Let high-performing councils set up multi-academy trusts: MPs

The Government should recognise the experience and expertise of the highest performing local authorities and allow their education departments to set up multi-academy trusts (MATs), MPs have said.

In a report, Multi-academy trusts, the House of Commons Education Committee expressed significant concerns about the performance, accountability and expansion of MATs. It said evidence of the trusts’ ability to raise pupil performance was “limited and varied”, with academies in MATs both at the top and bottom of recent league tables.

The MPs claimed that some of the earliest trusts had expanded too quickly over wide geographic regions and the performance of their schools had suffered as a result.

However, they said they were encouraged by the development of a MAT ‘growth check’ and urged the Government to use this “to ensure that trusts are only allowed to take on more schools when they have the capacity to grow successfully”.

The report meanwhile warned that the relationship between Ofsted and Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) – who are responsible for holding MATs to account – remained “unsatisfactory”.

The MPs said more work still needed to be done to clarify the distinction between Ofsted inspections and RSC visits. As the trusts expand, Ofsted must be given a new framework to conduct full inspections, they added.

The report also said:

• It was “far from clear” that the Department for Education or the Education Funding Agency could cope with the further pressure on their financial oversight capabilities that significant expansion of MATs would create.
• More work needed to be done to ensure MATs are accountable to the communities in which their schools are located. There must also be more engagement with parents and clarity around the role of local governing boards. There was "too much focus on upward accountability and not enough on local engagement".
• There needed to be a greater number of sponsors in the system. Certain areas of the country were struggling to attract new sponsors and small rural schools, largely in the primary sector, were at risk of becoming isolated.
• There was growing concern for ‘untouchable’ schools which MATs refused to take on. “The Government should ensure that schools which are under-performing are not left behind by a programme which was originally designed to support such schools”.
• The Government should create structures to enable high performing trusts to share best practice. Independent, robust research should be commissioned on the structures and practices of such trusts.

The report outlined six characteristics which the MPs believe trusts must possess in order to be successful. These include strong regional structures, robust financial controls, enhanced opportunities for career development and tangible accountability at all levels.

Neil Carmichael MP, chair of the committee, said: "Since launching this inquiry there have been several changes to academy policy which have caused uncertainty and instability in the sector. We have significant concerns about the performance, accountability and expansion of multi-academy trusts. While some MATs are producing excellent results and making a valuable contribution to our education system, a considerable number are failing to improve and are consistently at the bottom of league tables.

“MATs have emerged from the Government’s plan to increase the number of academies but policy and oversight have been playing catch-up.”

He added: “Only time will tell if MATs are more successful than local authorities in tackling under-performance and supporting high-performing schools. But if the Government is to pursue the goal of further academisation, it will need to work with local authorities and allow those councils with a track record of strong educational performance to use their expertise within their education department to create MATs."

The Local Government Association welcomed the call for high-performing authorities to be able to set up MATs.

Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “The LGA has long been concerned about the lack of local accountability, financial oversight and governance arrangements that exist for multi-academy trusts.

“With 91% of maintained schools now rated as either outstanding or good by Ofsted, now is the time for government to recognise councils as its education improvement partners.”

Cllr Watts added that schools should be given the freedom to choose, in partnership with parents and councils, whichever structure was most appropriate for local children and if that meant councils setting up their own MATs then they should be able to do so.

 “If parents are concerned about an academy, at the moment all they can do is raise their concerns with a distant Regional Schools Commissioner or the remote Department for Education. Allowing local authorities to set up MATS would ensure the council and its directly elected councillors, who know their local schools and the communities they serve better than anyone else, will be able to step in and help,” he argued.

“Councils also have vast experience in managing large budgets and have a reputation as being the most efficient, transparent and trusted part of the public sector. Running their own MATs would also allow councils to keep an eye on all local school spending.”

Earlier this month it was emerged that Kent County Council had been discussing the option of setting up a multi-academy trust with the National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter.