Most state secondary schools in England are now academies, and the majority of those belong to a multi-academy trust — an organisation that runs several schools under a single governance structure. You may have seen the trust's name on your child's school badge or letters without knowing quite what it means for your family.
What is an academy trust?
An academy trust is a charitable company that holds the legal responsibility for running one or more academy schools in England. Academies are state-funded schools that are independent of the local authority — they receive their funding directly from the government (via the Education and Skills Funding Agency) and operate under a funding agreement rather than local authority control.
All academies, whether single-school or part of a larger group, are governed by an academy trust. The trust is the employer of all staff, the legal occupier of the school buildings (under a lease from the Department for Education), and the body accountable to government for the school's performance.
What is a multi-academy trust (MAT)?
A multi-academy trust — or MAT — is an academy trust that runs more than one school. The number varies enormously:
| Trust size | Typical description | Examples of what they look like |
|---|---|---|
| 2–5 schools | Small MAT | Often local cluster; may all be in one town |
| 6–20 schools | Medium MAT | Regional reach; mix of primary and secondary |
| 21+ schools | Large MAT | National reach; strong central operations team |
The largest MATs in England run over 50 schools each. The trust board sits above all the individual schools and sets strategy, allocates resources, and holds headteachers to account.
How does an academy trust differ from a local-authority-maintained school?
Before academisation, most state schools were maintained by the local authority (the county or city council). The differences matter for parents:
| Area | Local-authority school | Academy (in a MAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Employer of staff | Local authority | Academy trust |
| Curriculum freedom | Must follow national curriculum | Must teach national curriculum core subjects; more flexibility elsewhere |
| Admissions authority | Local authority (usually) | The trust or its schools |
| Ofsted inspection | Inspected by Ofsted | Inspected by Ofsted (same framework) |
| Financial accountability | To local authority | To the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) |
In practice, for most parents, day-to-day school life looks and feels similar regardless of whether the school is maintained or an academy. The differences are more pronounced in areas like curriculum design, staffing, and how the school spends its budget.
Who oversees academy trusts?
Academy trusts are accountable to several bodies:
- The Regional Director (formerly Regional Schools Commissioner) — a civil servant who holds trusts to account on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education
- The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) — oversees financial compliance; trusts must publish annual accounts
- Ofsted — inspects individual academy schools using the same framework as maintained schools; may also carry out trust-level inspections
- The trust's own board of trustees — legally responsible for the trust's charitable governance; must include a minimum number of independent members
Unlike maintained schools, academy trusts are not directly accountable to the local authority. Parents who want to escalate a complaint beyond the school must go to the trust itself, and then (if unresolved) to the Regional Director.
What does being in a trust mean for pupils and parents?
The practical effects on your child's daily experience depend significantly on how the trust operates:
- Shared curriculum resources — many MATs develop common schemes of work, shared by all their schools. This can raise consistency, but it also means your child's school has less autonomy to deviate.
- Staff movement between schools — teachers in a MAT may be deployed across schools within the trust, particularly for specialist subjects or leadership roles.
- Centralised services — larger trusts run HR, finance, IT, and professional development centrally, which can free up school budget for teaching but can also feel impersonal.
- Admissions — some trusts operate coordinated admissions across their schools; others leave each school to manage its own admissions process.
For parents, the most important implication is the complaints pathway. If you have a complaint that the school cannot resolve, the next step is the trust — not the local authority.
How can parents engage with a trust?
Most trusts have a parent-facing element to their governance:
- Local Governing Bodies (LGBs) — some trusts retain a local governing body at each school, which may include parent governor places
- Trustee board — the main trust board usually includes independent trustees; some trusts actively recruit parent trustees
- Annual report and accounts — trusts must publish these; they include information on financial performance, pay ratios, and related-party transactions
Ask your school what the governance structure looks like. If there is a local governing body at your child's school, find out whether there are parent governor vacancies — it is a meaningful way to contribute and understand how decisions are made.
Frequently asked questions
Does my child's school have to tell me which trust it belongs to?
Yes. Academy trust membership is publicly recorded and must be disclosed in the school's funding agreement, annual report, and on the school's website. The DfE publishes a searchable list of all academy trusts and their member schools at get-information-about-schools.service.gov.uk.
Can a trust change the name or uniform of a school it takes over?
Yes, and this does happen — particularly when a school joins a large trust that operates a consistent identity across its schools. Any changes to the school's name require a statutory process and parental notification. Uniform changes are at the trust's discretion but are usually consulted upon.
What if I am unhappy with how the trust runs the school?
The complaints procedure should be published on the school's website. Once internal school complaints are exhausted, the next escalation point is the academy trust itself. If the matter relates to how the trust is spending public money, the ESFA has a whistleblowing route. For complaints about the trust's governance, the Regional Director is the appropriate contact.
If a trust performs poorly, what happens to the schools within it?
The Regional Director can intervene in an underperforming trust, including requiring it to transfer schools to a higher-performing trust. This has happened numerous times in England. Parents are typically informed if their child's school is being transferred between trusts.
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