Last year, the Schools White Paper set out the government’s ambition to rapidly transition to an all-multi-academy trust (MAT) school system, outlining proposals for all schools to be in a “strong” MAT - with at least 10 schools or 7,500 pupils - by 2030.

While the government has since dropped the Schools Bill, which is needed to provide the legal basis for their plans, they remain committed to transitioning to an all-MAT system.

Yesterday, the National Foundation For Educational Research (NFER) published a new report that investigates the feasibility of achieving an all-MAT system in the near future and explores the role that local authorities may play in helping their schools to facilitate this transition.

We discuss some of the key insights below.

A role for LAs in facilitating an all-MAT system

The Schools White Paper outlined new plans for LAs to be able to establish their own MATs. As part of our research, we wanted to find out more about local authorities’ views on the proposals and what role they might play in helping schools to make the transition.

We surveyed directors of children’s services in all LAs in England to ask them about this. 

While most (65 per cent) of the one in five (33 out of 152) LAs who responded to our survey were actively in favour of local authority-established MATs, many had concerns about their ability to fund the process and lacked clarity about what would be involved.

LAs also voiced concerns that renewed efforts to drive rapid, widespread academisation may divert resources and attention away from other pressing educational priorities.

An all-MAT system: still a long way to go

Shifting to an all-MAT system will require the substantial number of schools that currently remain LA-maintained or in a single-academy trust (SAT) to join a strong MAT.

For example, were the government to pursue a target such as that laid out in the original 2022 Schools White Paper for an all-MAT system by 2030, 25 LA-maintained mainstream schools and three SATs would need to join a MAT each week on average.

But such rapid trust growth risks creating issues for quality and increases the possibility of schools joining MATs that are not a good fit for them.

Tailored approach needed to support transition

In addition, there has been uneven progress in academisation across different regions. Owing to the stark differences in the regional academisation rates of mainstream schools, the challenge of creating sufficient capacity within MATs is intensified at a local level.

Additional consideration is also needed to address the issues facing particular groups of schools (such as faith schools) and how to ensure that no schools are left behind.

Among the LAs who responded to our survey, four-fifths were concerned that some schools in their area risked being left behind as MATs would be reluctant to take them on. This highlights the need for tailored local approaches.

What next for the government’s academisation plans?

Our research highlights that the ambition to rapidly transition to an all-MAT system, where all schools are in a “strong” trust of at least 10 schools, would require schools to join MATs and trusts to merge at an unprecedented scale.

If the government continues to pursue its ambition to rapidly transition to an all-MAT system, it should prioritise a slower transition that enables MATs to build sufficient capacity and to ensure the transition is supported by the commensurate resources, political will and policy solutions to facilitate all schools joining or forming a “strong” MAT.

Jenna Julius is research director at the NFER