The School Improvement team at the Department for Children, Schools and Families is responsible for the development and delivery of policies and programmes which: transform schools causing concern (SCC); prevent school failure; where necessary tackle failing and underperforming schools; and promote improvements in pupil achievement to narrow attainment gaps.

The team works collaboratively with a range of partners, including the Primary and Secondary National Strategies, local authorities and other stakeholders. A range of support is available to help schools and local authorities raise standards, for example programmes run by National Strategies.

Successful approaches to school improvement focus on strengthening school leadership, improving teaching standards, working in collaboration with other schools, and engaging parents and the community. These principles underpin our school improvement programmes.

This site contains information about SCC, featuring details of the legislative framework for local authorities and statutory guidance.

For full information about improving standards in secondary schools go to the National Challenge website at
www.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalchallenge/

Details of the City Challenge initiatives in London, Greater Manchester and the Black Country are available at
www.dcsf.gov.uk/citychallenge/

Full details of local authority and school target setting are available at
www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/ts/