What is LocalED?

LocalED is a pilot project to test new locality models for the English school system led by local authorities, combined authorities and school led partnerships.

The project began life as a report published in March 2021, following research sponsored by the Association of Education Committees (AEC) Trust and BELMAS, the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society.

A key finding of the research, which explored four leading international systems, was that – to borrow a phrase from educational researcher Michael Fullan – ‘Leadership from the Middle’ through locality-based governance and partnership working is key to building school systems that can deliver excellence and equity.

The updated literature review available here draws on the latest research confirms this analysis.

What are the pilots focusing on?

Following the final report in 2021 and subsequent interviews and consultation, which made several recommendations to strengthen the role played by locality-based partnerships, the AEC Trust launched LocalED focusing on pilots to explore three approaches:

Each pilot is running for 2 years, between April 2022 and July 2024, and a report on learning from the pilots will then be published.

Why a locality-based approach?

The infographic below ‘Why Locality Based Approaches Build Strong School Systems and support for vulnerable pupils’ picks out what schools, school led partnerships and local authorities identify as key reasons for the importance of locality working:

Latest updates on the Projects

Forging Local Coherence: LocalEd final project evaluation

Our nine pilots, four covering ways to tackle pupil absence, four exploring new approaches to professional accountability and one delving into how a combined authority can support school improvement, have been independently evaluated by Professor Toby Greany and Dr Susan Cousin from the University of Nottingham.

Their findings have been released in a new ‘Forging Local Coherence: LocalEd project evaluation report‘ and were shared with delegates at January’s ‘Locality working in education’ conference.

The overarching question for the evaluation was: What are we learning about leading successful locality working? The report focuses on the synthesis of findings relating to this overarching question, with detailed findings on each pilot area available.

The report found that all localities have made significant progress in relation to their chosen ‘common cause’, stating that local leaders across England – and, potentially, more widely – can learn from the work outlined in the pilots.

To download the full evaluation report, click here.

Read our news story about January’s conference here.

Locality Working in Education: Why it matters and what it takes – a conference hosted by LGA in partnership with AEC Trust

Over the last two years, nine local areas in England have been piloting locality-based approaches to tackling some of the biggest challenges in the education system including:

Better support for vulnerable young people to meet challenges around attendance
Developing new models of professional accountability including School Report Cards
Exploring the potential benefits of working with Combined Authorities

The conference provided an opportunity to learn from the work of the nine local areas and drew out learnings from across the pilots about the successes and challenges of locality working. It reflected on the implications for national policy and policymakers from this locality learning and in particular the key contribution that place-based working can play in unifying a fragmented system. The Project has been independently evaluated by Professor Toby Greany and Dr. Susan Cousin from Nottingham University.

For more information about the conference click here.

LocalED 2025 post-conference report

We were delighted by the very positive responses reflected in the post-conference survey by attendees and the wider sector comments we have received.

The LocalED 2025 – Post-conference Report contains links to the nine pilot presentations and to Professor Toby Greany and Dr. Susan Cousin’s independent Forging Local Coherence evaluation from the University of Nottingham.

The report includes a brief summary of John Edwards, Director-General of the Regions Group at the Department for Education’s keynote address and some photographs of the event. Finally, there are recommendations on how to take forward locality working.

To read the report, click here.