Earlier this year, the direction of travel from government seemed clear. The push to full academisation was back on, with an aim for all schools to be part of multi-academy trusts by 2030. Fast forward to the autumn and policy ambitions that last to the end of the week, let alone the end of the decade, seem to have fallen out of favour. The Schools Bill, and its tidying up of the fragmented school system, is now off the legislative agenda. This may be a result of the recent turbulence at the heart of Westminster, but the Bill’s future was already in doubt given its poor reception in the House of Lords.
But the political upheaval does not change the fact that nearly half of all schools, including the vast majority of secondary schools, are now academies. There are now over one thousand trusts of two schools or more across the country. So, there remains an ongoing need to understand how trusts are operating and performing.
