What is a school trust?
Academy and multi-academy trusts are education charities that run schools to give children a better future - we refer to these together as school trusts. More than half of pupils in state schools now attend academies. School trusts help our local communities thrive by giving children the best opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom.
Trusts make it easier for schools to work together to improve and maintain high educational standards. This is because they are organisations with just one purpose: education. Unlike other organisations that run state schools, there are no competing interests for leaders' attention, allowing them to focus exclusively on making their schools the best they can be.
Like any other state school, academy schools are free to attend and inspected by Ofsted to ensure high standards in their quality of education, children's behaviour and personal development, leadership, and safeguarding. Trusts have to follow the same national rules on admissions policies, and provide the same types of support for children with special educational needs.
Within these rules, school trusts have more freedom on how they operate which enables them to innovate and share best practice in areas like curriculum, assessment, and behaviour. As groups of schools, they cano offer structured career pathways for teachers, supported by high-quality professional development so teachers and leaders learn together. This, in turn, better supports children.
Outside of the classroom, school trusts have more flexibility in the support they provide to schools, in areas like staffing, finance, IT, and building maintenance. This helps headteachers and other schools leaders to spend more of their time focussed on the one thing that counts the most – the education of children.
Why join a trust?
We believe a school trust is the best way to keep improving schools and the school system overall. Our pamphlet Starting with Why: Why join a trust – and why a trust-based system? explains what we mean by that.
Many academies now work together in a group of schools to improve and maintain high educational standards across the organisation. Where a trust runs a group of schools, it has the power to create a collaborative framework.
A group of schools working together in a single organisation can do lots of things that are harder for stand-alone schools to do:
- Teachers work and learn together to improve the way they teach;
- Schools share practices that make a difference to the quality of teaching;
- Teachers and leaders can work together on the things that matter – like curriculum and assessment;
- Failing schools can improve – only one in 10 schools that were required to join a trust were judged good or outstanding before they converted, compared with almost seven in 10 after they joined a trust (of those that had been inspected);
- It is more possible for teachers and leaders to move to another school to help improve the quality of education where that school is struggling – and these moves are more likely to be to schools with more disadvantaged pupils; and
- It is more possible to be efficient – and thereby to invest money in supporting pupils to have wider opportunities.
Frequently asked questions about school trusts
School trusts are education charities, not businesses. As with any other charity, trustees have strict duties under charity law, as well as specific rules for academies set out in the Department for Education's Academy Trust Handbook. Trustees are unpaid volunters, and are required to uphold the Principles of Public Life.
Because trusts have the Department for Education as their principal regulator, rather than the Charity Commission, they are known as exempt charities and do not have a registered charity number or submit details to the Commission. Instead they are required to submit governance and financial information to the Department, and publish it on their website for the public to see.
School trusts are not allowed to make profits - they are education charities, not businesses. Trustees are unpaid volunteers, and must follow strict rules on conflicts of interests. Any surpluses are re-invested into the trust to improve the quality of education.
Every trust has a person known as the 'accounting officer' - usually the chief executive - who is personally responsible to Parliament for the spending of public money. Trusts are also held to account by the Department for Education as the principal regulator, and academy schools are inspected by Ofsted.
Trusts also have a high degree of public accountability, much greater than local authority schools (known as "maintained schools"). School trusts are required to have an independent audit annually and to publish their accounts. They are also required to disclose senior pay in their accounts. There is no similar requirement on local authority schools.
Trusts are also required through their articles of association to include parents in trust governance, either through their main trust board or through participation in local governance committees.
Yes, academies are free to attend, in the same way as other state schools. Trust schools are expected to follow the same guidance as other schools around things like uniform costs, and any charges for optional activities.
Many trust schools offer things like uniform stores, and before and after school clubs, to help working parents.
Academy trusts can use buildings and land in various ways, but most hold their sites on long leases from the local authority, for a nominal charge. There are legal controls on the disposal of academy and maintained school publicly funded land. The Secretary of State’s permission is required before anyone can sell publicly-funded school land or school land which has been enhanced at public expense. They can impose strict conditions to protect the taxpayer, like paying back any money raised.
Yes, academy trusts are subject to most of the same direct statutory duties as maintained mainstream schools when it comes to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Mainstream academies must:
- Have regard to the statutory SEND Code of Practice
- Use their best endeavours to make sure a child with SEN gets the support they need
- Designate a qualified teacher to look after their interests, known as a SENCO
- Co-operate with the local authority in respect of the child
- Admit a child where the school is named on that child’s Education, Health and Care plan
- Ensure that children, young people and their families are involved in decision-making and planning.
Academies can set their own admissions policies, but they still have to meet the strict rules in the Government's School Admissions Code and the law relating to admissions. They usually work together with other local schools and local authorities to coordinate admissions.
According to the Department for Education's School Workforce Census published in June 2024, the average (median) salary for primary classroom teachers in academies and maintained schools is the same, and in secondary academies teachers are paid slightly more than their maintained school counterparts.
School trusts do not have to follow the national school teacher pay and conditions framework, but many choose to do so - or even exceed it, with increased flexible working or more modern approaches to things like maternity pay. For support staff, while trusts do not have to follow the national local authority framework or a local equivalent, again many choose to.
When a maintained school becomes an academy, the pay and conditions of all staff are legally protected to ensure that nobody loses out.
Yes, the vast majority of teachers in academies have what is known as qualified teacher status or QTS.
A small number of staff - around 3% - do not have QTS but this does not mean they are not experienced in their subject, but rather they have not completed UK teacher training or an equivalent course. Local authority maintained schools also employ teachers without QTS, representing around 2% of their staff.
