Merger plans that would create England’s second biggest MAT have been given the greenlight, after being referred to ministers to rule on.
Delta Academies Trust boss Paul Tarn took over Coast and Vale Learning Trust as chief executive in April, following an “in-principle agreement” between the organisations to formally join forces later.
The proposals – which will take Delta’s tally from 57 to 63 schools – were due to be decided on by the Department for Education’s Yorkshire and Humber advisory board in December.
But it was later revealed in Department for Education papers that the case had instead been escalated to government ministers, without any reason given for why this was done.
And in a joint statement today, the trusts’ chairs, Steve Hodsman and John Riby, said: “Coast and Vale has embarked on a journey to deliver school improvement. This is the next step in our collaboration to deliver educational excellence.”
Regional directors have powers devolved from the education secretary to make important decisions such as ordering schools to convert to academies, taking action when schools are underperforming, and managing academy sponsors.
Along with the advisory boards of leaders who support them, they can choose to “escalate” a decision to a DfE minister, in circumstances where they don’t feel they can decide themselves.
Data obtained through Freedom of Information show this happened on just 12 occasions between August 2022 and March 2024. All but one of them – a trust merger plan – were later given the go-ahead.
