To despise MATs (Multi Academy Trusts)

[Violashifts]

At the end of the day they are businesses. I don't think they benefit education.

What was wrong with a local authority looking after all schools in their area? Now you can't share with the school along the road but can with one in another town as they are in the same trust. So travel 30 miles instead of 2.

Sure they may save on HR, can share results and data etc but they waste more on improvement officers, marketing videos. A crew coming in filming chosen shots and then adding it to music. Not cheap. Don't even get me started on CEO pays as in the article below. How can they justify 40k pay rises an
or 250k salaries. Heads should be able to run a school. It is not needed.

Meanwhile at the chalkface the number of teachers, TAs and even lunch time supervisors are reduced and new equipment isn't afforded.
How is this helping the students?
How is this helping the recruitment crisis?
How is this helping the woeful SEN
provision?

Am I wrong?

I think its a big scandal waiting to happen.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-academy-ceo-pay-premium/

[Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

Schools are like water companies though - you can only 'choose' whats on offer where you live. And they are all MATs. My 2 nearest secondaries are both part of the same utterly stupid MAT. Of the two further away, one is part of a different MAT and the other is clinging on to LEA controlled. That's the one I'm tempted to apply for, but our chances are not high of getting in so we'll have to see. There's no way I'm sending my kids to the crazy local MAT. I'll have to homeschool I guess if we don't get in to another one but we shouldn't have to.

Some of these MATs a re "managing" schools nationally with no local connection. How can this be right?

Joining a MAT has been a massive benefit to my kids school.

The problem has been that at the time of academisation not enough parents, or community members understood the changes.

Locally, we have a MAT closing another of their schools. Parents and the community are enraged by lack of ‘democratic’ oversight as there is no need for the consultation process that maintained LA schools need to go through, involving public meetings, councillor involvement, local knowledge, over at least a six month period.

MAT has asked the Sec.of State for Ed to agree the closure of this school. SSE has agreed, took two weeks.

Parents and the community consulted on academisation, one letter of objection, two parents at the meeting, academisation approved. This was their chance to keep ‘democratic oversight’. They chose not to.

When my DD's children's school was planning academization, she and I were the ONLY two people who turned up to the meeting about it. Parents have no idea of the implications of all this.

Absolutely.

And your predictive text sums it up school governor for 10 tears.

Sadly.

@CelRa I’m amazed by that. Local MAT sold off a building, no longer used by schools due to falling roll. No school closed in the process. Took months of negotiating with ESFA. Money received can only be used for capital projects (and we are not talking millions)

Have worked in two MATs (one large, one small) so not an unbiased opinion but the first I worked in took a large number of inadequate, failing schools and made them good (using the language of Ofsted ratings here.)

I work in a small MAT now and we share resources across the schools so that the schools can access proper HR, finance, governance, safeguarding and IT support. I can definitely see the benefits of sharing services. MAT CEO pay is high but so is the pay of council leaders.

My son’s school became one when he was in year one, tge school is like a business now. It’s no longer a friendly place, cold
qnd soulless. The decent staff have left in droves leaving the less good staff and NTQs who often leave after a year. I would have moved him but all the schools in our area banded together. I’m not sending him to the senior school though.

They recently brought out a very strict behaviour policy which we all had to sign to say we have read on behalf of our children. As a result there has been 15 exclusions since autumn term and all of them sen kids.

Home work is unreal and starts at reception, phonics is like a factory line of pushing information down their throats to pass a test. Ditto timestables.

MATs have been great, tbh. Our LA is shit, and whether you like it or not MATs and the Govian reforms of phonics, times tables tests etc, have led to English schools doing much better in the PISA rankings and other international tests. In stark contrast to Welsh and Scottish schools...

And frankly, the bare minimum I expect from my children's schools is to help them get the best grades they are capable of.

MAT CEO pay is high but so is the pay of council leaders.

There is no comparison between the roles, responsibility and accountability of LA Director of CYPS and a MAT CEO.

Director of Children and Young People (CYPS) responsible for..

All children 0-25 including SEND (in excess of 151,000)
Schools, improvement and statutory duties (407 school )
Early Years including sufficiency, PVI and WRAC (773 providers)
SEND
Children’s Social Care (safeguarding all children especially the vulnerable , teams of social workers, Early Help, adoption and fostering etc)
Adult Learning and Youth Services
Outdoor Education Service
Music Service
School place strategic planning and admissions
Finance
Accountable publically, in recorded and online meetings, published minutes to elected councillors. Those elected by you and I.

I could go on.

Local MAT CEO, responsible and accountable for 8 schools.
Education
Safeguarding prior to LA involvement, but supported by.
Finance
Accountable to the MAT Trustees, as selected by the MAT Trustees.
Direct oversight by the Sec. Of State for Education who takes decisions in all academies across the country.

Director of CYPS earns around £160,000
CEO MAT earns £259,000

non teaching year heads are usually not teachers and paid considerably less.

Please can you explain, I’m not sure what you are amazed at? Perhaps I can add more detail?

Im so glad my youngest is about to leave school. The trust that runs the school is based nigh on 100 miles away, they came in, made upteen changes,no consultation with parents or the kids in the school, just this is how its done now. Very few stuck, infact every half term something changes to a new system even more backwards than the previous. New initiatives that dont have the childrens interest at heart. Thery have lost so many good staff members with more leaving soon. The school doesnt have a single permenant english teacher left now, instead its staffed by substitues and the year 11 students now have to go in on a saturday morning for "tutoring" to try and ensure some of them atleast pass GCSE's. Its disgusting, ill be glad to be done with it.

@CelRa how quickly they were able to close a school. As I said our local MAT has to jump through many hoops when any changes are considered, and I would have assumed the same would apply if a school had to be closed. A number of the local Primaries (under different Trusts) have under 50 pupils so I would assume if birth rate keeps falling then some of them may have to close and I would have assumed a consultation process would happen in this instance.

@CelRa how many people work with Director of CYPS? if there were more LAs how much would each have to pay Director of CYPS? This is the problem if you need a CEO you have to pay CEO rates. Some MATs are now having part-time CEOs to help with costs.

DfE are now bringing in RISE groups to help with School Improvement, I wonder how changes will be implemented in schools

I don't think there are going to be more LA’s…yes more MAT’s possibly, though the move is to amalgamation to remove smaller and standalone MAT’s.

The Director CYPS, of course, has an Assistant Director, or Head of Service service but then so does the MAT CEO.

@CelRa I wasn't saying there would be more LAs, but hypothetically if there were I assume each would have a Director of CYPS. Same as each MAT has a Senior Leader. They have to have a Senior Executive Leader (who has to be the Accounting Officer) and a Chief Finance Officer under the Trust regulations.

I don't want to share the actual school but Sec of State made the decision in two weeks, without any local consultation ( parent, community). The council member for schools has voiced an opinion on this, given she is a Tory councillor and the Sec of State is Labour. MAT will have had to work with LA strategic planning to ensure enough places locally and the Diocese, if a church school.

DfE documents suggest a ‘listening period’ after the Sec of State has approved the closure, but this is guidance only and doesn't have to take place.

I think it is about how many Directors or CEO’s too across an area.

So in the figures I gave above, for 151,000 children in the LA and given the above MAT CEO is accountable for about 5,000 of those, in school alone, we would need 30 more MAT CEO’s if all schools in the LA had academised.

If course even if that were the case, the LA would still require the Director of CYPS, given all of the other statutory duties that that role is accountable for.

I don't think the Director CYPS salary of £160,000 is bad value given that we could spend £250,000 x 30 (£7.5m) on the required MAT CEO’s ( plus the Director of CYPS for statutory duties ( unless MAT CEO’s are going to be responsible for all of the other roles too - Children’s Social Care….).

@CelRa MAT CEO salaries in this area are nowhere near the £250k mark, and in fact many would be lower than Director of CYPS salary you mention. But each MAT has a CEO so that is a cost that MAT has to cover.

If public sector salaries are so much lower you then have to wonder where the top slice of school funding went, bearing in mind the central team costs in a MAT should roughly equate to this top slice element.

When I was a school governor of a state maintained school there was not only the top slice element taken by LEA but we also had to have service level agreements with them for things like HR, so we paid quite a bit of money to LEA. That money would now go straight to the MAT.

Not all MAT’s are equal. I worked with Oasis MAT founder them brilliant, forward thinking, technically very savvy and financially robust.

I have personal experience of the Xavier trust, again all good.

Leigh - not so

@Liondoesntsleepatnight same with LAs. Nearby Children's Services have been in special measures for a number of years. so person at the top isn't worth their money!

MATs are not businesses, they are charitiable trusts - they have to abide by charity law and the trust's individual charitable objectives in the same way as any other charity.