Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe A government-backed pilot turnaround trust for Catholic schools will morph into one of England’s biggest – as church bosses say 70-strong MATs are “becoming the norm”. The St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust is set to swell to 65 academies in just a few years, having originally been trialled by the government as a home for so-called “orphan” schools. It is one of three trusts that will share over 200 schools across the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which has torn up previous plans to move its primaries and secondaries into 12 smaller trusts. This comes after three other Catholic dioceses unveiled proposals to create their own mega MATs, with one expected to take on 71 academies. Joan McCarthy, Liverpool’s director of education, said the archdiocese “wanted to find the structure that would protect and support all of our schools”, which are of “all shapes and sizes”. She added: “This is a road that has been travelled by other Catholic dioceses across the country. “MATs of 50 to 70 schools are increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception, and this is something that has influenced our own thinking.” DfE-backed pilot St Joseph was launched four years ago as part of a Department for Education pilot – which also funded the Falcon Education Academies Trust – to find a temporary home for struggling schools that other trusts did not want. Its creation was supported by £1.25 million in government start-up funding. The idea was for it and Falcon to “incubate” the schools, before moving them to a permanent home. Andrew Truby While Falcon closed, St Joseph was allowed to take on ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ schools in 2024, easing its transition out of the government scheme. It now runs 10. Under the archdiocese’s strategy, it will absorb 55 more in Liverpool and St Helens. “In the first days, we were trying to build something, and we were starting from scratch, so it was like a start-up company,” CEO Andrew Truby said. “The strategy is the final acknowledgement of our journey from being a turnaround trust to one that is focused on delivering world-class education to all Catholic schools.” McCarthy stressed that the archdiocese was “contributing to each conversion, by providing appropriate resources and finances for elements such as the condition survey and due diligence process”. This will ensure “only trust budgets are used to support growth – and no school budgets are impacted by the process”. ‘Not all direct control’ The Archbishop of Liverpool John Sherrington’s vision for education in his area will also see Pope Francis Multi-Academy Trust expand to 61 schools in Sefton and Lancashire. It currently has seven. A brand-new MAT, called the Our Lady of Lourdes North West, will be created to absorb 75 more schools across Knowsley, Halton, Warrington and Wigan. Only one trust in the country, United Learning, would be bigger. And just three other trusts currently have more than 60 schools on their books. Sherrington noted that trusts of that size “can sound very broad, anonymous”. But “the identity of every school is important, so we will have clusters of schools in hubs that are more manageable to build up their own local ethos”. The archbishop added: “It’s not all big, direct control.” He stressed the move would not see the archdiocese “corporatise the academies like some of the other academy trusts have done” by introducing measures like MAT-wide uniforms. Hub size concern McCarthy said the schools would move in batches over five waves taking 12 to 18 months each. She “would love to have it done in the next five to six years, but the reality is it may be a little bit longer than that”. Pointing to the archdiocese’s previous academy strategy, McCarthy said the trusts it is currently operating are “quite small”. “They’re not in critical stages, but I think the reality is, if they continued as they are, then we would be looking at having to go in their reserves.” She also revealed that the Department for Education has seen the plans. “The main question that they had was, ‘how do you ensure the clusters in the hubs aren’t too big?’ “They were happy with what we were proposing and that we were going to have senior executive leaders in charge of the hubs.” More mega MATs Analysis conducted by Schools Week in 2024 suggested that all but one of the 19 English Catholic dioceses are pursuing trust growth plans. In Salford, church leaders want to split their schools between three trusts with at least 50 primaries and 10 secondaries by 2030. The largest is expected to take on 71 schools. The Archdiocese of Birmingham has merged six trusts to create a 63-school MAT, called St Gabriel the Archangel. It will act as a pilot, with up to five more trusts – each consisting of more than 40 academies – established later. And in November, it was revealed that the Diocese of Westminster wants to put its 187 schools into “four equally proportioned” academy chains. It argued that “shifting demographics” and financial pressures have left trusts needing to “serve more than 10,000” children to be sustainable. The ‘right’ number Finance expert Micon Metcalfe previously said that Catholic trusts more generally may be “disproportionately affected” by financial pressures. This is because “they are wanting to deliver the bishop’s plan for the area and protect small Catholic schools”, which are harder hit by cuts. Sherrington added: “There are learnings from other trusts across the country as well. “It would seem there is a right number of pupils to have in a trust that works, and that is why we are going larger.”
Shelly 26 May 2026 I don’t particularly agree that so much money is going to people much higher up the ladder and not school based when it should ALL be going towards supporting children.