Education Action Zones (Hansard, 13 June 2003)

§ Mr. Miliband

There are currently 72 statutory zones (EAZs) made up of over 1,300 schools throughout the country. In Round One, 25 statutory zones were set up between September 1998 and January 1999. A further 48 zones were established between September 1999 and April 2000 in Round Two.

All zones were initially set up for a limited statutory term of three years. All Round One zones and many of the Round Two zones have had their terms extended to the maximum statutory period of five years. Preston EAZ transformed into an Excellence Cluster in December 2002 and was the pilot for our transformation strategy. EAZs have been set up in areas where there is a mixture of social and economic disadvantage where schools are tending to achieve levels of educational performance well below the national average.. They are in both urban and rural areas, wherever groups of schools want to take up the challenge of raising their educational standards.

EAZs have given local partnerships the freedom and resources to propose innovative strategies that would be difficult to put into practise at the level of the individual schools. Partnerships typically comprise a mix of parents, early years providers, businesses, the LEA, community organisations, the Learning Skills Council, careers services, colleges, other statutory agencies (such as health authorities, the youth service and the police) and others.

Zone initiatives generally focus on six main themes: improving the quality of teaching, improving the quality of learning, social inclusion, providing support to families, providing support to pupils and working with business and other organisations.

As a result of these initiatives the following successes have been recorded: From 1999–2002 the percentage of pupils gaining 5+ A*-C GCSEs improved at a greater rate than the national average (4.7 per cent. compared to 3.6 per cent.); 210W From 1999–2002 the percentage of pupils gaining L5+ at KS3 improved at a greater rate than the national average for maths (6 per cent. compared to 5 per cent.) and science (13 per cent. compared to 12 per cent.) and at the same rate for English (3 per cent.); From 1999–2002 the percentage of pupils gaining L4+ at KS2 improved at a greater rate than the national average in English (5 per cent. compared to 4 per cent.), maths (6 per cent. compared to 4 per cent.) and science (13 per cent. compared to 8 per cent.); From 1999–2002 the percentage of pupils gaining L2+ at KS 1 improved at twice the national rate in reading (4 per cent. compared to 2 per cent.) and at a greater rate than the national average for writing and maths (both 5 per cent. compared to 3 per cent.). Participation of over 1000 businesses across the zone programme, bringing in extra resources, new skills and management expertise to improve the delivery of education; Over £65 million private sector cash and in-kind sponsorship raised by zones; A significant reduction in the number of EAZ schools on special measures; Her Majestys Chief Inspectors (HMCI) Annual Report, published by OFSTED in February 2002 described most of the first round EAZs inspected as making reasonable progress, and said that almost four-fifths of the major individual initiatives covered in detail were beginning to offer good value at the time of the inspections.

Our Transformation Strategy on the future of EAZs, announced in November 2001, aims to continue to support ex-EAZ schools through the Excellence in Cities (EiC) initiative. When zones come to the end of their five-year statutory period, they will transform either to an EiC Action Zone in an EiC area, or an Excellence Cluster outside of an EiC area. The ethos of the Transformation Strategy is to rationalise our area-based programmes for under performing schools, to target resources where they are most needed and to reduce the burden and bureaucracy on these struggling schools.