Catholic merger plans that would create England’s second biggest multi-academy trust have been given the go-ahead, after being referred to ministers to rule on.
The proposal – drawn up by the Archdiocese of Birmingham – will see six chains combine to create a 63-school MAT, called St Gabriel the Archangel.
It was due to be decided on by Department for Education officials in February, but papers from the meeting, released yesterday, show the case was instead escalated to government ministers “due to its novel nature”.
Speaking today, archdiocese of Birmingham director of education Steve Bell said: “I could totally understand why that would be done. It’s the largest multi-academy trust merger the country’s ever seen.”
Risks ‘no reason to snub merger’
Regional directors have powers devolved from the education secretary to make important decisions such as ordering schools to convert to academies, taking action when schools are underperforming, and managing academy sponsors.
Along with advisory boards of leaders who support them, they can choose to “escalate” a decision to a Department for Education minister, in circumstances where they don’t feel they can decide themselves.
Data obtained through Freedom of Information show this happened on just 12 occasions between August 2022 and March 2024. All but one of them – a trust merger plan – were later given the go-ahead.
St Gabriel the Archangel will span five local authority areas – Dudley, Sandwell, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. Fifty-six of its schools are already in trusts, with seven more set to make the switch to academy status.
DfE documents state the “vision for this merger… is to create a cohesive, high-performing trust… while ensuring long-term sustainability and growth in line with Catholic educational values”.
Some “risks” were identified by the West Midlands advisory board. However, these “were primarily associated with the nature of the venture and were not considered, individually or collectively, as reasons to withhold support for the merger”.
‘All systems go’
Bell said the MAT will be formed in September.
“We received ministerial approval at the end of March, so it’s all systems go.”
Schools Week revealed in September that the MAT will act as a pilot, with up to five more trusts expected to be set up once “the lessons of implementation” are learned from St Gabriel the Archangel’s launch. Each will consist of more than 40 academies.
Under the heading, “what evidence is there that larger is better?”, archdiocese papers state that “strong MATs are better able to deploy staff and funds to address particular needs in school communities”.
This includes the “development of trust-wide teaching and learning support systems”, improved “procurement through scale” and more capital funding, with St Gabriel the Archangel expected to receive £5.5 million for its buildings a year.
Its tally of 63 schools will be equal to that of Delta Academies Trust once it completes its merger with Coast and Vale Learning Trust.
Only United Learning, England’s biggest MAT, currently has more.
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