“School governing bodies, particularly in the state system, are part of the complex system of checks and balances inherent in the administration of public services that reflect the ability of English society to prevent fraud and misuse of resources (Male, 2006: 99)”.

There has been a fundamental shift in school governance In England, however, triggered by the rapid expansion of academies since 2010, which means nearly half the pupils in state-funded schools no longer have direct school-level governance.  Following an act of parliament in 1986 each designated school was required to have a governing body which, typically, comprised local authority nominees and officers together with elected parents and teachers.  In law “the conduct of the school to be under the direction of the governing body” (Education Act No. 2, 1986: 16.1).  Schools becoming academies were no longer required to have governing bodies, however, as they were formed as limited companies, working in a direct relationship with central government.   This process of corporatisation was enacted by granting charitable status to each academy trust with the members having a similar role as shareholders in a company limited by shares. They are signatories to the articles of association, which includes the trust’s governance structure and the definition of the trust’s charitable object. They also have powers to amend this article of association, as well as appointing trustees (Wilkinson, 2017: 5-6).  The board of trustees thus replaces the former school governing body.

By 2010 there were only 203 academies in England whereas by the beginning of 2019 there are over 8000, with 67 per cent of all secondary schools now having become academies.   Essentially, from 2010 there are two routes to become an academy either as a ‘converter’ or as a ‘sponsor’.  Converters were originally expected to be those schools deemed ‘outstanding’ by the national inspection team, although there has been some relaxation of that requirement in recent years.  A ‘sponsor’ school was one that was causing concern and, following the Academies Act of 2011, could be required to academise.   Whilst most primary schools remain in local authority control, a more meaningful analysis is that 47 per cent of pupils are now in academies (National Audit Office, 2018).   Only some 1000 remain as single academy trusts, with the former statutory governing body being replaced by the board of trustees.  Most academies are now in MATs, however, which are multi-school organisations with one board of trustees.

A MAT is formally led by one of the individual academies, typically the largest or most successful, and will run a central trust function which normally includes the employment of a chief executive officer (CEO), a finance officer and will incur other central costs which are shared across the trust.    The evolution of MATs has been overseen by a team of Regional School Commissioners in England and it is now common for sponsor academies to be directed or persuaded to join a MAT.

The research undertaken for this presentation in 2017-18 investigates how governance structures are being manifested in medium size MATs, those with between five and 15 schools.  Research participants come from a range of MATs which includes those that are aligned to the Church of England, a relationship which carries with it expectations and a degree of control over the religious ethos of each academy.  This study explores how CEOs within MATS perceive and enact school governance. 

The research reported in this paper is drawn from 41 interviews conducted with Chief Executive Officers of MATs in the last two years. The sample is deemed to be reasonably representative of new systems of governance, therefore, and allows for the construction of an overview of MAT leadership in England during this time of change. A key part of each interview was to examine the way in which former school governors were being required to contribute across the trust. Semi-structured interviews lasting between 45 and 90 minutes were conducted as a combination of face-to-face meetings at the trust headquarters or by telephone by a team of three researchers from the UCL Institute of Education, led by the author. Several areas were explored during these interviews, but only the theme of governance will be reported here. Each interview was audio recorded (having agreed standard consent procedures) and subsequently transcribed by a professional service which focused on providing an edited version which removed repetition and hesitations. Analysis of transcripts was undertaken by the lead researcher using an open coding technique which allowed for emergent themes in addition to a priori codes. The data related to governance was further subjected to analysis, using textual review, to seek patterns and/or dissimilarities.

The data gathered for this study contained polar viewpoints, but generally demonstrated schemes of delegation that allowed individual schools to continue to have governance at the institutional level, albeit without the previous legitimatised power and accountability. Typically, where a school governing body continues to exist it now has only delegated tasks and responsibilities, with accountability having now been transferred to the trust which runs the MAT. This shift in accountability has gone largely unnoticed with many governors having not yet fully comprehended they no longer have decision making powers. A key finding related to the status of the school which joined the trust, with some schools either deemed or perceived as ‘good’ or better finding it hard to accommodate changes to governance if they were not the lead academy. Sponsor academies did not present any comparable challenge and often seemed content that they were not longer individually accountable as an organisation.

Education (No. 2) Act 1986. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/61, accessed 31 January, 2019. Male, T. (2006). Being an effective headteacher. London: Paul Chapman. National Audit Office (2018): Converting schools to academies. London: National Audit Office. Wilkinson, N. (2017). Briefing paper 08072 – School governance. House of Commons Library.