Around a quarter of academy trusts in the North East of England are considering a merger with another trust, a new survey has revealed.
A survey of 33 academy trust CEOs, which represent more than 200 schools in the area, found that 24.2 per cent were planning a trust merger and 48.5 per cent an expansion.
The research, conducted by Schools North East (SNE), found that 15.2 per cent of trusts were undecided as to what their next steps would be and 12.1 per cent said they would not merge or expand.
The findings give insight into how trust leaders have responded to the government’s stated aim of having a fully MAT-led system by 2030.
Of those planning a trust expansion or merger, three-quarters said that this was the result of a longer-term strategic plan to do so, while more than one in nine (14 per cent) said that pressure from the government’s academisation programme was a factor.
And among those planning expansions, a quarter (26 per cent) said they only intended to add one or two schools to their trust.
Almost half of the trusts said that expansion will incur additional, unrecoverable costs to the trust budget.
A third of the trusts said that this cost will be less than £10,000, and a further third said it would be more than £50,000.
Of those not expanding, over two-thirds said they had difficulty in finding suitable partners, and half said that it isn’t currently strategically sensible to do so.
For those not merging with another trust, 44 per cent said they were worried about the loss of autonomy, and another 44 per cent said that it isn’t currently strategically sensible to do so.
Earlier this summer, Tes revealed that SNE was getting regular reports from member schools that local authority and single-trust schools in parts of the region were being approached by - and rejecting - MATs, often from outside of the North East region, that have “little experience in managing or working with rural schools”.
At the time, SNE director Chris Zarraga said: “The national rhetoric around academisation, and education policy more generally, rarely translates well for schools working in areas like Northumberland or rural County Durham.”
The DfE is currently conducting a regulatory review that is considering how to commission new academy trusts and the expansion of existing trusts.
It has previously said that this will “help make sure there are no ‘cold spots’ of the country where a school does not have an option to join a strong trust that is a good fit for its needs”.
The Department for Education has been approached for a comment.
