Multi-academy trust (MAT) leaders have raised concerns with senior civil servants that the Department for Education has “a mass consolidation agenda” for trusts.
The issue was raised during a remote briefing held by the DfE for MAT leaders to set out how officials will make decisions on which trusts are approved to take on more schools.
The DfE issued its new guidance following an academies regulatory and commissioning review, and amid concern among both sector leaders and parent campaigners about the lack of information about how DfE academy decisions are currently being made by regional directors.
John Edwards, director-general of the DfE’s Regions Group, said its new commissioning guidance aimed to make the department’s decision making more open.
But he then fielded a series of questions from the sector voicing concern about how the system works.
Mr Edwards read out and responded to a number of the questions that were submitted.
One MAT audience member said the DfE had “a mass consolidation agenda” and wanted trusts with below five schools to join another trust.
In response, Mr Edwards said the Schools White Paper had identified the benefit of MATs operating at a certain size.
However, he added: “We are not in the business of identifying trusts by size and having conversations with them. We are in the business of working to deliver high quality - so quality is the focus.”
Leaders also raised concern that communication from the department was “one way”, while another told the DfE that the session outlining how its commissioning decisions work “feels quite sanitised, controlled and doesn’t match our experience”.
Mr Edwards said: “We are setting out here an approach that we will be adopting in the autumn, and so some of the detail and the transparency that is here…is to address some of the questions we have heard about openness and transparency.”
He said he hoped that the system, which will be “fully operational” in the autumn, will show how the department has responded on this issue.
Mr Edwards read another question submitted by a MAT leader who said that it seemed like “larger trusts get more opportunities for dialogue with the regional director” and asked how this could be addressed.
Mr Edwards said he recognised the importance of trusts being able “to speak to senior folk locally”.
He also told the event that there had been more than one request for regional directors to hold group meetings with sector leaders and that the DfE would reflect on this.
Earlier this month, the DfE published detailed guidance setting out how it will make commissioning decisions on which academy trusts take on schools.
It said that the department’s regional directors will use headline performance data on school improvement and also look at whether trusts provide a high-quality and inclusive education as part of this process.
From next year, the department will also be using data on a trust’s workforce performance as part of its decision making.
