By Sean Coughlan BBC News Online education staff

"I don't know what they expected," says teacher John Mayes, who says inner-city schools will feel undermined by claims that schemes to raise standards have failed.

Schools are funded to work with each individual to raise exam results

Mr Mayes, who has taught in schools in Knowsley, on Merseyside, for 30 years, says innovations introduced under the Excellence in Cities scheme are making a positive difference - but that there are no instant solutions.

The education watchdog, Ofsted, says initiatives to support schools in deprived areas have had only a limited impact on attainment and truancy.

Knowsley, which has appeared at the bottom end of exam league tables, might be an example of where inspectors say results have "stubbornly" remained below average.

But Mr Mayes says "there are no magic wands" for schools where results have been poor for years, where many pupils are "turned off" education and where schools have to bear the brunt of the problems of social deprivation.

At least the test-bed projects supported by Excellence in Cities are looking for ways to make improvements, he says - and that it is "cheap" to knock down schemes beginning to bear fruit.

And he suggests the emphasis on introducing welfare and emotional support services, such as mentoring, is making a substantial change to what schools offer.

Intensive support

As practical examples, he says the initiative is paying for pupils to be individually interviewed and their progress examined to see how they could be encouraged to achieve higher grades.

Schools are very different places from four or five years ago. When you walk into the staffroom, it's not just teachers, there are assistants, mentors and advisers John Mayes, teacher

This is intensive support work that seeks to systematically make improvements to each individual - but it is expensive and will not necessarily deliver immediate results, he says.

Mentors and behaviour advisers are available to work with pupils - and the school is involving a broader range of support staff, including social services, to help tackle disaffection.

The use of mentors, who can work to motivate individual pupils and tackle problems such as truancy, has been a particular success, he says.

"Schools are very different places from four or five years ago. When you walk into the staffroom, it's not just teachers, there are assistants, mentors and advisers.

Improving behaviour

"Schools in the future are going to have many more adults working alongside teachers, with teachers focusing more on the pedagogy, while there are other specialist staff working in areas such as behaviour."

Schools are also benefiting from "behaviour improvement programmes", he says, where Excellence in Cities funding allows schools to have a dedicated co-ordinator.

These can set up panels to discuss a pupil's behaviour, which can involve the pupil's family and other agencies, such as the police and social services.

Such innovations, he says, can make a huge difference to individuals, but will be difficult to quantify in statistics.

"I've listened to endless chat shows, where they talk about wasting money in schools and spending money on bad kids.

"But this is a distorted view. These pilot schemes might seem expensive, and not everything will work. But we can't go back to the old days."