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Concerns have been raised over the funding of the government’s flagship school improvement programme, with leaders warning that schools require greater clarity on how the system will operate over the next two years.

Figures obtained by ����Vlog show that significant sums have already been committed to the first waves of the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) programme, prompting questions about whether it can be sustained at scale without major additional investment.

The Department for Education claims it has enough to support every school that needs it.

But it has declined to confirm how much funding it expects beyond this financial year, how much of this year’s budget remains unallocated and when details of future spending will be published.

How much RISE funding has been spent so far?

RISE advisers work with schools needing support, brokering help from other organisations and drawing up improvement plans.

They have initially focused on “stuck” schools - those with an Ofsted rating of “requires improvement” that were previously rated less than “good” under the old inspection system.

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And nearly £19 million of RISE funding over two years has been allocated to 126 schools in the first two cohorts of the two-year programme, according to figures released to ����Vlog under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. 

Funding allocations for the 170 schools that joined the programme this term, in its third wave, are not yet available.

The DfE says there is sufficient budget for remaining RISE schools, but has declined to confirm how the autumn cohort will be funded or what the total allocation will be across the next two financial years.

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����Vlog calculations suggest that around £14.2 million will be required for the third cohort, if it receives support on a similar scale to the first two waves.

Based on the average allocation of £147,000 so far, the total cost of the first three terms of RISE would then be in the region of £32.8 million.

This rises to £53.8 million if this pattern is reflected across all the schools .

This does not include grants given to the organisations that are delivering the support, which have already totalled £513,900.

It also does not include any schools that become eligible for RISE support in the future.

RISE capacity at scale ‘seems extremely limited’

The DfE emphasises that these grants cover planned support across two academic years, rather than representing spending within a single financial year, and that the full RISE programme spans three financial years.

It also confirmed that further allocations have been made since early October.

But it declined to give an updated total and could not say how much money would be available in the future or what the overall budget was across the two-year programme.

The uncertainty comes as the government is yet to explain where £6 billion of special educational needs and disabilities spending will be absorbed, amid fears - denied by the education secretary - that it will come out of per-pupil spending.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that the capacity of the RISE programme to provide support at scale “seems extremely limited”.

Greater transparency over how decisions are made would reassure schools that support is being applied consistently, he added.

RISE funding for individual schools

Some 126 schools in the spring and summer 2025 RISE cohorts received a total of £18,569,320.72 in School Improvement Grants as of early October, according to the FOI data provided to ����Vlog.

This was out of 220 schools in this group that were originally identified as “stuck”. The DfE confirmed that 23 schools no longer met the “stuck school” eligibility criteria following reinspection, and that others were assessed as not requiring additional funding.

In total, 71 schools from these cohorts did not receive a grant.

A trust CEO, speaking anonymously, said: “RISE feels like it’s been launched before the real-world costs were understood. Schools and trusts are already right on the financial edge, making tough decisions just to keep the basics going.

“Yet the programme relies on that same overstretched system to deliver rapid improvement without the resources to match.”

Among the 126 schools that did receive funding, allocations ranged from £28,000 to £240,000, with most falling between £80,000 and £240,000, and an average of £147,000.

There were 80 schools that received more than £100,000, while 35 received more than £200,000 - the threshold the DfE describes as an “exceptional circumstances” level across the two-year intervention cycle. You can see a full list of the schools that received more than £200,000 in RISE funding at the end of this article.

The unnamed CEO added: “When more than 30 schools have already needed above the £200,000 cap, it’s pretty clear the funding assumptions were off, and it also raises a bigger question about whether the national funding formula is giving schools what they actually need in the first place.”

With a new Ofsted model highlighting fresh priorities for schools to focus their improvement capacity on, “the gap between what’s expected and what’s actually affordable is getting harder to ignore”, they said.

The DfE said costs will not be evenly distributed across the six terms and may be front-loaded or mid-cycle. A spokesperson said it does not expect spending to be concentrated towards the end of the programme. 

Number of schools supported by RISE

Government data shows that 32 schools joined RISE in February 2025, followed by 188 schools in the summer term and a further 170 schools in the autumn term - a total of 390 schools so far.

The programme spans six terms, equivalent to two academic years, and more schools will become eligible as further Ofsted judgements are issued.

Tim Coulson, director-general of the DfE’s regions group, told ����Vlog that additional schools will be added in January, and further schools will become eligible for support following Ofsted inspection judgements.

Only the spring and summer cohorts have completed the full diagnostic and planning stage, meaning they are the only groups to have received grant allocations so far.

Autumn term schools are still being assessed and matched with supporting organisations. The DfE said these schools have begun to receive School Improvement Grants, but declined to confirm the size of these allocations or the total committed so far.

With further cohorts expected over the remaining terms of the programme, the scale of need is likely to rise, but there is currently no published information on how the next cohorts will be funded.

Russell Clarke, headteacher of Haslingden High School and Sixth Form in Lancashire, questioned whether the funding will be enough to deliver meaningful change.

He said the £20 million allocated so far “feels like a drop in the ocean” and asked whether the programme can offer enough support once more schools are added to the programme.

How many ‘stuck’ schools get no funding?

Some “stuck” schools receive no School Improvement Grant as part of their support. This happens when RISE advisers and regional directors judge that a school’s responsible body can deliver improvement without external intervention.

These schools remain publicly listed as part of the RISE programme, but they are not matched with a supporting organisation and receive only monitoring from advisers.

The DfE declined to say how many schools fall into this “monitoring-only” category, though ����Vlog analysis indicates that 71 schools from the spring and summer cohorts did not receive any funding.

The department said that this decision is based on an assessment of need carried out by RISE advisers, and that all RISE schools that need funding as part of their improvement journey will receive it.

Mr Di’Iasio said that while some schools may already have improvement plans in place, it was important for the DfE to be open about when and why schools receive no additional resources, so leaders could be confident that decisions are being applied consistently across regions.

Echoing this, headteacher Russell Clarke expressed unease about the “monitoring-only” pathway, which he described as leaving some schools in a “no man’s land”, being watched but not given the support needed to secure lasting improvement.

Trusts with the largest grants

Some of the multi-academy trusts (MATs) receiving the most amount of RISE money across different schools hold substantial financial reserves, analysis of the FOI data shows.

Four schools in the Heartwood Learning Trust received a combined total of £864,828. The trust reported reserves of £6.28 million in the most recent financial year.

A spokesperson for Heartwood Learning Trust said the RISE programme “complements and supports” existing improvement work, and sits alongside the trust’s own “significant investment”.

They said the schools face “significant challenges” due to high levels of disadvantage, and that the trust’s RISE plan includes attendance support, one-to-one tutoring and investment in technology.

Similarly, £538,400 was allocated across three schools in River Learning Trust, which reported £10.67 million in reserves.

Chief executive Paul James said the schools receiving support have “very high levels of disadvantage” and long-standing structural challenges, and that the trust deploys its own reserves to support improvement across its 33 settings.

Two schools within Tove Learning Trust received £318,596. The trust reported an in-year balance of £3.11 million and reserves of £11.37 million. Its CEO, Jamie Clarke, is also a RISE adviser for South East England. The trust did not respond to requests for comment.

Financial figures ‘only tell part of the story’

However, the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) said that the reserves of trusts receiving support will reflect many factors, including planned capital work and the overall size of the trust, and some of these factors are irrelevant to the circumstances of individual “stuck” schools.

Steve Rollett, deputy CEO of the CST, added: “Financial figures only tell part of the story, and will vary depending on the nature and time period of the support.”

The DfE said that, although MATs act as responsible bodies, RISE funds are ring-fenced for use within the eligible schools.

Clarity over RISE’s future is essential

So, where do the figures outlined in this article leave the RISE programme? Its early stages of RISE represent a system attempting to offer more structured intervention than previous improvement programmes.

Leaders acknowledge the potential benefits of separating Ofsted’s diagnostic role from the DfE’s responsibility for providing support, and many welcome the targeted investment into schools facing structural challenges.

The first signs of the impact made by RISE teams will be seen by Christmas as a result of “monitoring” underway this term, Dr Coulson said last month.

But many questions remain, including whether the system is resourced to operate at the scale ministers envisage.

With six terms of planned delivery and potentially hundreds more schools yet to enter the system, clarity over RISE’s future is essential.

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