Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the potential impact of multi-academy trusts on costs for schools in the 2021-22 financial year; and if she will make a statement.

The primary responsibility for the oversight of academy trusts, and the schools within them, rests with the trustees of an academy trust. The Department requires a high level of accountability and transparency from academy trusts. Academy trusts’ status as companies, charities, and public sector bodies, means they have a rigorous tri-partite scrutiny framework.

Academy trusts have the freedom to centralise functions to take advantage of economies of scale and obtain best value for money. Where academy trusts top slice from their academies’ budgets to pay for these services, they must be transparent by disclosing the basis and value in their accounts. They must include additional disclosures in their annual accounts about the services they deliver centrally and the charging policy they apply. They must also identify the share against each academy.

Academy trusts have delivered strong financial health across the sector. The latest published data shows that in 2020/21, 97.3% of trusts had a cumulative surplus or a zero balance.