In England’s state schools sector, there are currently two main types of schools.
Maintained schools are part of the local council, while academies are separate from their council and run by an academy trust.
Academies receive state funding directly from the government and have certain freedoms that maintained schools do not have. They do not have to follow the national curriculum and can set their own admissions policies, term times and pay and conditions.
Academies are inspected by Ofsted in the same way maintained schools are and have to follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions - and their students sit the same exams.
Academies are run by non-profit-making charitable trusts - either single-academy trusts (SATs) or multi-academy trusts (MATs). These trusts are accountable to the education secretary through their funding agreement and are also companies required to file accounts to Companies House.
As of January 2024, the number of SATs in England had fallen to 994 and there were 1320 MATs.
How schools can become academies
There are two main types of academy - converters and sponsored.
Converter academies
Converter academies are schools that choose to become academies. A maintained school that has been rated “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, can voluntarily opt to convert and become an academy.
These schools can either form a SAT or request to become a part of an existing MAT.
Sponsored academies
Schools can also be converted to academy status as a result of intervention from the Department for Education. Sponsored academies describe schools that have been converted as a result of an academy order being issued by the DfE and a trust being chosen to take them on.
If a school gets an “inadequate” rating from Ofsted, the DfE automatically issues an academy order. If this happens to a school that is already an academy, it can be rebrokered into a different trust.
The move, known as the coasting school measure, is not automatic and the DfE has said that it will consider each school on a “case-by-case basis”.
In a recent report, the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) asked for the “coasting schools” rule to be “redesigned or abandoned” owing to its “problematic” nature. This intervention power means the DfE can intervene at an academy that has had two consecutive inspection grades of less than “good” - even if the first one came before the academy was run by its current trust.
Why some schools choose to become academies - and why others don’t
Two years ago, the DfE announced a goal for all state schools to be in or moving towards being in a strong multi-academy trust by 2030.
The department has said previously that joining a multi-academy trust “enables the strongest leaders to take responsibility for supporting more schools, develop great teachers and allow schools to focus on what really matters - teaching, learning and a curriculum that is based on what works.”
However, research published by the DfE in 2021 found that the majority of maintained school leaders surveyed by the Department for Education did not want to convert their schools into academies because of concerns over losing their autonomy.
The survey found that two-thirds (67 per cent) of primary schools and three-fifths (59 per cent) of secondary school leaders said concern about losing autonomy was a key reason for not becoming an academy so far.
Can schools with a faith designation become academies
A church diocese can request to convert its church schools that are part of a Church of England or Roman Catholic Diocese of Education to become academies.
In June 2023, the government amended legislation to provide reassurances for educational institutions with a religious character that want to become academy schools.
The process for deciding which trusts will take on a school is made by the Department for Education’s regional directors.
The government has nine directors who are each responsible for a government region of England. They are supported by an advisory board that will discuss and challenge the director’s decisions on which schools will be allocated to trusts.
The education secretary has a duty to issue an academy order to maintained schools that have failed their Ofsted inspection, and will also intervene where academy schools fail an inspection - which can result in these schools being rebrokered. This duty is carried out through the regional directors.
Schools doing this will be asked by the DfE whether they are planning to join an existing trust or form a new trust with other schools.
If it is the latter, schools will also be asked for a reason or reasons for forming a trust and what plans there are for growing it.
Schools that are applying to become an academy are also expected to contact their regional director to inform them.
What is a free school?
Free schools are new academies. The creation of new free schools was a flagship policy of the 2010-15 coalition government as part of a “big society” vision of empowering people to become more involved in the delivery of public services and to encourage innovation.
The idea was to allow new state schools to be created by groups including parents, charities, faith groups and businesses. Since 2010, the DfE has been approving free school applications in waves.
Over time, the free school programme has moved away from its original “big society” vision and has become the route in which established trusts can open new academies.
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