The majority of multi-academy trusts will not be assessed under Ofsted’s new plans to use school inspection to look at their work.

Ofsted is planning to carry out new summary evaluations of MATs by inspecting groups of their schools over one or two terms and then discussing their findings with trust leaders.

The inspectorate would then publish its findings about the trust after individual school inspections have been carried out and reports have been published.

However, the inspectorate has said today that most MATs will probably not be looked at through this new process and that the inspectorate cannot order trusts to take part.

‘Not MAT inspections’

Ofsted has said that it might decide to carry out an evaluation of MATs:

• with a high number of academies that are performing well;
• in which lower-performing academies have shown improvement;
• that have weak inspection outcomes.
   

As part of its plan, Ofsted wants to carry out survey visits to other schools in a MAT which are not due to be inspected.

Education secretary Damian Hinds has today urged Ofsted to ensure that these visits do not place an “undue burden” on these schools or the MATs.

In a letter to Amanda Spielman, he also told her to ensure that “you will now refer to this process as a MAT summary evaluation.

“Given the potential for confusion in this area, I ask that we use this name consistently and avoid MAT summary evaluations being referred to as ‘MAT inspections’.”

Today Ofsted has published details of how its summary evaluations will work.

It says: “Ofsted will not carry out summary evaluations in every MAT. In fact, most MATs are unlikely to undergo a summary evaluation.

“We aim to select a broad range of MATs to visit, not just those that may be a cause for concern.

“This is to ensure that we can: gain an accurate and balanced understanding of the contribution that MATs make to the school system; highlight areas of strength that may be disseminated more widely; and provide insight into weaknesses.”

Ofsted’s plan to carry out summary evaluations of MATs was announced in its annual report last week.

It does not have the power to inspect MATs but in recent years has carried out batch inspections of schools in the same trust.

It is now looking to build on this approach by inspecting schools over a longer period of time and then speaking to MAT leaders before publishing its findings about the overall trust.