Evaluation of Brighton & Hove’s approach to supporting transition to 16 – 19

Brighton and Hove City Council recently implemented an approach that aims to improve the transition of vulnerable pupils when they reach the end of Year 11, including their progression to and retention in Year 12. Building on the success of a similar approach to supporting primary to secondary transition, the key components are: 

1. the sharing of detailed data about pupils and the support they require between secondary schools and 16 – 19 providers, 
2. guidance on how to support pupils with the transition, 
3. targeted intervention with the most vulnerable pupils and 
4. the coordination of city-wide transition activities. 

The approach was first rolled out in 2023/24 as a pilot of the first component. It was expanded in 2024/25 to include the second and third components, and academic year 2025/26 marks the approach’s full roll-out in all secondary schools and 16 – 19 providers in Brighton and Hove.

As the approach aims to improve the progression and retention of vulnerable pupils, including those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, it is directly relevant to our mission of closing the attainment gap. 

It also aligns with the priority area of our 16 – 19 research strategy related to generating robust and actionable evidence to support pupils and further education and training providers with the transition from school to 16 – 19. 

Useful insights and lessons learned can also be gathered to support the Council in further refining and improving the approach as it continues to expand.

A team from Mime, RAND Europe and UCL IoE, led by Steve Preston (Mime), will carry out the evaluation. The impact evaluation will be a quasi-experimental design, specifically synthetic difference-in-difference, which will compare pupil outcomes in Brighton and Hove to those of a comparison group drawn from secondary schools in other, similar local authorities before and after the implementation of the approach. 

This method is doubly robust in that it will control for differences between the two groups and factors that affect both groups over time (for example, changes in national policy). It will also account for the staggered roll-out of the approach, allowing evidence to be generated for each cohort (pilot, expansion and full roll-out). 

The impact evaluation will be accompanied by an implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design. which will use a mix of methods to explore how the approach is delivered in practice, the factors that influence its delivery and success, and how these affect pupil outcomes. 

This will include reviewing existing data and documentation, as well as collecting primary data from local authority stakeholders, secondary school and 16 – 19 provider staff and 16 – 19 students in Brighton and Hove and comparison local authorities through surveys, structured interviews and focus groups.