Catholic merger plans that would create England鈥檚 second biggest multi-academy trust have been given the go-ahead, after being referred to ministers to rule on. The proposal 鈥 drawn up by the Archdiocese of Birmingham 鈥 will see six chains combine to create a 63-school MAT, called St Gabriel the Archangel. It was due to be decided on by Department for Education officials in February, but papers from the meeting, , show the case was instead escalated to government ministers 鈥渄ue to its novel nature鈥. Speaking today, archdiocese of Birmingham director of education Steve Bell said: 鈥淚 could totally understand why that would be done. It鈥檚 the largest multi-academy trust merger the country鈥檚 ever seen.鈥 Risks ‘no reason to snub merger’ 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 advisory boards of leaders who support them, they can choose to 鈥渆scalate鈥 a decision to a Department for Education minister, in circumstances where they don鈥檛 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 鈥 a trust merger plan 鈥 were later given the go-ahead. St Gabriel the Archangel will span five local authority areas 鈥 Dudley, Sandwell, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. Fifty-six of its schools are already in trusts, with seven more set to make the switch to academy status. DfE documents state the 鈥渧ision for this merger鈥 is to create a cohesive, high-performing trust鈥 while ensuring long-term sustainability and growth in line with Catholic educational values鈥. Some 鈥渞isks鈥 were identified by the West Midlands advisory board. However, these 鈥渨ere primarily associated with the nature of the venture and were not considered, individually or collectively, as reasons to withhold support for the merger鈥. ‘All systems go’ Bell said the MAT will be formed in September. 鈥淲e received ministerial approval at the end of March, so it鈥檚 all systems go.鈥 Schools Week revealed in September that the MAT will act as a pilot, with up to five more trusts expected to be set up once 鈥渢he lessons of implementation鈥 are learned from St Gabriel the Archangel鈥檚 launch. Each will consist of more than 40 academies. Under the heading, 鈥渨hat evidence is there that larger is better?鈥, archdiocese papers state that 鈥渟trong MATs are better able to deploy staff and funds to address particular needs in school communities鈥. This includes the 鈥渄evelopment of trust-wide teaching and learning support systems鈥, improved 鈥減rocurement through scale鈥 and more capital funding, with St Gabriel the Archangel expected to receive 拢5.5 million for its buildings a year. Its tally of 63 schools will be equal to that of Delta Academies Trust once it completes its merger with Coast and Vale Learning Trust. Only United Learning, England鈥檚 biggest MAT, currently has more.