Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of multi-academy trusts in delivering improvements in academic performance in schools.

Performance data illustrates how disadvantaged pupils in academy trusts are making more progress at GCSE level than the equivalent national average. Data for key stage 4 and academy trust performance in 2018 is attached and is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774014/2018_KS4_main_text.pdf.

In primary schools within academy trusts, disadvantaged pupils performed significantly better than the equivalent national average in writing and maths. Data for key stage 2 and academy trust performance is attached and is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774446/KS2_Revised_2018_text_MATS_20190130.pdf.

The ‘Academy Trust Survey’, published by the department in 2017, indicates that virtually all academy trusts surveyed (96%) with 2 or more academies believe that their structure has facilitated collaboration, and most have formal relationships with schools outside their academy trust. By working in partnership with each other, schools can benefit from sharing staff, curriculum expertise and effective pedagogy, and drive down the costs of procurement.

Our ambition is for every school that wants to, to benefit from the autonomy and freedom to innovate that academy status offers and for schools to collaborate through strong academy trusts.

The ‘Academy Trust Survey’ has been attached and is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629779/Academy_Trust_Survey_2017.pdf.