Anchor source · DfE
RISE: South West Regional Plan
Regional context, focus areas, strategies, ambitions and school improvement architecture. Updated 27 August 2026.
Open official regional plan ↗South West regional intelligence · action not commentary
Read the signal.
Change the trajectory.
This premier workspace translates the attendance priorities in the Department for Education’s South West RISE Regional Plan into practical school, trust and partnership action. It brings together transition, disadvantage, SEND, belonging, data, leadership, multi-agency practice and implementation discipline in one place.
Official plan → practical implementation
What the South West RISE plan means for attendance leaders
The regional plan centres attendance improvement on two priorities: reducing persistent absence for high-risk pupils and protecting attendance through the KS2→KS3 transition. It then identifies four delivery routes: attendance and behaviour hubs, learning from what works, more effective use of data, and stronger leadership ownership.
Use this hub to answer five questions
- Which pupils and cohorts are driving lost learning?
- Is KS2→KS3 transition creating preventable absence?
- What do DfE comparison, transition and ABIE signals tell us?
- Are SEND, disadvantage, health and belonging barriers being addressed early?
- Can leaders demonstrate implementation and measurable impact?
01
Persistent absence
Target high-risk cohorts, especially disadvantage and SEND, with sharper diagnostic casework.
02
KS2→KS3 transition
Act before the regional Year 6-to-Year 8 decline becomes embedded.
03
Data into decisions
Use similar-school comparisons, transition reports and ABIE as prompts for action.
04
Leadership & learning
Review strategy, learn from effective practice and evaluate whether implementation changes outcomes.
Regional context leaders should not ignore
Attendance is not isolated from the wider regional picture. The RISE plan explicitly connects attendance to disadvantage, SEND, inclusion, rural/coastal context, belonging and the quality of transitions.
Worst nationallyThe plan describes secondary persistent absence for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND/EHCPs as the weakest regional position nationally.
−5.4ppDifference between the Year 6 and Year 8 attendance figures cited in the plan.
85.3%Average Year 8 attendance cited for disadvantaged White British boys — a group highlighted for particular transition risk.
+37% / +46%Increase in pupils with EHCPs since 2021/22 in state-funded primary / secondary schools, as described in the regional plan.
Place matters
- Large rural and coastal areas can intensify transport, access and service-capacity barriers.
- Bristol and Plymouth are highlighted as areas with particularly high disadvantage.
- Coastal communities are identified as having heightened risk around absence, suspensions and disengagement for some pupils with SEND.
Inclusion and attendance are interdependent
- The regional plan calls for stronger inclusive classroom practice and earlier transition planning.
- It explicitly links belonging, feeder-school engagement and inclusive culture to stronger secondary transition attendance.
- Health, social care and youth services are identified as important partners where barriers are complex.
Premier toolkit
12 interactive tools: diagnose, decide, implement, review
The original regional tools are retained and strengthened. Six new RISE-aligned tools have been added from the regional plan’s specific delivery expectations.
🚨
Attendance Rescue Room™
Diagnose flatlining attendance and generate a focused 30/60/90-day recovery plan.
📈
ABIE Mission Control™
Translate current attendance and ABIE into an improvement trajectory and review response.
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Y6→Y7→Y8 Observatory™
Identify transition risk early and create attendance-protection actions around belonging and support.
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Vulnerable Learners Lab™
Map school, family, health, SEND and contextual barriers into an actionable support response.
❤️
Belonging Scanner™
Test whether relationships, safety, curriculum or belonging may be contributing to attendance risk.
💡
What Works Exchange™
Capture effective practice — and approaches that did not work — so implementation knowledge is retained.
NEW · RISE
🧭
RISE Alignment Review™
Score your school or trust against the four South West attendance delivery routes and identify next moves.
NEW · RISE
🔭
Data Intelligence Studio™
Combine similar-school position, Year 6 transition, ABIE and subgroup gaps into one leadership interpretation.
NEW · RISE
🛟
RISE Support Route Finder™
Decide whether your next step is self-improvement, regional hub support, enhanced support or multi-agency escalation.
NEW · RISE
🤝
Barrier Escalation Mapper™
Clarify ownership across school, family, health, SEND, social care, youth services and local authority partners.
NEW · RISE
🚀
Discovery→Delivery Canvas™
Turn a hub visit, discovery morning or shared-practice session into disciplined implementation with measures.
NEW · RISE
🏛️
Leadership Challenge Pack™
Generate the questions governors, trustees and senior leaders should ask when attendance strategy is underperforming.
Leadership diagnostic
Attendance Rescue Room™
Enter aggregate school-level figures only. The output is a strategic prompt, not a statutory judgement.
Trajectory tool
ABIE Mission Control™
Use your official DfE baseline improvement expectation alongside local evidence and professional judgement.
Prevention before decline
Year 6→7→8 Transition Observatory™
The regional plan highlights a steep Year 6-to-Year 8 decline. Use anonymised or hypothetical pupil information only.
Barrier mapping
Vulnerable Learners Lab™
Score each area from 0 (not a barrier) to 3 (significant barrier). Keep all use anonymous.
Anonymous pupil voice
Belonging & Engagement Scanner™
Rate each statement: 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree. Use aggregated, anonymous responses.
Practice capture
South West What Works Exchange™
Capture context, implementation and impact — not just the intervention name.
New · South West RISE alignment
RISE Alignment Review™
Rate current maturity against the attendance activities set out in the regional plan.
New · data into action
Data Intelligence Studio™
Triangulate the DfE reports highlighted by the regional plan. Enter school-level or aggregate values only.
New · support pathway
RISE Support Route Finder™
Use this to frame the next conversation; eligibility for formal programmes remains determined by DfE/programme rules.
New · multi-agency ownership
Barrier Escalation Mapper™
Keep pupil-identifiable data out of this browser-based tool. Use categories only.
New · implementation discipline
Discovery→Delivery Canvas™
The regional plan places emphasis on discovery mornings and effective implementation. Capture the smallest useful change and how you will know it worked.
New · leadership & governance
Leadership Challenge Pack™
Generate a challenge set matched to your current attendance pressure and the South West regional priorities.
Regional delivery horizon
RISE attendance milestones to keep in view
These milestones are taken from the South West regional plan and can be used as prompts for local strategy conversations, while recognising that individual school support and eligibility are determined separately.
July 2026First three highest-absence cohorts matched to enhanced attendance and behaviour hub support.
July 202622 attendance and behaviour hub open days delivered as part of the regional support offer.
April 2027Hubs embedded regionally with tailored guidance, mentoring and peer support, with early improvement evidence.
April 2027Increased engagement with DfE attendance data tools and evidence of data-informed strategy refinement.
Reference library
Official and evidence-informed resources
The official South West RISE Regional Plan is the anchor reference for this edition. Open the source material directly whenever you are checking policy, programme detail or eligibility.
DfE
RISE attendance improvement
Statutory guidance links, best practice, family communication, data, reasons for absence and support routes.
Open resource ↗DfE
Attendance & behaviour hubs
Regional and enhanced support, leadership support, CPD, open days and how to join.
Open programme ↗DfE data
Monitor your school attendance user guide
Guidance covering dashboards, similar-school reports, Year 6 transition data and attendance reports.
Open user guide ↗DfE secure service
View Your Education Data
Secure school, trust and local authority access to attendance data and insights.
Open service ↗DfE data
Explore Education Statistics
Published national, regional and local authority data for attendance and wider education measures.
Open attendance statistics ↗Evidence
EEF: Supporting school attendance
Six evidence-informed themes spanning diagnosis, belonging, communication, universal provision, targeted support and impact.
Open EEF resource ↗DfE family communication
Communicating with parents about attendance
Guidance, adaptable communication resources and the 2026 back-to-school reset material.
Open communication resources ↗Statutory guidance
Working together to improve school attendance
Use the statutory guidance as the legal and operational foundation for school, trust and local-authority responsibilities.
Open statutory guidance ↗Local context lens
Built for the South West, not a generic attendance template
The South West view deliberately tests the intersection of attendance with rurality, coastal communities, urban disadvantage, SEND/EHCP, health access, transition, family partnership, curriculum, relationships and belonging.
Rurality & transportCoastal contextSEND / EHCPDisadvantageEBSAMedical absenceKS2→KS3BelongingSevere absence
Professional-use principles
No pupil-identifiable data
Use aggregate, anonymous or hypothetical information only. The page runs in the browser and does not require a server-side database.
Diagnosis before intervention
Do not start with a programme name. Start with cohort, barrier, transition, belonging, provision and implementation evidence.
Independent of government
This National Attendance Portal resource interprets and operationalises publicly available material. It is not DfE-endorsed and does not replace official guidance.