The Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme is implemented through local partnerships crossing traditional local education authority boundaries, focusing on the needs and aspirations of individual pupils. It currently involves 58 authorities with a further 10 involved in 11 Excellence Clusters - groups of schools in areas of disadvantage which draw on the main strands of EIC.

The Government introduced EiC in three phases from March 1999 to September 2000. In addition to the main programme, a primary pilot is running in Phase 1 areas. A further development, Excellence Clusters, takes the concept of EiC to smaller clusters of deprivation, 11 Clusters will begin operating in September 2001. All of this means that over 1000 secondary and 1000 primary schools are receiving targeted help and resources to improve the standards of education of their pupils.

Below is a list of all the partnerships involved in Excellence in Cities and Excellence Clusters. Clicking on any of the links will take you to their local education authority pages.