Can council-run academy trusts actually work?

Cash-starved councils lack the manpower or even enough available schools to launch their own multi-academy trusts (MATs), ministers have been warned.

Labour will start taking applications from local authorities to open their own MATs later this year.

Documents unearthed by Schools Week show how councils planned to create chains of up to 25 schools, turn around the worst performers and cash in from trust “economies of scale” the last time the policy was pursued.