How to Choose the Right Multi Academy Trust

This is the decision that matters most, and it is the one governing bodies typically spend least time on.

Schools will scrutinise a funding agreement clause by clause and then choose the trust they will belong to for the next decade on the basis of two visits and a good impression. Leaving a trust is difficult. The choice is close to permanent. It deserves the same rigour you would apply to appointing a headteacher, and more time than most schools give it.

This article sets out what to examine, what to ask, and what should give you pause.

Start With What Your School Actually Needs

Before assessing any trust, be clear about what you are looking for. Schools that skip this end up impressed by whichever trust presents best rather than choosing the one that fits.

Write down, as a governing body, the three or four things you most need. Common ones include subject expertise your school lacks, leadership development for a team that has nowhere to progress, financial stability, business and operational support to take administration off your headteacher, or improvement capacity following a difficult inspection.

Then assess trusts against those, not against their brochure.

What to Examine

Educational outcomes across the trust. Not just the flagship schools. Look at every school, including the ones that joined struggling. Has the trust improved schools it took on, or has it grown by adding schools that were already good?

Inspection history. Look at outcomes for schools since they joined, not before. A trust whose schools have declined after joining is telling you something important.

Financial position. Published accounts, reserves, any deficit schools, and how the trust has handled financial pressure. A trust running a significant deficit will be looking at your reserves with interest.

The top slice and what it buys. Ask what the rate is, exactly what it covers, and what you will still be paying for separately. Compare like with like across trusts. Our guide to conversion costs covers how.

The scheme of delegation. This is the most important document you will read, and the one most often skimmed. It sets out what the trust board decides, what the executive decides and what remains with your school. Read it properly. Every governor should read it.

Central team capacity. How many people, doing what, for how many schools. A trust growing quickly with a thin centre will stretch, and your school will feel it.

Governance quality. Who are the members and trustees. What is their expertise. How often does the board meet. Is there proper internal scrutiny. Our guide to MAT governance explains what good looks like.

Growth plans. How many schools does the trust intend to have in five years, and what capacity is being built to support that. A trust that intends to double is a different proposition from one that intends to consolidate.

Geography. How far is the nearest trust school, and how realistic is the school to school working that has been described.

The Questions That Reveal the Most

Standard questions get standard answers. These tend not to.

"Give me three specific examples of things you have required a joining school to change." A trust that cannot answer is either evasive or has not thought about it. Either is a concern.

"Which of your schools has found joining hardest, and can I speak to that head?" The answer to the second half matters more than the first. A trust that facilitates this is confident. A trust that deflects is not.

"What happens if we disagree with a trust decision?" Listen for whether there is a genuine process or simply an expectation of compliance.

"How would you appoint our next headteacher?" This is frequently a surprise to governing bodies. In most trusts, headteacher appointment sits with the trust, not the local governing body.

"What has gone wrong in the last three years, and what did you do about it?" Every trust has something. A trust that claims otherwise is not being straight with you.

"How is your central team funded, and what happens to the top slice if you grow?" Growth should improve economies of scale. If the answer is vague, ask again.

"What would you want to change about our school in year one?" This tells you how they see you, and whether they have looked properly.

Talk to People, Not Just the Trust

The single most valuable thing you can do is speak to heads already in the trust, without the trust in the room.

Ask them what they were told before joining and how it compared to the reality. Ask what they miss. Ask what support they actually receive as opposed to what is described. Ask whether they would join again.

Also speak to your local authority, to neighbouring schools, and if you can, to a school that left the trust or considered joining and did not. These conversations are more informative than any presentation.

Warning Signs

None of these is disqualifying on its own. All of them warrant more questions.

• Reluctance to let you speak to heads of your choosing rather than heads they select.
• Vagueness about the scheme of delegation, or a suggestion that you need not worry about it.
• Rapid growth with no visible increase in central capacity.
• Significant turnover of headteachers across the trust.
• Financial pressure, particularly a trust with several deficit schools.
• Governance that is thin, or where members and trustees substantially overlap.
• Pressure on timescale, particularly urgency that seems to serve the trust rather than you.
• An unwillingness to acknowledge that a school gives anything up.

That last one is worth dwelling on. Joining a trust involves real trade offs. A trust that presents it as pure gain is either not being honest or has not thought carefully, and neither is reassuring.

From Our Experience

We often see governing bodies do thorough due diligence on the numbers and none on the culture.

Financial and educational data tell you whether a trust is competent. They do not tell you whether your school will thrive within it. What determines that, in our experience, is whether the trust genuinely values what makes your school distinctive or regards it as an inconsistency to be resolved.

There is a straightforward way to test this. Describe something unusual about your school. The way you do transition. Your relationship with a local partner. A curriculum decision you are proud of. Then listen. A trust that becomes interested is a good sign. A trust that explains how it would be aligned with trust practice is telling you exactly what will happen.

Neither answer is wrong. Some schools want alignment, and consistency across a trust has real benefits. But you should know which you are choosing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we visit trust schools?

Yes, and visit ones you choose rather than only ones offered. Talk to staff, not just leaders.

How many trusts should we consider?

At least two or three where geography allows. Even where one is the obvious answer, comparison sharpens your questions.

Can we negotiate the terms of joining?

Some things are negotiable, particularly transitional arrangements and specific commitments about your school. The scheme of delegation generally is not, since it applies across the trust. Ask what is flexible.

What if there is only one trust nearby?

Assess it as rigorously as you would if there were three, and be prepared to conclude that not converting yet is better than joining the wrong trust. Our guide to forming your own trust covers the alternative.

Who decides which trust we join?

The governing body proposes, and the regional director considers the proposal. Parents are consulted but do not decide.

Can we change trust later?

Rebrokering happens but requires departmental agreement and is disruptive. Choose as though it is permanent.

A Common Misconception

The misconception we meet most often is that all trusts are broadly similar and the choice is largely about proximity.

Trusts vary enormously. Some are highly centralised, with common curriculum, common assessment and decisions made at the centre. Others are deliberately loose, with schools retaining substantial autonomy. Some are excellent at primary improvement and less experienced with secondary, or strong on operations and thin on school improvement.

The differences are not always visible from outside, which is precisely why the questions matter. Two trusts with similar published outcomes can offer entirely different experiences to a joining school.

Questions for Leaders

• What are the three things we most need from a trust?
• Have we read the scheme of delegation, all of us?
• Have we spoken to a head who found joining this trust difficult?
• Do we know who would appoint our next headteacher?
• What has this trust required joining schools to change?
• If we are honest, are we choosing this trust or defaulting to it?

Our Perspective

Choosing a trust is one of the few decisions a governing body makes that is genuinely difficult to reverse. That asymmetry should shape how much time you give it.

The schools we see thriving in trusts are not necessarily in the biggest or best resourced. They are the ones that chose deliberately, asked hard questions before committing, and understood exactly what they were joining.

The children in your school will experience this decision through the quality of their teachers, the stability of their leadership and the ambition of what is expected of them. Those things are shaped by the trust you choose. It is worth another term of thinking.

How Can Jarvis Education Help?

Jarvis Education provides independent due diligence on multi academy trusts for schools considering conversion.

We examine finances, governance, school improvement track record and the scheme of delegation, and we give you an honest written assessment. Because we work for you rather than for the trust, we will tell you what we find, including where a trust looks weaker than it presents.

We also support schools through the conversion itself, and trusts with growth planning, governance review and central team assessment.

Our consultants have led schools and trusts, inspected schools, and supported MATs through growth, merger and rebrokering.

Explore our academy conversion and MAT growth support, or contact us for a confidential conversation.