Revealed: the scale of the democratic deficit in multi-academy trusts

The government’s favoured multi-academy trusts are routinely failing to follow Department for Education rules stipulating that there should be at least two parents within their schools' governance structures, exclusive new analysis by this website reveals today.

Fewer than one in four academies controlled by England’s largest 10 chains comply with a stipulation, in the Academy Trust Handbook, that there should be at least two parents either on the “local governing body” associated with each school, or on the trust board itself.

England’s largest trust, United Learning, has only two of 68 schools for which the chain has provided official data which meet this stipulation, Education Uncovered’s analysis of DfE governance statistics shows. Another two of England’s best-known major chains – ARK Schools and Academies Enterprise Trust – have no schools with at least two governors categorised as elected parents on their local boards, and no parents* as trustees.

A further two – the Harris Federation and Delta Academies Trust – had fewer than 10 per cent of their schools which meet the stipulation, the DfE governance figures accurate as of last week show.

In what seems a damning commentary on what critics will see as a democratic deficit within the government’s favoured academy chain structure, the rate of compliance with this rule declines as trusts get larger, official data show.