2026 education white paper: initial thoughts on the academy programme

The government’s 2026 schools white paper, ‘Every child achieving and thriving’, is good news for established academy trusts who have been looking for some political direction.

Since the general election, there has been very little noise from the Department for Education (DfE) on the wholesale rollout of the academy programme. Phrases from ministers such as ‘academy agnostic’ were all we really had to go on for the past 18 months.

This language, coupled with the removal of the conversion grant and the end of mandatory conversion for maintained schools judged as ‘inadequate’ under the old Ofsted terminology, all pointed towards a softening of the academy-growth agenda.

However, the white paper’s focus on collaboration between schools, and its stated aim of moving all schools into high-performing trusts, goes a long way to clearing up the ambiguity.

While the paper is helpful in signalling broad intent, there are a few initial points worth picking up on.

Leverage?

Under previous white papers, there was a mandated timeline for schools to convert. That is noticeably absent here and, with the removal of mandatory conversion for schools judged inadequate, it’s hard to see where growth from currently maintained schools will come from.

Some growth will no doubt be driven by maintained schools facing less and less support from their local authorities (LAs), who see the offer from their local multi-academy trusts (MATs) as a better deal. But for those schools who are, for whatever reason, firmly against the academy programme, it’s likely that only a change in leadership will lead to conversion. It will be interesting to see how the DfE manages the policy carrot and stick to effect change.

Where pressure may be brought to bear more effectively is with single academy trusts. Over the past several years, we have seen most trust growth fuelled by single academy schools joining established MATs. Interestingly, the white paper specifically mentions high-performing schools as having an obligation to share best practice through membership of a strong trust. This will clearly be one to watch for selective schools, the vast majority of which sit in single academy trusts.

Return of local authority MATs

Last seen a few years ago under the previous administration, the idea of council-led MATs has been around for some time. In its earlier guise, take-up was negligible – issues such as the cap on local authority-associated persons and the rules on related party transactions made the concept difficult to get off the ground. The 2026 white paper promises further guidance on how these hurdles will be removed, but for now there’s very little detail.

Possibility for schools to change trusts based on location

One of the sacred cows of the academy sector is that, once joined, a school can never leave an MAT. In practice, though, there has for some time been a tacit understanding that geographically outlying schools could move between MATs. It didn’t happen often, but a small number of schools were rehomed in more adjacent trusts.

The white paper now puts this on a formal footing and potentially opens the door to moving schools where they’re not a good fit in their current trust.

Looking ahead

Overall, the 2026 white paper is a positive step for the academy programme. After a prolonged period of uncertainty, there’s now at least a clear signal from the DfE that it sees strong trusts as central to school improvement.

The detail on how some of these ambitions will work in practice – particularly around council-led MATs – is still thin on the ground, and the lack of any real leverage over maintained schools remains a gap. But for trusts looking to grow and plan strategically, this paper gives them something meaningful to work with.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the further guidance promised by the DfE and will share our thoughts as the picture develops.