Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in reference to the Schools White Paper, if he will enable local authorities to support orphan schools in the event that Regional School Commissioners are unable to find a multi-academy trust to take those schools on.

The government’s vision, as set out in the ‘Opportunity for all’ White Paper, is for a school-led system where every school is part of a family of schools in a strong multi academy trust (MAT).

Where a maintained school is eligible for intervention, the department will match it with a strong MAT sponsor that has the capacity to deliver sustained improvements. More than 7 out of 10 sponsored academies are now rated Good or Outstanding, compared to about 1 in 10 of the local authority maintained schools they replaced.

The department is working with Falcon Education Academies Trust and St Joseph’s Catholic MAT to pilot a new approach for maintained schools and academies that, for various reasons, cannot be placed with a strong MAT sponsor.