Project details
Portfolio: Education, skills and inclusion
Funding amount: £5m
Funder: Investment Fund
Project status: In progress
Delivery partner: Seven local authorities in the North East and multiple delivery partners
Key contact: Education Improvement Team
Key contact email: education@northeast-ca.gov.uk
Page last updated 14-09-2026
Our ambition is to build an economy everyone can contribute to and benefit from. We aim to equip residents with the skills and support needed for the region to thrive. The North East MSA aims to do this in part by directly supporting schools, children and their families with a targeted education improvement programme.
The Excellence in Education (EiE) Programme is focused on taking steps to address the significant educational achievement gap in our area, with pupils in the North East likely to underperform in comparison to their peers elsewhere in the country. The programme works collaboratively right across the education landscape, adding value to the work of our constituent local authorities. The programme has developed a convening role within education in the region, bringing together LAs, Multi Academy Trusts, School Federations, Teaching School Hubs and Research Schools as well as individual schools. This shared sense of collaborative working across a complex education system provides a social return on investment that would not occur without this programme.
The Excellence in Education Programme has three priority areas:
- Inclusion: improving attendance levels, addressing the social, emotional mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, and supporting transitions for pupils both into school and within phases e.g. Primary to Secondary.
- Realising Potential: supporting skills development in literacy, oracy and mathematics for our most disadvantaged children and young people and promoting cultural and social capital.
- Teacher Wellbeing and Development: investing in the skills, resilience and leadership strengths of teachers and leaders, to create a sustainable culture of excellence in our schools.
We also provide a small grants programme that is designed to support the development of creative, innovative and scalable approaches to tackle the challenges which schools are facing.
You can view a list of all the projects that still have available spaces here. The information is accurate as of September 2026.
Inspire grants programme
The Inspire grants programme is open for the 2026/27 round of applications. Applications are welcomed from:
- Local authority maintained schools, academies, special schools and sixth form colleges
- Any youth organisation or VCSE working with children and young people, in collaborative partnership with a school or sixth form college
Schools can apply for up to £10,000 individually, or £20,000 if a bid is from a trust, federation, or cluster of schools wanting to work together. Please use the business case form to apply and refer to the guidance notes. If you have any further queries after reading the guidance notes, email education@northeast-ca.gov.uk and a member of the team will be happy to help.
The closing date for applications is 5pm on Wednesday 14 October.
