Eastern trusts plan 42-school merged MAT

Two 21-school multi-academy trusts in the East of England and South East regions plan to merge, pending approval from the Department for Education.

Inspiring Futures through Learning (IFtL), which runs 20 primary schools and one all-through school, and Chiltern Learning Trust (CLT), which has eight primaries,10 secondaries and three middle schools, have submitted the plan to officials.

If approved, the merged trust, which has not yet been named, is expected to be launched formally in 2027.

Both CLT chief executive Adrian Rogers and his counterpart at IFtL, Sarah Bennett, previously sat on their respective regional advisory boards until these were disbanded in March.

Trust merger driven by ‘geography’

The trusts’ schools are geographically close to each other, covering North Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes, Luton, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

“Geography was absolutely everything,” Mr Rogers told Tes, adding that the trusts were already working together on a number of areas, including teacher training.

The approach contrasts with other recent mergers in which trusts have moved into entirely new parts of the country.

“Obviously, we’re looking at sustainability and also capacity,” Mr Rogers added. “My personal opinion is that a larger trust can solve issues better.”

Tes recently revealed that single-academy trusts are more than twice as likely to be in financial deficit than academies within MATs, and that deficits are much smaller, per pupil, the larger the trust.

Central cost savings

The CLT and IFtL merger would create economies of scale; for example, through having a shared central team, Mr Rogers said, acknowledging that this would involve restructuring.

A decision on who would lead the trust would be announced once the merger is signed off by the DfE, but there would be one CEO and one chief operating officer.

Ms Bennett said the merger would make the trusts financially stronger. “All of us have been hit by the lack of funds now, but the larger trusts are being hit the least,” she stated.

But the two trusts also share a similar culture, and the plan provides an opportunity to combine a secondary-dominant trust’s “hardcore specialism” with a primary trust’s focus on “love and nurture for children”, she said.

The new trust would be open to growing further, but this would be decided “case by case”, Ms Bennett said. “We’d be asking, does this work for our vision, for our geographical areas, communities and our people?”