This article is based on the Department for Education's (DfE) guidance on commissioning high-quality trusts.
What is this guidance for?
This guidance explains how the DfE:
- Judges the quality of academy trusts
- Uses that information to decide which schools to recommend to which trusts
5 new descriptions to measure trust quality
These ‘descriptions of trust quality’, or pillars, are broken into 3 groups, based on what they tell the DfE about what a trust can deliver.
| Pillar 1: High-quality and inclusive education | The core of what the DfE expects and the starting point for considering a trust’s effectiveness |
| Pillar 2: School improvement | Demonstrates the capacity the trust has to offer |
| Pillars 3, 4 and 5: Workforce, finance and operations, and governance and leadership | Demonstrate the resilience and sustainability of the trust’s operating model |
Read the descriptions of trust quality in more detail
High-quality and inclusive education Theme Description Culture Creates a culture