Policy Gymnastics: the case of Multi-Academy Trusts

The Academies Act was passed in 2010 by the newly elected Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government. It made provision for Local Authority (LA) maintained schools in England to convert to academies, which are funded and overseen by national (rather than local) government. 14 years later, the landscape is transformed: two in five primary schools and four in five secondary schools are now academies. However, whereas academies were originally positioned as highly autonomous, with additional ‘freedoms’ compared with other schools, most academies have now been subsumed into a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), meaning they cease to exist as a separate legal entity. This chapter examines the evolution of policy on academies and MATs. It argues that policy makers have engaged in policy gymnastics as they have sought to evolve the academy reforms in ways which address legitimacy concerns and offer scope for efficiency and effectiveness. These gymnastics have involved strategic, linguistic and regulatory contortions, often driven by competing values and logics. Drawing on Stewart’s (2006) work we argue that these contortions have relied on four mechanisms: establishing a new policy paradigm; technicisation; cycling and structural separation. These policy-level gymnastics have impacted on front line leaders, who have needed to continually stretch and flex in order to lead schools and educate children even as the system has contorted around them.