Details of faith school trust pilots revealed

The Department is providing £800,000 in setup funding towards a pilot of five new Catholic multi-academy trusts and two new Church of England trusts to provide more church schools the opportunity to join strong trusts across the country.

This follows a DfE announcement last month that said it would provide set-up funding to support the formation of nine new trusts. Seven have been announced, with the two others yet to be announced.

An additional Catholic ‘turnaround trust’ is also being set up as a joint pilot with the Catholic Education Service and Catholic Dioceses in the North West. It will work with Catholic schools within the Dioceses of Liverpool and Shrewsbury that require swift support from a strong trust – providing an additional boost to efforts to secure rapid improvement in the South Sefton & North Liverpool area.

Director of the Catholic Education Service, Paul Barber, said: "As the second largest provider of schools in the country and one of the government’s longstanding partners in the delivery of education, we warmly welcome this announcement.

"Catholic academies and multi-academy trusts play an important part in our education landscape and it is essential that they are allowed to flourish in a manner that respects their Catholic ethos. We strongly believe these pilot programmes will give Catholic schools the confidence to join a suitable Catholic Academy Trust and witness the benefits of working within a family of schools.

Chief Education Officer at the Church of England, Nigel Genders, said: "This pilot together with the Government’s financial commitment will enable Church of England dioceses to use their broad experience to further enrich the academy sector by growing distinctive diocesan MATs that will sustain and improve the experience of hundreds of thousands of children in Church of England schools, supporting our aim of serving the whole community, and allowing young people to flourish and live well in an ever changing educational landscape."