An academy trust has walked away from merger plans at the last minute, claiming the trust it was joining had been plunged into “instability” after the sudden resignation of its chair.
Veritas MAT had consulted parents on teaming up with Rainham Mark Education Trust (RMET), with an application due to be submitted to the government.
However, Veritas pulled the plug this week. In a letter to parents it said the decision followed a “sequence of events” that “resulted in the resignation of RMET’s chair”.
“This instability in governance at RMET is not in accord with the five pillars of high-quality trusts,” the letter added.
“Veritas trustees concluded there was no longer a secure foundation to progress a merger, and that a merger would not be in the best interests of Veritas’ pupils, staff or community.”
KentOnline reported that RMET announced David Valentine, its chair, had resigned with “immediate effect” citing “personal reasons”. The trust would not give any more information.
Left in a ‘quandary’
Dr Kerry Jordan-Daus, the chief executive of Veritas, stepped in to lead RMET on an interim basis last summer, with the agreement due to end later this month.
The trusts later deemed it “an opportune time for both trusts to join” and form a six-school MAT.
Documents shared with parents said because Jordan-Daus had “a proven track record of transformational leadership… preliminary discussions had already taken place through both trust boards as to whether this could become a permanent arrangement”. It would have also provided RMET “much-needed stability”.
But Emma Knights, a former National Governance Association boss, said those involved in planning mergers should not jump in before everything was signed and sealed.
RMET had been left “in a quandary”, as it would have been able to go “back to where they were… [with] no change at all” if it had its own chief executive.
Simon Haseltine, the chair of Veritas, told Schools Week that trustees had focused on their “priorities, values and vision and whether the merger would enhance this”.
An RMET spokesperson added it was now “taking actions” to ensure its “board has the resource it needs to build on its positive trajectory”.
‘If it’s snubbed – what then?’
Paul Tarn, the chief executive of Delta Academies Trust, took over Coast and Vale Learning Trust as chief executive last year, following an “in-principle agreement” to join forces.
At the time, one MAT leader warned of the risks of such a move, noting: “[The trusts] are so far down the line. If the board doesn’t think it’s the right match, what happens then?”
Despite this, ministers approved the proposals – which will take Delta’s tally to 63 schools – four months ago.
Government data shows how mergers are changing the profile of the academy sector. The average size of a trust has increased from 3.1 schools in 2019 to 5.3 this April.
Analysis also suggests that the proportion of chains that are single-academy trusts has fallen from 58 per cent to 47 per cent over the past six years.
In 2019, the second most common size of trust, after standalone, was three to five schools. Now it is six to 10.
Growth ‘more sustainable”
There has been a spate of larger mergers. Last week it was confirmed that ministers have given the go-ahead to plans to create England’s second biggest multi-academy trust.
In a proposal drawn up by the Archdiocese of Birmingham, six chains will combine to create a 63-school MAT, St Gabriel the Archangel.
DfE officials were due to make a decision in February, but papers from the meeting, released last week, show the case was instead escalated to government ministers “due to its novel nature”.
Plans for Futura Learning Partnership and the Olympus Academy Trust to form a 35-school MAT are also due to go before the department’s southwest advisory board this month.
A bigger trust “with a substantial number of large secondary schools, would be much more financially resilient”, parents were told.
The Compass Partnership of Schools and Eko Trust are set to merge next year to form a new 25-school chain stretching across London, Essex, Suffolk and Brighton.
A report by the Kreston group of accountancy firms this year said large MATs had a better financial performance and were “more confident about the future”.
“So, if the sector is trying to ensure that it is financially sustainable then the obvious solution would be for MATs to become large or at least for the smaller MATs to become larger.”
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