Policy paper

Opportunity areas

The delivery plans and learnings for the opportunity areas place-based programme, which supports social mobility in areas facing entrenched deprivation.

From:
Department for Education
Published
9 October 2017
Last updated
26 May 2022 鈥� See all updates
This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Applies to England

Documents

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-808-4

PDF, 2.33 MB, 32 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-861-9

PDF, 1.7 MB, 44 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-809-1

PDF, 1.77 MB, 32 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-862-6

PDF, 2.52 MB, 56 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-863-3

PDF, 3.57 MB, 40 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-864-0

PDF, 2.52 MB, 44 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-865-7

PDF, 2.51 MB, 40 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-811-4

PDF, 9 MB, 42 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-810-7

PDF, 3.45 MB, 34 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-812-1

PDF, 5.16 MB, 38 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-866-4

PDF, 4.22 MB, 56 pages

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78105-813-8

PDF, 3.31 MB, 36 pages

PDF, 124 KB, 2 pages

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 45.7 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

Opportunity areas programme

Opportunity areas (OAs) are an important part of the government鈥檚 plan for improving social mobility through education. They were described in the policy paper Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential.

From September 2022, the opportunity areas programme will end and the areas will become 12 of the 24 priority education investment areas. The Schools White Paper, Opportunity for all, announced new interventions for these areas which will help our mission to level up and improve educational attainment, with a focus on making the greatest progress in the areas with the most entrenched underperformance.

The 12 opportunity areas are:

Delivery plans

The delivery plans for the 12 opportunity areas outline how we planned to build young people鈥檚 knowledge and skills and provide them with the best advice and opportunities.

Selection methodology

The selection methodology explains how we decided which areas would be classified as 鈥榦pportunity areas鈥�.

The selection data spreadsheet presents the data which we originally considered when identifying the areas in greatest need.

Lessons learnt

One of the main objectives of the OA programme was to share learning from the OAs to inform future policy as well as activity in other areas.

Lessons learnt can be found in:

Updates to this page

Published 9 October 2017
Last updated 26 May 2022 show all updates

  1. Updated to include information about lessons learnt.

  2. Updated with details of the opportunity areas insight guides.

  3. Added links to websites for Norwich, Blackpool, Bradford and Doncaster.

  4. Added links to the pages for West Somerset, Derby, Oldham, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire and Ipswich.

  5. Added a link to the North Yorkshire coast website.

  6. Added 6 new opportunity area delivery plans.

  7. Norwich: updated missing information on Dr. Tim Coulson, Chair of the Norwich partnership board on page 15. Blackpool: amended the graph showing the percentage of pupils in schools by Ofsted rating (January 2017) on page 20.

  8. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page

Related content