Schools in the largest multi-academy trusts have higher levels of teacher turnover than other schools, new research has found. The Education Policy Institute鈥檚 latest research into effective school groups, published this morning, follows the release of a study last month on pupil inclusion and attainment. Today’s report found that large trusts have the highest turnover rates, particularly so in secondary academies. Analysis also suggested that academy trust tend to be in a better financial position that others, as they post healthier in-year balances. However the data is from 2019. Louis Hodge, EPI鈥檚 associate director for school system and performance, said 鈥渙ur understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of different [school] groups has, to date, been patchy and inconclusive”. 鈥淲e hope [our research] will enable informed conversations across the education sector about the features of effective school groups and how school groups can be supported to improve their performance.鈥 Turnover highest in MATs 鈥 Drawing on school workforce census figures from between 2016-17 and 2019-20, the EPI found MATs 鈥渉ave higher rates of workforce turnover than local authorities鈥. The difference is starkest among secondaries, with annual turnover rates standing at 16.9 per cent in academies, compared to 14.4 per cent in council-run schools. Daniel Kebede For larger MATs with 10 or more schools, this rose to 19.5 per cent. However big trusts are more likely to take over failing schools, have larger numbers of disadvantaged pupils and may have more schools in urban areas – which could all have an impact. Meanwhile, 37.4 per cent of teachers working in secondary academies in 2016-17 left their positions by the end of 2019-20. The figure local authority-maintained schools stood at 32.7 per cent. National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said it does students 鈥渘o good to be taught by three different teachers in a given subject within the space of a year”. 鈥淭here has been a fundamental failure by successive Conservative governments to make teaching attractive and paid well enough for people to stay. The expansion of academies has been at the heart of this failure.鈥 鈥 but it’s 鈥榥ot necessarily bad鈥 The research suggested that outcomes are lower overall where turnover is higher. However, disadvantaged children tended to 鈥渁chieve similar progress鈥 in schools where staff movement was high. And there was no such correlation found with turnover and outcomes in primary schools. Leora Cruddas also added that low staff turnover could 鈥渓imit opportunities for progression and lead to higher wage bills at a school level鈥. In some cases, it is also 鈥渆ssential to resolve poor job matching鈥. Confederation of School Trusts CEO Leora Cruddas, whose organisation is the sector body for academies, also noted the data doesn鈥檛 take into account teaching staff employed by trust central teams who work across groups. She added that the findings show 鈥渃orrelations but not causation鈥 and that it 鈥渄oes not immediately follow that those schools are doing something wrong鈥. Higher rates of teacher turnover were also associated with improved levels of financial efficiency. EPI said this highlights 鈥渢eacher turnover isn鈥檛 necessarily a bad outcome, if for example schools are adept at identifying and retaining only high-quality鈥 employees. Trusts also better-off The study also showed academies seem to be in a better financial position than local authority-maintained schools. Not only are MATs 鈥渕ore likely鈥 to in-year surpluses, but when they do, their balances 鈥渢end to be 鈥 larger as a fraction of expenditure鈥. Almost 50 per cent of trusts that responded to an EPI survey reported that the reserves from one of their schools had been used to aid another in their chain. However, the research unearthed a 鈥渉igher degree of variation in the level of in-year balances amongst trusts compared to other group types鈥. The report said: 鈥淎t primary, local authorities have in-year balances between -2.5 per cent and +2 per cent, whilst trusts have balances ranging between -8 per cent and 23 per cent of expenditure.鈥 No comparisons between MAT and LA central teams But the EPI struggled to make comparisons between the ways in which MAT central teams and local authorities top-slice and re-distribute grant income. Pepe DiIasio It believes the government should order councils to collect the income and expenditure of their education teams in a similar way to academy chains to remedy this. Alongside the report, the EPI has today unveiled the completed version of its online benchmarking tool. It is designed to compare the performance of individual academy trusts, local authorities, federations and dioceses across four key indicators 鈥 pupil attainment, inclusion, workforce sustainability and financial management. Pepe Di鈥橧asio, the boss of school leaders鈥 union ASCL, hopes it 鈥渟erves as a pointer to the government to improve the information it provides to parents and communities鈥. Reacting to the report’s findings, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “As the report highlights, there are also positive drivers to teacher turnover. “To ensure we recruit and retain high-quality teachers, we have undertaken the biggest reform of training and development in a generation, and last summer, teachers received the largest pay award in over thirty years.鈥