Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the establishment of co-operative schools.

The Government’s ambition is to provide an excellent education for all, through an autonomous, self-improving system. Good co-operative schools with strong governance are and will continue to be a part of this system.

As increasing numbers of schools are opting to become academies, we have worked with the Society for Co-operative Schools (SCS) to update our model articles of association for co-operative trusts. This will ensure that co-operative schools are able to convert to academy status and form multi-academy trusts (MATs) using a model based on robust governance structures that also reflects co-operative principles.

The new co-operative model articles will be published shortly.