People often ask what is a Multi Academy Trust, it is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control.

The role of local authorities therefore is changing, with some struggling to provide the level of support and challenge previously offered.

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are groups of academies that have come together to form a charitable company, with a single group of ‘members’ (who have an overview of the governance arrangements) and a single board of trustees.   Within a MAT

• individual schools remain as separate entities, with separate names and DfE numbers
• individual schools still receive separate Ofsted judgements and performance tables are still based on individual schools

MATs are set up as charitable companies and are accountable directly to the Secretary of State through the regional schools’ directors.