A multi-academy trust in the North of England has “failed to secure” improvements in too many of its schools, Ofsted has said.

The inspectorate also concluded that “weak due diligence” meant Northern Education Trust (NET) took on too many poorly performing schools without having the capacity to turn them around.

However, the trust has criticised Ofsted for the “lateness” of its report, saying it does not reflect more recent improvements.

NET was established in 2012 and runs 20 schools.

Ofsted selected the chain for a focused review because of concerns about its performance, with three of its schools receiving pre-warning notices from the Department for Education in 2016.

As part of the review, Ofsted inspected nine of NET’s schools in November and December 2016. Its report, published today, rated four “inadequate” and put two of these in special measures, including one school which was previously rated “outstanding”.

Three schools were rated “requires improvement” and one was rated “good”. The ninth school was inspected as part of a monitoring visit because it was previously found to require improvement. Ofsted concluded that school leaders were not taking effective action to improve it.

‘Failure to secure necessary improvement’

In its inspection report, Ofsted said NET had “failed to secure urgent and necessary improvements in too many of its schools”.

“Weak due diligence” had “masked” the complexity of a number of schools prior to joining NET. This had resulted in the trust taking on “too many poorly performing schools in the early stages while not having the capacity or capability to tackle the challenges these schools presented”.

Ofsted said trustees’ plans were “too far removed from what is actually happening in the schools”, with schools given “unrealistic” and “unachievable” performance targets.

Only half of NET’s schools had improved at their most recent inspection since joining the trust, with the others remaining the same or declining.

The inspectorate also criticised the trust for the “especially poor” achievement of disadvantaged pupils. It found that teacher assessment information was “inaccurate” in many of the schools and that a “lack of direction” from trust leaders had “stymied progress”.

However, the report did say that the trust was “supported well” by its finance and HR systems, and that relationships with academy leaders were “positive”.

Ofsted called on NET to implement a strategy to bring about sustainable improvement, and specifically told it to “vigorously tackle poor pupil attendance, especially in the primary phase”.

In a statement, NET said it was “astonished by the lateness” of Ofsted’s report, which it claimed was “incapable of recognising the effect of the significant developments in our school improvement strategy since 2016”.

“Ofsted has apologised for the inconvenience that the delay has caused, but we recognise that the regional offices are under increasing pressure due to their diminishing capacity,” it said.

The trust said it has - at the request of the DfE and councils - taken on the challenge of working with schools with “a history of endemic failure”, including one which fell into the category of an “untouchable” school.

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