Place-based collaboration
Why place-based collaboration matters
In London, the attainment gap between children from low-income backgrounds and their peers at the end of secondary school is 10.8 months of learning. In every other region of the country, it is over 19 months.
– Education Policy Institute, Annual Report 2026
Place is more important than ever before. The growing role of mayoral strategic authorities (MSAs) presents a once in a generation opportunity to address glaring disparities in our education system – within and between places.
And this regional level of government has the potential to design policy with and for local people, drawing on communities’ strengths and meeting their specific needs.
Our work with MSAs is foundational to our Neighbourhood to National strategy. By enhancing MSAs’ power to convene local stakeholders, providing them with expert support and training, and connecting them with one another to collaborate and share best practice and learning, we are co-designing local solutions to the root causes of inequity that can be scaled nationally.
Our Approach
The Mayoral Strategic Authority Network
The Network convenes senior leaders working in education and skills in MSAs to access expert advice, share challenges and insights, and explore ambitious, collective approaches to reducing inequity in life outcomes for children and young people.
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The Network provides:
Facilitated peer learning – termly retreats and regular peer learning sessions to provide a forum for shared learning, leadership development and collaboration.
Expert input and research – drawing on the FEA’s national evidence base and membership.
Collaboration funding – a shared £150,000 pot to support joint projects and learning as decided by the group.
By building connections between MSAs, this group aims to grow and spread best practice, embed systems change thinking and build its members’ collective capacity to advocate for change at a national level, shifting power away from Westminster and towards places in the process.
Seven MSAs are currently part of the Network. If you represent an MSA and you are interested in getting involved in a future cohort, please get in touch at place@faireducation.org.uk.
Collaboration Partnerships
Our Place-Based Collaboration Partnerships support innovative approaches to improve life chances for children and young people in three mayoral strategic authorities: Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
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We provide grant funding, an embedded member of staff and tailored support, together worth over £500,000 in each region. The partnerships bring together local young people, parents and carers, education providers, businesses, FEA members and wider stakeholders to co-design and test local solutions that inspire national change.
And we strengthen relationships between local actors - including our members - by setting up ‘communities of practice’ in each region. These share best practice and build connections in the system.
Learning and evaluation are embedded throughout, as we identify and share lessons from what works and what doesn’t, and what is needed going forward to change our education system.
Each area has its own local priorities, with projects across the full education journey from cradle to career. But they have a shared ambition: fairer, more connected systems that support all children and young people to thrive.
Meet our Collaboration Partners
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
This partnership is co-designing locally rooted approaches to support more children from low-income backgrounds to reach a Good Level of Development by age 5.
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority
This partnership is developing early, intensive, wraparound support in schools to give young people the building blocks they need to create successful careers in the long term.
West Midlands Combined Authority
This partnership is testing approaches that join up services around the young person, working with families and communities in two neighbourhoods to help young people who are NEET reconnect with education, employment and training.
From local learning to national change
The insights generated through our collaboration partnerships will feed directly into our place-based Network, our national membership, and our policy and research work – strengthening our collective ability to influence long-term change for children and young people.
This is neighbourhood to national: bringing together grassroots action, regional government and national policy to achieve lasting change.
Get involved
Want to learn more about our place-based partnerships or connect with the place-based Network?
With a strong track record of partnering with cities across the UK and globally, Bloomberg brings unique expertise in convening leaders and stakeholders to accelerate systemic change. Bloomberg is joined by founding funder UBS, whose support for place-based change has been pivotal in progress for children and young people. Long-term FEA supporters A&O Shearman, Barclays LifeSkills, IG Group, Mission 44, and Paul Hamlyn Foundation are joined by The Dulverton Trust and Stratton Chase Foundation to ensure the success of this ambitious strategy.