Academies: Inspections

(asked on 16th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the strength of the inspection regime for multi-academy trusts.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th June 2021

The Department requires a high level of accountability and transparency of all academy trusts. The Department’s Regional Schools Commissioners and their teams, together with the Education and Skills Funding Agency, provide robust educational and financial oversight of all academy trusts. Their status as companies, charities and public sector bodies means they are all subject to rigorous accountability systems.

Ofsted also plays a vital role in trust accountability by providing independent judgement on the educational performance of schools within a trust and through its process of trust summary evaluations. Ofsted’s summary evaluations are not currently being undertaken due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the Department will confirm details on when they will return shortly. Whilst these are still relatively small scale, the Department anticipates future findings from Ofsted’s summary evaluations as the programme continues and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, will continue to talk to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector about their robustness.

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