Education: Pilot Schemes
Education

Alex Cunningham (Stockton North, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the outcomes were of the pilot schemes conducted by local authorities on raising the education participation age.

Tim Loughton (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Education; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)

Independent evaluations have been carried out on the first two phases of the raising the participation age (RPA) delivery projects. These reports present the learning from the project areas and highlight good practice and guiding principles for continued activities designed to achieve full participation. Both reports are available on the Department for Education's website:

http://education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/youngpeople/participation/rpa/a0075564/raising-the-participation-age-rpa-locally-led-delivery-projectstrials

From the phase two evaluation, a number of tools were developed which bring together the learning and emerging good practice from the work of the project areas in phases one and two. These tools set out more detailed examples of what the project areas have done, to help inform other areas as they consider their approach to RPA.

An evaluation of the third phase of the RPA delivery projects is currently underway and the final evaluation report will be available in June 2012.

A fourth phase of the delivery projects has been announced and will run from April 2012 to March 2013.