A multi academy trust is a single charitable company that runs more than one state-funded academy school in England, under one board of trustees and one set of accounts. The model now sits at the centre of the English school system, and anyone who funds, supplies, regulates or works with schools in England will deal with a trust at some point. This guide explains how the structure works, the rules that govern it as of November 2026, and the changes made by legislation passed in April 2026.
What a multi academy trust is
The Department for Education’s academy trust governance guide, updated on 20 July 2026, describes an academy trust as “an independent charitable company limited by guarantee” that holds a funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Education. Trusts are exempt charities, and the Department for Education (DfE) acts as their principal regulator.
The same guide sets out the two forms a trust can take. A single academy trust is a charitable company whose board is accountable for one academy. A multi academy trust runs several academies, and the guide states plainly that “a MAT is a single legal entity”. The individual schools in a trust are not separate legal bodies, so legal responsibility for every school sits with the trust.
That point matters to suppliers and lenders. Because a multi academy trust is one legal entity, an agreement made for one of its schools is an agreement with the trust, and the board of trustees answers for every school it runs.
How many schools are academies
The DfE’s Schools, pupils and their characteristics release for 2025/26, first published on 4 June 2026 and based on the January 2026 census, records that 48.2% of schools in England are academies and that 60.4% of all pupils attend one.
| Phase (January 2026) | Share of schools that are academies or free schools | Share of pupils they educate |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | 48.8% | 49.9% |
| Secondary | 83.9% | 83.6% |
| All schools | 48.2% | 60.4% |
Secondary education is therefore largely run by academy trusts, while primary schools are close to an even split between academies and schools maintained by local authorities. The release does not give a count of trusts, so this guide does not state one.
MAT size varies widely. Some trusts run two or three schools in one town, while others run dozens across several regions. The government’s schools white paper, Every child achieving and thriving, published on 23 February 2026, notes that of the 55 academy trusts in cumulative deficit as of August 2023, 40 were single-school trusts. It uses that figure to support its case for schools working in larger groups.
How a multi academy trust is governed
Governance in a multi academy trust runs through three layers. Members sit at the top, and the 2026 handbook requires at least three of them. Trustees form the board, which is legally responsible for the trust as both company directors and charity trustees. The governance guide notes that trustees “must comply with charity law” as well as their duties under the Companies Act 2006.
Below the board, a multi academy trust can set up local committees for each school or cluster of schools. The governance guide defines a local committee as “a committee of a board in a multi-academy trust”. These committees hold only the powers the board chooses to delegate. The trust’s scheme of delegation, which the guide says “must set out the structure and delegated remit of the trust’s members, its board and any committees”, records who decides what.
The senior executive leader is the accounting officer, accountable for value for money, regularity and propriety in the trust’s use of public funds. The guide states: “In a MAT this should be the chief executive.” In a single academy trust the role usually falls to the principal.
The funding agreement and the money
Every academy is funded directly by the DfE rather than through a local authority. In a multi academy trust, the legal basis is a master funding agreement between the trust and the Secretary of State, plus a supplemental funding agreement for each academy, according to the governance guide.
Trusts may pool the general annual grant for their schools and run central services from the pooled sum. The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 says a trust that pools must consider each academy’s funding needs and must have an appeals mechanism, with unresolved appeals escalated to the DfE, whose decision is final. Trusts must not pool private finance initiative funding. From the 2026 edition, every multi academy trust must also publish a summary statement on its website, by 31 January, showing how funds are distributed across its schools.
The Education Daily has covered the DfE’s 2027/28 funding rules and new SEND inclusion factor, which sets the formula for 2027 to 2028.
The Academy Trust Handbook 2026: the main rules
The handbook is the DfE’s financial rulebook for trusts. The 2026 edition was first published on 15 July 2026 and took effect on 1 October 2026. Compliance is a condition of every trust’s funding agreement. Items marked “must” are requirements; items marked “should” are minimum good practice.
On structure, every academy trust, whether a single academy trust or a multi academy trust, must have at least three members and should have five or more. Members must not be employees of the trust, and most members should not also be trustees.
The board must appoint a governance professional who is not a trustee, principal or chief executive. The accounting officer role “must not rotate”, and the accounting officer and chief financial officer should be different people. For trusts with more than 3,000 pupils, chief financial officer recruitment from 1 October 2026 should specify a qualified accountant.
The handbook also sets the limits above which a trust needs DfE approval before acting.
| Area | Rule in the 2026 handbook |
|---|---|
| Related party contracts | Prior DfE approval where supplies from a related party exceed £40,000 in a financial year |
| Write-offs | Single transaction limit of 1% of total annual income or £45,000, whichever is smaller |
| Severance | Approval for non-statutory elements of £50,000 or more |
| Senior pay | Approval for new appointments above £174,000 before the post is advertised |
| Freehold land | Prior approval to acquire or dispose of freehold land or buildings |
| Fraud | Notify DfE of fraud, theft or irregularity over £5,000 in a year |
The accounting year ends on 31 August. Accounts must be audited and submitted to the DfE by 31 December, published on the trust’s website by 31 January and filed at Companies House by 31 May. The board must approve a balanced budget, prepare management accounts monthly and share them with the chair, and notify the DfE within 14 calendar days if a revenue deficit cannot be addressed from unspent funds. Trusts with annual income above £50 million must have a dedicated audit and risk committee.
Related parties, pay and transparency
Related party transactions attract close attention because trusts spend public money. A trust must report all contracts with related parties to the DfE before they begin or are renewed. Where such supplies are allowed, they must be provided at no more than cost, which the handbook says “must not include any profit”. Members, trustees, local governors and senior employees must complete a register of business and financial interests, kept up to date.
On executive pay, the handbook says “no individual can be involved in deciding their remuneration”. Trusts must publish the number of employees with benefits over £100,000 in £10,000 bands. These disclosures, with the governance information that must appear on each trust’s website, give commissioners, parents and suppliers a public view of how each multi academy trust is run.
How schools join or form a multi academy trust
A maintained school that wants to become an academy applies to the DfE. The DfE’s conversion guidance, last updated on 13 October 2025, says the assessment of an application takes “somewhere between 2 and 6 weeks”. A school then appoints a solicitor, completes a statutory consultation before the funding agreement is signed, completes a land questionnaire and registers the trust at Companies House where a new trust is being formed.
A school can join an existing multi academy trust or set up a new one. A new trust uses the DfE’s model memorandum and articles of association, and the guidance says “we do not expect you to make any changes to the model documents except in exceptional circumstances”. A school joining an existing MAT agrees with the trustees how it will be represented, usually through a local committee.
Schools judged by Ofsted to need special measures or significant improvement used to face a mandatory academy order. That has changed, as the next section explains.
What the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 changes
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. The DfE’s policy summary notes, published in June 2026, set out several measures that narrow the differences between academies and maintained schools.
- Pay: a power to set a minimum pay level for academy teachers, matching maintained schools, applying no earlier than September 2026; a later duty to have regard to the national pay and conditions document.
- Curriculum: academies will have to teach the national curriculum once the revised version is in place, for first teaching from September 2028.
- Teachers: the requirement to hold Qualified Teacher Status for specified work is extended to academies.
- Academy orders: the duty to issue an academy order to a maintained school in an Ofsted category of concern becomes a discretionary power.
- New schools: the presumption that new schools open as academies is removed.
Several of these measures need further regulations before they take effect, so their dates may move.
Inspection of the multi academy trust and the white paper direction
The Act introduces Ofsted inspection of academy trusts, alongside new powers for the Secretary of State to intervene where a trust falls short. When the government announced the measure on 8 January 2026, it said trusts now educate “most pupils in England” and that intervention could include moving academies to stronger trusts. The policy notes say the first inspections are expected no earlier than the 2027/28 academic year. Ofsted’s own work on school inspection continues alongside, including its pilot of independent review of inspection complaints.
Inspection will be measured against new Trust Standards, which the white paper says will replace the existing trust quality descriptions. The same paper sets the long-term direction: “moving to all schools joining or forming high-quality school trusts, including enabling new local authority established trusts”. As of November 2026, the detailed inspection framework and Trust Standards are still being developed with the sector.
For a multi academy trust, the practical result is more scrutiny from two directions: tighter financial rules in the handbook and, from 2027 at the earliest, inspection at trust level. For suppliers, the trust remains the buyer, and the handbook’s new procurement expectations, including for management information systems used by providers such as Arbor Education, shape how contracts are let.
