The Department for Education has set out a plan to improve oversight of academy trusts and help “high-quality” chains to grow in underperforming areas.
As part of the plans, “trust development statements” for each of the country’s 55 Education Investment Areas will set out data on school performance and whether the DfE believes growth or consolidation of academy trusts is needed.
The plans are being produced as part of the government’s academies regulatory and commissioning review, published today, which sets out how the government will support and make decisions on MATs.
However, following the collapse of the Schools Bill, the government has not announced any new powers for intervening or closing trusts deemed to be failing.
And the academies minister has told Tes that the government has no plans currently to introduce MAT-level Ofsted inspections (more below).
The review group was set up last year to support the government’s Schools Bill, which aimed to create a new system for regulating multi-academy trusts.
That legislation was ditched last year after getting into difficulty in the House of Lords, before the government then become engulfed in months of leadership turmoil.
Despite the bill being dropped, the review has continued its work and the DfE has now published its findings. Here are the key details:
1. Area-wide plans for MAT growth
New “trust development statements” will be published today for each of the 55 Education Investment Areas, which are receiving “levelling-up” funds based on their key stage 2 and GCSE scores.
The DfE set these aims in a bid to provide a clearer strategic direction for MAT growth in the areas of highest need.
The plans will set out an assessment of local need across all phases and types of school, as well as “opportunities for trusts developed with local delivery partners”. It will also include data about school performance in each area.
2. DfE could use existing powers more to intervene in failing trusts
The review says the department will continue efforts to tackle educational underperformance in conjunction with Ofsted and will “explore making greater use of existing powers to address underperformance at trust-level”.
Academies minister Baroness Barran said there are powers that exist in current legislation that allow the department to intervene over failings in a trust’s governance and finance.
She added: “In my experience, when those two things go wrong, education probably goes wrong as well.”
The government had planned to create new powers that would allow the education secretary to direct multi-academy trusts to meet new standards or terminate their funding if they are deemed to be failing.
These new MAT-level intervention powers were set out in the government’s Schools Bill last year.
3. More transparent decision making
The DfE has also said it will work with the sector to build a more transparent commissioning process.
It will publish new commissioning guidance in June this year and introduce the reformed process in the autumn.
The review said the DfE was also looking to develop ways to present relevant and appropriate data back to trusts so they can better understand how it is used in commissioning decisions over which trusts take on schools.
4. Defining ‘high-quality’ trusts
The DfE has said it will develop expanded descriptions of trust quality, building on the five pillars set out in the Schools White Paper.
However, there has been a change in the language used. Whereas previously the department had talked about establishing “strong” trusts, the review findings use the term “high-quality” trusts.
The DfE has said it will set out more detailed proposed descriptions of trust quality next month and then work with the sector to finalise them in June.
The five pillars set out in the Schools White Paper were:
- Delivering high-quality and inclusive education for all pupils.
- Quickly improving and maintaining school performance.
- Operating effective and robust governance, which provides strong and strategic leadership, oversight and direction.
- Managing finances and prioritising resources, including the estate, in a way that delivers the best educational experience for children.
- Training, recruiting, developing, deploying and retaining great teachers and leaders throughout their careers.
The review has concluded that these pillars are the correct ones.
5. ‘Simplifying’ the ESFA Handbook
The review said the DfE would be simplifying the requirements of the Academy Trust Handbook and streamlining the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) wider approach to financial regulation and financial governance within the sector.
It also said that it would continue to improve how it works with trusts by “embedding clearer points of contact and departmental responsibilities”, building “a single regulatory interface” between trusts and the department.
6. Building MAT capacity
The DfE has said it will work with the sector to trial regional trust development networks, which will help to allow for peer-to-peer support.
It is also starting its previously announced MAT CEO leadership development programme in January 2024, and will support the professional development of MAT chief financial officers by rolling out a national expert mentoring programme from this summer.
7. Two-year funding support to help MAT growth
The DfE has said that £86 million of trust capacity funding (TCaF) will be available, focused particularly on Education Investment Areas (EIAs).
Applications will open on 3 April for a new TCaF fund, which will run until March 2025. For the first time, there will be a two-year funding option, which the review says will support MATs to plan expansion more strategically.
Larger grants will also be available for projects that respond to local priorities for trust growth set out in trust development statements.
But no plans for Ofsted MAT inspections, Tes told
When the government launched its Schools White Paper and an ambition for all schools to be in or moving towards a MAT by 2030, there was much discussion about whether Ofsted could play an increased role in how trusts were regulated.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said last year that inspection of MATs should play an important part in the government deciding whether trusts are failing to meet national standards.
However, speaking to Tes, Baroness Barran said the government currently has no new plans for MAT inspections.
She said: “In terms of sequencing, we think this phase [is about] supporting trusts beginning to codify what effective practice looks like - and I don’t mean we are looking at a single version of the truth, there is obviously a range of ways in which you can run a trust extremely successfully - that we begin to codify that. That is really where our focus is for the time being.
“We are clear that we are not going to make summative judgements about trusts and we don’t have any plans at this point to bring in MAT inspection.
“There is a lot of accountability for MATs - they have got all the charity commission stuff, they have got the ESFA, they have got the regions group - so we are not concerned from that point of view.”
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts and member of the regulatory and commissioning review external advisory group, said that the CST welcomed its findings.
She added: “It is important that the government recognises there is no one-size-fits-all model, and that there is a stated commitment to foster a diversity of models and scales of trust, including those with faith schools, special schools and alternative provision.
“We believe it is essential that the government protects the freedoms that have enabled the success of our trust system, avoiding changes that would prescribe specific, rigid behaviour and inhibit effective leadership. System diversity and freedoms must be protected through these reforms.”
