apprenticeships
  • engaging other local partners, including employers and the voluntary and community sector
  • mapping out participation trajectories to 2013/15, within the context of developing an area-wide RPA plan.

The evaluation reports also highlighted a number of recommendations and guiding principles for continued activity, including the importance of:

  • overall focus and clarity to ensure the value added of trial activities; keeping a tight brief to determine what has and has not worked
  • providing senior leadership to provide strategic oversight to the operational work and make the links across agendas
  • understanding the cohort and developing leading indicators – the importance of data in establishing priorities; the value of in-depth research with specific target cohorts
  • providing local drive and impetus to create momentum and engage all providers.

The evaluation report for the current Locally Led Delivery Projects (April 2011 to March 2012) will be available in Summer 2012.

Tools

From the Phase 2 evaluation, the Isos partnership has developed a number of tools which bring together the learning and emerging good practice from the work of the trial areas in Phases 1 and 2. These tools set out more detailed examples of what the trial areas have done, to help inform other areas who may be considering their approach to RPA at the moment. They are not intended to provide a prescriptive approach to tell local areas what they should do – one of the most significant lessons from the trials has been that local areas need to determine their own approach to the delivery of RPA. Below are details of the six tools linked to from this page:

Tool One: Projecting Participation – Part One: Understanding the cohort

This tool sets out the approaches which trial areas have taken to analysing their data and identifying current strengths and weaknesses in their understanding of current and future cohorts.

Tool Two: Projecting Participation – Part Two: Determining local priorities

This tool sets out how trial areas have identified their priorities for implementing RPA, set trajectories to 2013/15 and looks at different governance and leadership models.

Tool Three: Managing Transitions and Tracking

This tool looks at the work of trial areas in focusing on transitions throughout secondary education and into post-16 education and gives examples of the type of universal and target support provided.

Tool Four: Establishing Support Mechanisms

This tool looks at the work of trial areas in identifying and supporting those young most at risk of disengaging including: identification of at-risk young people; how support can be provided through Participation Advisors and Support Panels; and identification of ‘Reasonable Excuse’.

Tool Five: Identifying and Meeting Provision Needs

This tool looks at how trial areas have analysed their current provision offer to identify gaps and new priorities, and gives examples of the some of the ways in which they have developed new provision.

Tool Six: Communicating the RPA Message

This tool presents the lessons from the trials about how they have communicated messages about RPA to a wide range of stakeholders, and looks at the range of mechanisms they have used to do this.