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Poorly designed multi-academy trust inspections could deter strong trusts from taking on struggling schools in the most disadvantaged areas, governance experts have warned.

A framework that penalises trusts for supporting schools with disadvantaged cohorts could make it harder for those schools to access the help they need, according to the National Governance Association (NGA).

91���� first revealed in January that the government was pushing ahead with a plan to introduce inspections of MATs, which could start in the 2027-28 academic year.

The government said MAT inspections will focus on leadership, governance and impact, school improvement, high-quality education, support for staff, use of resources and promoting pupil wellbeing.

But in a new paper, the NGA says trusts should be assessed as organisations in their own right, rather than judged by combining the exam performance or Ofsted ratings of their individual schools.

‘Patchwork’ system

Ofsted currently inspects schools individually, while the Department for Education separately decides whether trusts should be allowed to take on more schools.

This fragmented system means trust quality is inferred from a “patchwork” of school inspection outcomes, commissioning decisions and improvement programmes, rather than independently assessed, the NGA says.

This could mean weaknesses in governance, leadership or financial management are hidden behind strong school performance, it adds.

MAT inspection proposals

The NGA proposes an inspection framework that focuses on the “trust dividend” - the “additional and sustained” benefit that schools experience because they belong to a particular trust.

Inspectors should consider how this value is created through the trust’s strategy and governance, the NGA suggests.

They could then consider whether this is experienced across a trust’s schools, and how leaders respond where improvement is not evident.

Individual school inspection findings should inform trust judgements but must be used “contextually rather than mechanically”, the NGA adds.

And older Ofsted reports should be supplemented by evidence of how trusts have monitored schools since they were inspected, it suggests.

The framework should also examine trust boards, executive leadership and local governance separately, as well as looking at how effectively they work together through challenge, information sharing and strategic decision-making, the NGA says.

Individual circumstances

Trusts’ starting points, levels of deprivation, numbers of pupils with special educational needs, and improvement trajectories should be recognised to prevent struggling schools from becoming a liability to their trust’s inspection outcome, the paper says.

The NGA also calls for inspections to be piloted before national implementation, and for Ofsted to recruit inspectors with direct governance experience.

The inspection process should minimise workload by using existing documents and evidence and avoiding duplication with school inspections, the NGA adds.

And it suggests trusts should receive improvement and governance support, where weaknesses are found, before structural interventions, such as academy transfers, are considered.

Emma Balchin, NGA chief executive, said: “The argument about whether trusts should be inspected is over. The real question is how, and the easy answer, stretching school inspection to cover a bigger unit, is the wrong one.”

Trust inspection “done badly” risks “making every struggling school look like a liability to a trust’s rating and quietly pulling the strongest trusts away from the communities that need them most”, she added.

Trust inspection must also align with wider DfE accountability measures, including warning notices, commissioning decisions, academy transfers and the government’s RISE school improvement programme, the NGA adds.

Ofsted has not had the power to inspect at trust level before. It has carried out MAT summary evaluations, which were voluntary and carried out at trusts where a cluster of schools had been inspected. These did not result in a graded judgement.