Crisis-ridden University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) is to abolish itself after giving up control of all its seven schools in Cheshire and Staffordshire.
Earlier this week it was revealed the government was taking University Church of England Academy in Ellesmere Port out of its control following a second damning inspection.
The school will be rebrokered – meaning it will transferred to another multi-academy trust.
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This follows an earlier decision by UCAT and the Department for Education to hand over four of its schools to other academy trusts leaving it with just two which UCAT says is not financially viable.
In a statement UCAT said: “The trust has seven schools; two schools are rated Good by Ofsted, three Require Improvement and two are in the Inadequate category.
“UCAT and the DfE had already agreed earlier this year to ‘re-broker’ (transfer) four of its schools to other academy trusts.
"Following the more recent agreement with the DfE to re-broker the University Church of England Academy in Ellesmere Port, UCAT’s board has taken the decision that the trust cannot continue to operate financially and provide the education we would wish with only two schools and has therefore asked the DfE to re-broker all its schools, before the trust formally winds up its activities.”
UCAT had received a financial notice to improve from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) after it was reported debts of £3m had been built-up. And in 2017 UCAT was criticised by Ofsted for failing in its school improvement strategies and ‘below average’ standards in some of its schools.
The UCAT board, working with the DfE and the regional schools commissioner, Christine Quinn, was reconfigured in early June, with the appointment of five new trustees from the worlds of education, finance and commerce, to help address the challenges faced by the Trust.
Newly-appointed trust chairman David Wootton said today: “The overriding focus for the board is about doing what is best to improve the education and life chances of all children in all the schools and to support local communities and as such it needed to address where this fell short.
“Having established an overview, we needed to plan the best way forward for the future; given the situation, the board has reached a view that the trust cannot continue.”
UCAT is working closely with the DfE, to ensure that a new trust is found as quickly as possible for each of the seven schools. Once this has been agreed, UCAT will work closely with the incoming trusts, to make the transition as smooth as possible.
