Research School Network: New Edition of EEF Guidance on Effective Implementation This guidance report unpacks how to implement new approaches well, emphasising the importance of a people-centred approach

English schools are some of the most research engaged in the world. But effective implementation is needed to turn that engagement into actual changes in practices and pupil outcomes, including crucially, for pupils experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.

The EEF’s new edition of their guidance on effective implementation is designed to help bridge that gap. It aims to support school leaders in implementing change in the most effective way, so that it has the best possible chance of succeeding.

It builds on the recommendations of the existing guidance report by incorporating lessons learnt from a new evidence review. If the key message in the previous guidance was to ​‘treat implementation as a process’; this update unpacks how to do implementation well. It emphasises that implementation is fundamentally a collaborative and social process driven by how people think, behave, and interact.

Based on an extensive review of evidence on implementation in schools, the report outlines three key elements that encourage effective implementation:

• the behaviours that drive effective implementation,
• the contextual factors that facilitate it,
• and a structured, but flexible, process to enact it.

The report – which is free to download from the EEF’s website – is accompanied by additional resources designed to support further exploration of the report’s key recommendations along with tools to assist with future planning.