Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of multi-academy trusts (a) serve a minimum of 7,500 pupils and (b) run at least 10 schools.

The Department is focused on continuing to improve standards in schools, providing the best education for children, including for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with special educational needs. The best way for this to happen is for all schools to be in strong families of schools, benefitting from the support of the best in the group, and the resilience that comes from being part of a larger group of schools. That is why, over time, the Department would like all schools to be in a strong multi-academy trust (MAT), due to the positive impact it can have on children’s lives. If we get this right then we will see the vast majority of schools in trusts before 2030. The Department is exploring how to further support the growth of strong multi-academy trusts through the Regulation and Commissioning Review.

The current national academisation rate is 47.4%, which includes 10,254 academies and free schools out of a total of 21,630 state funded schools. This has increased from 45.7% in March 2022 when the Schools White Paper was published. Of those, 9,173 are in a MAT.

There are 94 MATs that serve at least 7,500 pupils. These represent 6.9% of the total of 1,345 MATs, and are comprised of 2,341 Academies (22.8% of the total number) and just over 1.24 million pupils (26.2% of the total).

There are 266 MATs serving 10 or more schools, which is 19.7% of the total. These are comprised of 4,872 Academies (47.5%) and 1.94 million pupils (40.8%).

The Department does not issue guidance specifically on the size of MATs.