New powers will be created that will allow the education secretary to direct multi-academy trusts to meet new standards or terminate their funding if they are deemed to be failing.

The new MAT-level intervention powers are set out today in the government’s new Schools Bill.

The Department for Education says this is necessary because it has not always been able to adequately intervene in failing MATs.

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The government revealed in its Schools White Paper that it will create a new academy trusts standards framework to better regulate the system as it pushes on with plans to have all state schools in or heading towards MATs by the end of the decade.

In a new Schools Bill document published today, the DfE says that this will be underpinned by new trust-level intervention powers to ensure MATs meet the standards expected.

These will include powers to:

• issue a notice to improve and impose financial restrictions on academy trusts
• issue a compliance direction telling trusts to meet standards
• direct the appointment of trustees and replace existing trustees with an interim trust board
• Statutory powers to terminate funding agreements of a MAT

At present, most of the government’s intervention in the academy sector is done at the school level.

In a document explaining the new powers, the DfE says: “As highlighted in the Schools White Paper, the government has not always been able to intervene adequately in the small number of trusts that have fallen short of the standards it expects all trusts to meet.

“These intervention measures will help to address this in the future. Termination powers currently in individual funding agreements will be incorporated into legislation so the powers can be applied consistently across the academy sector.”

It says that currently, the government relies on a “limited menu of powers which are mostly contractual, which are ultimately limited to the termination of funding agreements.”

The document adds: “The intervention framework for trusts has not kept pace with developments in the academy sector. The current intervention framework facilitates intervention mainly where failures occur at an individual academy, rather than addressing the issue at trust level.”