Background

The RAISE programme in Northern Ireland seeks to reduce educational disadvantage and originated from the New Decade, New Approach agreement. An expert panel examined links between underachievement and social disadvantage and published A Fair Start in May 2021, which recommended creating a Reducing Educational Disadvantage programme. A programme board and stakeholder group were established, with support from Queen’s University and the Strategic Investment Board. Its scope was significantly expanded by €24 million in Shared Island funding from the Irish Government to address educational disadvantage in Northern Ireland.

The initial work that ultimately morphed into RAISE was produced in January 2022.  It recognised that eligibility criteria would be required and noted that data was available in the form of the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure, which ranks 890 Super Output Areas (‘SOAs’) and is produced by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The rankings are based on seven domains of deprivation: income, employment, health, education, skills and training, access to services, living environment, and crime [17].

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