Labour’s school improvement missions need more than a London Challenge revival

The recently published schools white paper set out the government’s approach to raising overall attainment levels while halving the disadvantage attainment gap between children from low-income families and their peers. ⁴⁰ Department for Education, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, CP 1508-I, The Stationery Office, February 2026, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6996ee6a047739fe61889e05/Every_child_achieving_and_thriving_web_accessible_version.pdf  This ambition is welcome. Previous Institute for Government research highlights wide disparities in attainment at every stage of schooling, emerging and – in some cases, becoming entrenched – before children even start school.

Government is proposing targeted action in the places where improvement is most needed, inspired by the London Challenge model of the 2000s. But if these new missions are to succeed, government will need to learn the right lessons: replicating the features that made London Challenge effective, while recognising the conditions that were specific to London and the additional action that will be needed to achieve its objectives.

The government is right to draw on the London Challenge for its new place-based missions

The government’s proposed place-based ‘missions’ are intended to tackle entrenched disadvantage where it is most acute: ‘Mission North East’ will focus on white working-class communities in the North East, while ‘Mission Coastal’ targets disadvantaged coastal communities. The need for these missions in clear. Deprivation is more concentrated and persistent in coastal areas, ⁴¹ de Graaf K, McKenzie K, Asthana S, Agarwal S and Smith R, On the waterfront, Key Cities Innovation Network, March 2025, https://keycities.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Key-Cities-On-the-waterfront-March-2025.pdf  where pupils achieve an average of 2.4 GCSE grades lower across every subject compared to their peers elsewhere. ⁴² Department for Education, Outcomes for pupils at the end of KS4 by geography, Department for Education, June 2019, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f316e488fa8f57ac5fbcef7/Outcomes_for_pupils_at_the_end_of_KS4_by_geography_-_ad_hoc_statistics.pdf  Similarly, children from the North East are more likely to experience poverty and poor health, underperform at secondary school, and become NEET (not in education, employment, or training) as young adults. ⁴³ McGlade H and Kelly J, Investigating educational disadvantage and place-based approaches in the North East of England, Education Policy Institute, May 2025, https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/EPI-Durham-University-and-NECA_summary-paper_May25_V2.pdf

It is promising that government has modelled these missions on New Labour’s London Challenge school improvement programme. The London Challenge was one of the factors behind the transformation of London’s schools from the lowest performing to the highest performing in England at Key Stage 4 by 2011, ⁴⁴ Ogden V, Making sense of policy in London secondary education: what can be learned from the London Challenge, Institute of Education, University of London, July 2012, https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10020696/1/__d6_Shared%24_SUPP_Library_User%20Services_Circulation_Inter-Library%20Loans_IOE%20ETHOS_ETHOS%20di…  which also saw outcomes for disadvantaged pupils improve at a faster rate in London than anywhere else in the country. ⁴⁵ Hutchings M and Mansaray A, A review of the impact of the London Challenge (2003-8) and the City Challenge (2008-11), Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University, 2013, https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/101388796/A_review_of_the_impact_of_the_London_Challenge_2003_8_and_the_City_Challenge_2008_11_.pdf

The London Challenge struck a balance between national direction and local ownership

The London Challenge reconciled both top-down and bottom-up approaches to policy implementation, combining clear direction from the centre with increasing ownership on the ground. In practice, this meant cultivating dense networks between policymakers and practitioners to enable rapid learning and spread effective practice. Strong project management and structured accountability from the centre combined with innovation and experimentation on the ground, creating short feedback loops between officials and schools and enabling experienced practitioners to provide flexible and bespoke solutions to local challenges.

Government has already committed to applying some of these lessons, with Mission North East and Mission Coastal bringing together “clusters of schools facing similar challenges”, backed by strong leadership and practical support from the Department for Education. ⁴⁶ Department for Education, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, CP 1508-I, The Stationery Office, February 2026, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6996ee6a047739fe61889e05/Every_child_achieving_and_thriving_web_accessible_version.pdf  This is welcome, but giving these missions the best chance of success also means taking the best elements of the London Challenge implementation approach: combining clear national direction with genuine local leadership, and setting clear outcomes while retaining flexibility, allowing local leaders to adapt to local delivery barriers.

The London Challenge model is not a panacea for reducing attainment gaps

While there is much to learn from the London Challenge model, government cannot simply ‘lift and shift’ this approach for Mission North East and Mission Coastal. Attempts to replicate the model in the Black Country in 2008 produced much less favourable results, and a subsequent Ofsted-commissioned review found that London benefitted from certain advantages unusually favourable to school improvement, including dense school networks, existing collaborative infrastructure and stronger leadership capacity – conditions that were less evident in the Black Country. ⁴⁷ Hutchings M and Mansaray A, A review of the impact of the London Challenge (2003-8) and the City Challenge (2008-11), Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University, 2013, https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/101388796/A_review_of_the_impact_of_the_London_Challenge_2003_8_and_the_City_Challenge_2008_11_.pdf

Similarly, disadvantaged pupils in London are more likely to come from ethnic minority backgrounds, whose progress to Key Stage 4 tends to exceed that of White British pupils, ⁴⁸ Greaves E, Macmillan L and Sibieta L, Lessons from London schools for attainment gaps and social mobility, Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute of Education, June 2014, https://ifs.org.uk/sites/default/files/output_url_files/london_schools_june2014.pdf  suggesting that the ‘London Effect’ (the capital’s high and sustained levels of pupil progress and attainment) partly reflects London’s distinctive ethnic composition. ⁴⁹ Burgess S, Understanding the Success of London’s Schools, Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, October 2014, https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/cmpo/migrated/documents/wp333.pdf  Some accounts of the ‘London Effect’ also highlight the high levels of opportunity, ambition and parental engagement among ethnic minority pupils in the capital. ⁵⁰ Mujtaba T, Education in London: Challenges and opportunities for young people, London Review of Education, 14(2), September 2016, https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1522288/1/Mujtaba%20Education%20in%20London%20-%20Challenges%20and%20opportunities%20for%20young%20people.pdf

Government will likely need to look beyond school-based improvement models to achieve its objectives

The causes of inequalities in education outcomes are complex, interconnected and take time to meaningfully shift, and focusing too narrowly on school-based improvement models risks responding to the symptoms rather than the root causes of attainment gaps. So government also needs to understand the London Challenge’s limitations and look beyond school-based improvement programmes.

For example, in the North East, evidence points to the need for affordable and reliable transport, better housing and more effective support for attendance, inclusion and SEND (among other factors). ⁵¹ McGlade H and Kelly J, Investigating educational disadvantage and place-based approaches in the North East of England, Education Policy Institute, May 2025, https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/EPI-Durham-University-and-NECA_summary-paper_May25_V2.pdf  In coastal communities, the drivers of educational attainment similarly extend beyond schools and relate to the availability of transport, youth services and post-16 options. ⁵² Keating A, Clark E, Whewall S, Yue Z, Cameron C, Murray E and Jivraj S, Young people and coastal communities: Local policymaker and practitioner perspectives, UCL Coastal Youth Life Chances project, July 2025, https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10210706/1/UCL%20Coastal%20Youth%20Life%20Chances%20interim%20report%20July%202025%20%28002%29.pdf

The government is right to revisit the London Challenge, but making a success of Mission North East and Mission Coastal will require more than just a London Challenge revival.