Collision of DfE vision of “local” academy trusts with their geographically-spread reality exposed in new analysis

Five academy chains are each spread across more than half of England’s 10 regions, with the largest having schools in 38 local authorities, Education Uncovered’s probe reveals.

 

The scale of the challenge facing the government if it truly wants to achieve its vision of having schools “rooted in their communities” via academy trusts is underlined today in a new analysis by Education Uncovered of the geographical spread of these chains.

Several of England’s largest multi-academy trusts are sprawled across the country, with two chains operating in eight of the Department for Education’s 10 regions, and a further three running schools in at least six regions.

Some 17 academy chains operate in at least 10 local authority areas with one – United Learning, England’s largest trust - having schools in 38 LAs.

These data are based on an analysis of newly-released 2026 school census statistics, which also shows that trusts’ geographical spread increased slightly last year, as in some cases smaller trusts were folded into larger ones.

The data suggest that the way that the multi-academy trust model has been allowed to develop by the DfE over the past two decades may prove difficult to align with its new vision, as set out in February’s schools white paper, that the system now needs to prioritise “geographical coherence”.

This would seem to imply either some moving-around of schools between trusts, or the establishment of more local “hub” arrangements within large chains, both of which may carry cost implications. (More analysis on that follows below).