This week the government confirmed its plans to introduce inspections of multi-academy trusts (MATs).

The Department for Education has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that lays out the initial details for the inspections, which could start from the 2027-28 academic year.

Writing for Tes, education secretary Bridget Phillipson explained that “trust inspection will, first and foremost, be about understanding quality and supporting trusts to improve”. She added: “It will give trusts - and government - a clear, independent view of what they are doing well and where they need to strengthen.”

But what will trust inspections be like in practice? The amendment gives a lot of detail - here’s what you need to know.

Why is the government introducing trust inspections?

The intention is to raise standards, with the aim of helping to identify the strongest trusts - so as to inform decisions about which should take on struggling schools - as well as to identify trusts that would benefit from support from peers, or, indeed, trusts that require urgent improvement.

How will this be different to what happens now?

Currently, inspections focus on the quality of education provided in individual schools, be they local authority-maintained or part of a MAT.

Trusts are legally and contractually responsible for the schools they operate, as set out across legislation, funding agreements and the Academy Trust Handbook. However, while the approach taken at individual academies is inspected, the overall success of a trust is not reported on independently. This is “not right”, the amendment states, hence the need for change.

What does the education secretary currently have the power to do?

At the moment, the education secretary can intervene at trust level only when there are issues related to financial mismanagement or specific governance failures. They cannot intervene on educational standards. The government believes “these limitations restrict the department’s ability to act swiftly and proportionately where there is evidence of widespread underperformance”.

Once the new legislation is introduced, the changes will mean that the education secretary can intervene where Ofsted finds a trust is not performing at an acceptable standard.

How often will trusts be inspected?

There is currently no timeframe specified for routine trust inspections. The amendment says this will be specified in the regulations, which will be made by the education secretary.

Will single-academy trusts be included in trust inspections?

The amendment says that decisions around the classes of trust that are exempt from routine inspection will also appear in the education secretary’s regulations. It is anticipated that this will include single-academy trusts.

What will the inspection framework look like?

The legal provisions, as tabled, require Ofsted to develop an inspection framework, which will follow the education secretary’s regulations. This means that for the meantime we don’t know the full details of how trusts will be inspected.

However, we do know that Ofsted will be required to report on quality of education, governance and executive leadership, promoting wellbeing, securing improvement of academies, and management of resources. These are all pre-existing responsibilities for trusts.

What will inspectors be allowed to do?

As with school inspections, the new provisions will allow inspectors to access any trust offices and academies, as well as other premises where children are educated as part of the trust. Inspectors will be allowed to access, copy or take away relevant documentation, and access and inspect relevant computers. Like with school inspections, intentionally obstructing an inspection will be a criminal offence.

Who will inspectors speak to during inspections?

Like with a single-school inspection, trust inspectors will interview relevant people. These will be set out in the regulations, but are expected to include staff, parents, students and partners such as local authorities.

Will there be any other inspections in addition to the routine ones?

As well as Ofsted carrying out routine inspections of trusts, the provisions will enable it to inspect trusts at other times. For example, Ofsted might carry out a monitoring inspection after a routine inspection has identified an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. It might also carry out urgent inspections if there is evidence of problems with trust governance. And it might carry out thematic inspections; for example, to report on how well a trust is performing in a particular area.

The amendment does not specify how frequently these inspections might be allowed to take place. However, it adds that these inspections will be able to take place for trusts that are exempt from routine inspections; for example, single-academy trusts.

The legal small print says that as well as being instigated by Ofsted, these kinds of inspections can be requested by the education secretary, and trusts can even request them themselves (in this case, Ofsted will be able to charge for them).

Who will a report be shared with?

After a routine inspection, Ofsted will be required to send a copy of the draft report to the trust, giving the trust an opportunity to respond before it is finalised.

Once it completes a report, Ofsted must send copies to the trust and the education secretary. Trusts must then notify parents of the new report within five working days, ensure it is publicly accessible (for example, clearly published on its website) and provide a hard copy on request.

What will happen if a trust is found to be underperforming?

Under a new intervention measure, the education secretary will have a statutory power, subject to issuing a termination warning notice, to terminate a trust’s funding agreements. It will be applied retrospectively to existing funding agreements, as well as to any future funding agreements.
The termination warning notice could also offer the trust the opportunity to take specified actions by a certain date.

The government believes this new power will “complement existing academy-level intervention mechanisms and enable a more strategic, trust-wide approach to driving improvement”.

Will inspections disincentivise trusts from taking on struggling schools?

The government hopes not. “There must be an inbuilt understanding that improvement takes time, and a focus on improvement trajectory, not just absolute outcomes,” the amendment reads. It adds that inspection will recognise trusts that take a wider system role; for example, by collaborating meaningfully on school improvement initiatives such as Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) and on issues such as special educational needs and disabilities.

Will inspections stifle the innovation that trusts are so often celebrated for?

The government also hopes that inspections will be “designed in a way that minimised the risk of homogenising trusts, or stifling innovation”. It adds that it recognises that inspections will create some additional burdens on trust staff, but aims to consider how the burden of academy-level inspections can be reduced.

What happens next?

The provisions set out in the bill form the underpinning legislative framework. But clearly there is still a lot that needs to be worked out before there is a chance of the inspections being introduced as early as the 2027-28 academic year.

The government says it will work with the sector to build Ofsted’s inspection framework, starting with updates to the trust quality descriptors. Meanwhile, Ofsted itself will recruit from the trust sector in order to build capacity.

Given how contentious the introduction of a new school inspection framework has been over the past year, it’s likely that there will be hurdles to come - not least criticism from within the sector. In the meantime, the government insists it is using its existing mechanisms to ensure high standards across the trust system.

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