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 — See all updates

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Applies to England

Documents

Blackpool opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 2.33 MB, 32 pages

Bradford opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 1.7 MB, 44 pages

Derby opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 1.77 MB, 32 pages

Doncaster opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 2.52 MB, 56 pages

Fenland and East Cambridgeshire opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 3.57 MB, 40 pages

Hastings opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 2.52 MB, 44 pages

Ipswich opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 2.51 MB, 40 pages

North Yorkshire Coast opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 9 MB, 42 pages

Norwich opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 3.45 MB, 34 pages

Oldham opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 5.16 MB, 38 pages

Stoke-on-Trent opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 4.22 MB, 56 pages

West Somerset opportunity area: delivery plan

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

PDF, 3.31 MB, 36 pages

Opportunity areas selection methodology

PDF, 124 KB, 2 pages

Opportunity areas selection data

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 45.7 KB

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Details

Opportunity areas programme

Opportunity areas (OAs) are an important part of the government’s 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:

• West Somerset
• Norwich
• Blackpool
• North Yorkshire coast
• Derby
• Oldham
• Bradford
• Doncaster
• Fenland and East Cambridgeshire
• Hastings
• Ipswich
• Stoke-on-Trent

Delivery plans

The delivery plans for the 12 opportunity areas outline how we planned to build young people’s 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 ‘opportunity areas’.

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:

• Opportunity areas insight guides - guides produced by DfE providing insights from practitioners and stakeholders
• Opportunity areas programme research and evaluation - externally commissioned work, comprising process evaluation and intervention level evaluations

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

1. 26 May 2022

   Updated to include information about lessons learnt.

2. 19 May 2021

   Updated with details of the opportunity areas insight guides.

3. 20 September 2018

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

4. 6 August 2018

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

5. 24 May 2018

   Added a link to the North Yorkshire coast website.

6. 19 January 2018

   Added 6 new opportunity area delivery plans.

7. 9 October 2017

   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. 9 October 2017

   First published.