Learning from Opportunity Areas: Two New Reports on Place-Based Education
Two new reports from our From the Centre to the Periphery project, led by Professor Nadia Siddiqui and Dr Elle Young, offer crucial insights into the Opportunity Areas programme, examining both the lived experience of those delivering the initiatives and their measurable impact on educational outcomes.
Reflections from Partnership Board Members
Our first report, ‘Partnership Board Members’ Reflections on the Opportunity Areas Programme‘, published in October 2025, draws on interviews with independent board members across ten Opportunity Areas.
The findings are clear, locally rooted interventions had stronger, more lasting impact than externally imposed programmes. Supportive oversight from the Department for Education worked better than directive approaches, and local relationships and leadership mattered more than formal structures. Locally adapted activities in early years education, school attainment, post-16 transitions, and mental health consistently outperformed pre-set initiatives.
However, short-term funding cycles and artificial groupings of areas constrained impact. Board members stressed that education outcomes cannot be separated from wider systems including health, housing, transport, and employment. The most durable legacies were strengthened networks, relationships, and local capacity.
Educational Outcomes: Initial Promise, Limited Long-Term Gains
Our second report, ‘Evaluating the Impact of the Opportunity Areas Programme on Educational Outcomes‘, also published in October 2025, uses School Census data from 2014 to 2023 to examine patterns in attainment, attendance, absence, and exclusions.
While some areas showed early improvements in Key Stage 2 attainment after 2016, these gains largely reversed by 2018–19. Key Stage 4 outcomes showed little sustained progress, with most areas consistently performing below national averages. Absence and exclusion rates remained high and worsened during COVID-19. Deep-rooted socio-economic factors, including poverty, health inequalities, and challenging local labour markets, limited the long-term impact of school-focused interventions.
What This Means for Policy
The Opportunity Areas programme narrowed but did not close the attainment gap by 2018-19. Early gains appear to reflect a short-term funding boost rather than lasting transformation.
The research reveals a fundamental tension, area-based education policies can have impact, but it tends to be short-lived once funding ends. Addressing deep structural barriers, such as teacher shortages, poor attendance, and low attainment, requires consistent, long-term investment tied to regional economic and infrastructural conditions.
Short-term funding models can force change that is impossible to sustain and may even prove disruptive. Limited timeframes don’t allow schools to develop sustainable initiatives. Sustainable improvement demands coherent national strategies aligned with local capacity and enduring policy support. Local partnerships are facilitators rather than main drivers, they can amplify impact but cannot substitute for sustained structural change.
Both reports are available now and form part of our ongoing From the Centre to the Periphery project examining how to reduce spatial divides through area-based education initiatives. Find our more about our publications here.
References
Young, E., Siddiqui, N., Donnelly, M., Brown, C., Dickson, M., Pearce, N., Harris, R., Davies, J., & Cunningham, C. (2025, October 10). Partnership Board Members’ reflections on the Opportunity Areas Programme. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4639461
Siddiqui, N., Gazmuri, C., Young, E., Donnelly, M., Cunningham, C., Davies, J., Dickson, M., Brown, C., Harris, R., & Pearce, N. (2025, October 10). Evaluating the Impact of the Opportunity Areas Programme on Educational Outcomes. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4638760