There are no plans to introduce Ofsted inspections of multi-academy trusts because many MATs are “so young and not fully mature”, school system minister Baroness Barran has said.
At present Ofsted only has the power to inspect and give graded judgements at school level. It cannot inspect or pass judgements on the central functions of a MAT.
The watchdog has long been calling for this to change.
But Baroness Barran said today that sector leaders have warned the Department for Education that introducing MAT-level Ofsted checks on top of school inspections would create a “huge burden”.
However, while ministers had decided that MAT inspections would not be helpful “at this point”, the idea could be looked at in the future, Baroness Barran told the Schools and Academies Show in London this morning.
Ofsted has been calling for the power to inspect MATs under its current chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, and her predecessor, Sir Michael Wilshaw.
The DfE’s ambition to move to a fully MAT-led system by 2030, and its plan to create a new regulatory system for trusts, has led to renewed calls for Ofsted inspections of MATs.
Ofsted currently carries out MAT “summary evaluations”: it inspects a group of schools run by the same trust and it then visits the trust’s head office, before publishing its findings and recommendations.
However, a MAT’s participation in this process is voluntary, and the evaluation does not include a graded judgement.
Ofsted wants the power to inspect MATs
The DfE indicated earlier this year that it was not planning to introduce MAT-level Ofsted inspections, and Baroness Barran today elaborated on some of the reasons why.
During a conference question-and-answer session, she said: “We have talked a lot about ‘Should Ofsted do MAT-level inspection?’ and that is where we felt two things.
“One was about the maturity of the sector. We felt we needed to put in more support and more capacity building because so many of the trusts are so young and not yet fully mature. So we were not sure it was a really helpful thing to do at this point.”
This decision could be revised “at some point down the track”, she said, adding: “Who knows?”
Baroness Barran said that a DfE expert advisory group had also told ministers that creating a new layer of MAT inspection on top of existing school inspection would create a “huge burden”.
Ofsted published a report last month warning that the inspectorate’s lack of power to inspect MATs “leaves gaps in the knowledge of both parents and policymakers”.
Baroness Barran also spoke today about the need for a transparent decision-making process around MAT growth, in terms of the government deciding how and when schools are moved in and out of trusts.
She said that, to those outside of the DfE, the process could feel, at worst, as if the DfE had “a kind of list of the friends of the regional directors”.
Tes revealed last week that there are widespread concerns among trust chief executives about how the department makes decisions over which MATs take on converted or rebrokered academies.
