federations

Federations – What you need to know

PAG Staff2025, Case Studies, DfE, Governance, Leadership, Local Authorities, Policy, Schools

Federations: What you need to know 


The introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill into the House of Commons signals a significant shift in England’s education policy. It offers, prima facie, a renewed focus on collaboration, equity, and local governance. By empowering local authorities to open schools, ending the automatic academisation of failing schools, and the ‘concept of a plan’ to impose national pay scales on academies, the bill marks a departure from the ‘academisation agenda’ of successive Conservative governments. While much ink has already been spilt in analysing and prophesising regarding the impact this will have on the academy sector, less mention has been made regarding the impacts this will have on maintained schools, and miniscule are the droplets afforded to that less-common, but potentially more important middle-path, the federation. Why?


The current state of Federations 


Part of the reason may lie in the ubiquity of the academisation narrative in recent years, which has left little room for alternative models of governance to be considered in public discourse. Their relative obscurity is compounded by the fact that federations often lack the scale and branding that make MATs prominent players in the education sector. Moreover, the public and political appetite for educational reform has been heavily focused on academies, positioning them as the default solution for struggling schools, while federations have remained an understated option. Federations have been, therefore, somewhat overshadowed by the rise of multi-academy trusts, but have nonetheless been quietly working to support collaboration between maintained schools through either soft (informal) or hard (formal) partnerships.


Federations in the current climate  


However, federations may now be not only more viable, but perhaps preferable to alternative paths of development. In particular, hard federations, which unite maintained schools under a single governing body, can offer an alternative model of governance that aligns strongly with the strategic principles of localism and inclusivity promoted by the bill and majority of local authorities. Importantly, by restoring the power of local authorities to open schools and deploy alternative improvement measures, the new bill provides federations with a renewed mandate. Specifically, co-operative mainstream provisions may be able to apply to run new locally-funded provisions in a similar manner to SAT/MATs during the various Free School Waves. What’s more, this can be particularly significant in areas with rising rates of SEND need, in light of the Department for Education’s evolving approach to the sector which emphasises strengthening inclusion within mainstream settings rather than an over-reliance on establishing new special schools. A federation could be an ideal vehicle for achieving this vision, pooling expertise to ensure inclusive practices while delivering enhanced social value to communities.


In addition to fostering inclusivity, federations offer unique opportunities for innovation in delivering local and national priorities, and financial resilience in an era of falling primary rolls and financial pressures. In their unification of schools under a single governing body, federations can achieve economies of scale in resource allocation, curriculum design, and staff deployment. Again, the bill seems to offer the ideal context for federations to look at growth; the introduction of national pay scales for academies may ‘level the playing field’, enhancing the ability of federations to attract and retain high-quality teachers. Furthermore, federations, as institutions anchored to their localities and their councils, are also uniquely positioned to address community-specific challenges. Free capacity from effective governance structures allows them to adapt operational models to local needs, ensuring they remain attuned to the priorities of students, families, and other stakeholders. Unlike MATs, whose centralised structures may at times prioritise efficiency over local nuance, federations embody a collaborative ethos that balances individual school identities with collective accountability.


Is a Federation the right move for you? 


However, it’s not all roses on the other side of the federation fence. Hard federations can face significant challenges in balancing the tension between collective decision-making and preserving the autonomy of individual schools, requiring robust governance frameworks and skilled leadership. Moreover, federations must still navigate a competitive educational landscape where MATs benefit from scale and centralised strategic oversight. Indeed, this operational experience, particularly in SEN provision, has largely shifted to the academy sector due to the nature of the education landscape in the past decade. New collaborative partnerships such as federations would benefit from such experience but may face challenges in accessing it.


However, by leveraging their hybrid nature — combining local adaptability and funding with shared responsibility — federations are uniquely positioned to thrive in the current environment. Their potential to prioritise not only educational outcomes but also broader social value through arranging for shared, local procurement, can assist in delivering not only educational targets but the government’s new focus on social value and investment.


Looking ahead 


As the education landscape evolves and educational, financial, and social needs continue to rise, maintained schools can and should adapt to coexist alongside, and perhaps learn from, the academy sector. Deliberately adopting centralised governance and shared resources, when implemented effectively, can reduce strategic workload for the operators, and operational workload for the strategists. In embracing their potential as vehicles for social value and financial sustainability, maintained schools can pro-actively redefine localised education governance and outcomes.


In sum, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill represents a new chapter not only for academies, but for maintained schools. Federations, formal and informal, provide an opportune chance for them to align local priorities with national goals for inclusion and excellence. To maximise their potential, school leaders should take this opportunity to re-evaluate their approach; it may be that remaining an individual maintained school is the best path forward, but if collaborative routes such as federation have not even been considered, then the school, and its community, may find itself increasingly left behind, in a landscape that is increasingly defined by its emphasis on collaboration and strengthening communities.