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Updated 27 September 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-in-federations/federations-guidance-on-the-governance-processes
All categories of maintained school, including voluntary-aided, foundation schools and maintained school nurseries can federate together under one governing body. Academy schools cannot federate or join a federation.
The establishment and membership of a federation means that the governors and school leaders commit to improving the outcomes and life chances for all children across the federation, as opposed to just a single school.
The Department for Education (DfE) wants all schools to benefit from the support and opportunity to collaborate that comes from being in a strong multi-academy trust. In addition to the benefits that can arise from being in a federation, a strong academy trust can provide:
Details are in the White Paper ‘Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child’.
Use the following links for information and guidance on joining or creating an academy trust:
A federation is defined in law as 2 or more maintained schools (including nursery schools) operating under the governance of a single governing body. Each federated school is treated as an individual school, meaning it:
Pupil Referral Units (PRU) are not able to federate as they are not legally defined as a maintained school.
The statutory context for federations includes:
These set out how:
Governing bodies who decide to federate must do so in accordance with The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012.
The initiative to federate should come from the headteachers or governors of the schools. However, the local authority and, where relevant, the diocese or other religious body must be involved in any considerations to federate
As a governing body, you should make sure you understand the federation process and recognise the timelines and commitments involved. You may find it useful to:
The department would encourage any maintained school to explore the multi-academy trust model for collaboration.
In creating a single federated governing body, it is important to understand that the governing bodies of both schools do not amalgamate into one body. This is because the original governing bodies are dissolved upon the date of federation and a new governing body of the federation is incorporated. The newly federated governing body should be no larger than it needs to be to oversee the strategic direction across all schools within the federation.
To propose a federation, you must follow the prescribed legislative process set out in The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012.
The governing bodies may set up a joint governance working party (joint committee) that includes at least one governor from each of the schools proposing to federate. The joint committee will:
Where there is not a joint committee, the governing bodies are responsible for undertaking the above.
You must:
The governing bodies must attend this meeting to discuss and consider the report.
When developing the report on the proposal to federate, school leaders and governing bodies should:
Governing bodies should make sure there are ongoing discussions with all interested parties and key stakeholders, such as the appropriate religious body where schools with a religious character are involved.
To prepare for the formal consultation process, the governing bodies should:
Schools intending to join an existing federation must give notice of the proposal to federate to the federation’s governing body. The governing body of the existing federation then considers whether to:
To add a new school to an existing federation the federation must:
All steps of the federation process, as set out in legislation, must be followed by the schools and the existing federation.
The constitution and size of the new federation’s governing body should be considered carefully. It should not be a case of simply adding governors to the existing federation governing body to reflect the additional schools. This could result in a body that may be very large and not as effective in its role.
The governing bodies must prepare and agree a formal proposal for consultation, and have it approved by all the governing bodies concerned. Governing bodies should discuss the details with the local authority, and the diocese or equivalent relevant religious body where appropriate.
The proposal can be prepared by the joint committee.
Each governing body must complete the following statutory process:
Each governing body should also:
The proposal document must contain:
The schools must form a new federated governing body. The governing body of the federation should not:
It is recommended that a governing body contains an odd number of governors to help reduce the risk of a split vote, whereby the chair would have a deciding vote.
The schools’ governance professionals (clerks), working together, can assist in advising on appropriate governance structure.
Regardless of the number of schools in a federation, its governing body cannot have fewer than 7 members and must include:
New elections will need to be held for elected governor positions.
There are also specific requirements for federations which include foundation and voluntary schools as set out in the additional requirements for federations comprising foundation and voluntary schools legislation.
A headteacher is a person who is:
There are a number of different scenarios for school leadership in a federation. For example:
Where there is one executive headteacher alongside heads of schools, only the executive headteacher will be entitled to a place on the board, unless the heads of school are paid on the headteacher pay scale.
The department strongly recommends against proposals, when constituting a proposed federated governing body, to carry a headteacher vacancy. It also does not expect the instrument of government to carry an additional post where one does not exist in reality.
New elections will need to be held for elected governor positions.
Parent governors are not representatives of the parents or carers of their child’s respective individual school. All parents and carers of the federated schools’ pupils are entitled to put themselves forward for election regardless of the school their child attends in the federation. Parent governor places should not be reserved for parents of a particular school.
The School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 states that the governing body of a federation must include only 2 parent governors. Under these regulations, a federation cannot stipulate that a parent is elected from each school in a federation. The 2 parent governors can come from across the parent and carer body, which could mean they can be from the same school. All governors, including parents, are responsible for all schools within the federation. They are not there to represent a single school.
The staff governor exists to bring their experience and knowledge as a member of staff and not to represent staff.
The governing body may appoint as many co-opted governors as it considers necessary. Federations comprising of foundation and voluntary schools may need to have a majority of foundation governors. This should be considered when thinking about the number of co-opted governors and overall size of the governing body.
A co-opted governor should not be selected to ‘represent’ the views of a particular group: for example, the parents and carers at one of the schools within the federation or the members of staff at one of the federated schools. All governors on a federated governing body are there to consider the interests of all the pupils and schools within the federation.
Where a parent has the required knowledge, experience or skills required by the governing body, they could instead be appointed as a co-opted governor, rather than be elected as a parent governor.
The total number of co-opted governors who are also eligible to be elected or appointed as a staff governor (when counted with the staff governor and the headteacher positions) must not exceed one third of the total membership of the governing body of the federation.
Federations which include foundation and voluntary schools are required to have specific numbers of foundation or partnership governors as set out in The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012. When calculating the number of governors required to comply with regulations, round the number to the nearest whole number.
The governing body of a federation comprising:
Associate members can be appointed to a committee of the governing body based on their specific expertise and experience, so that they can contribute to the effective governance and success of the school. They:
Further information on the role of an associate member can be found in the maintained schools governance role descriptors and the governance handbook.
Once the closing date for consultation has passed, the joint committee should collate the responses and submit them to each of the schools’ governing bodies. The governing bodies must:
If one or more of the governing bodies decide that they do not wish to proceed, those governing bodies must inform:
If the remaining schools still want to pursue a federation, then those schools must start the procedure again and produce another proposal for consultation.
If all the governing bodies still wish to proceed, they must:
Schools that have a joint committee could continue to use it to facilitate the next steps effectively.
The governing bodies of the schools that are forming the federation must prepare a draft Instrument of Government for Federated Governing Bodies for submission to the local authority, and the diocese or other religious body where required, prior to the formation of the federation. The joint committee can prepare this on behalf of the governing bodies, but the governing bodies must approve and submit the finalised version.
This instrument must be checked for compliance with the statutory requirements by the local authority, even though the outcome of the consultation is not yet known. A local authority can only decline to make a new instrument of government if the draft instrument does not comply with all the applicable statutory provisions.
Where the federation will have foundation governors, the governing bodies of the proposed federation must not submit the draft to the local authority unless it has been approved, in respect of each foundation or voluntary school, by:
The department strongly recommends that this approval is obtained in a written format.
As soon as it is approved, the local authority must provide a copy of the draft instrument of government, or a consolidated version where there has been an amendment, to each member of the governing body of each school proposing to federate.
Before the new federation is incorporated, each governing body must:
Any outstanding decisions from the work undertaken by the joint committee should be made. The federation should also:
On the federation date, the existing governing bodies are dissolved (including the established federation, if one exists) and the governing body of the new federation is incorporated.
All land and property held by the schools’ governing bodies before the federation date is transferred to the federated governing body.
All rights and liabilities that existed immediately before the federation date are also transferred to the federated governing body. It can be helpful to seek legal advice at this stage.
Each school or federation must update their school’s record on Get Information About School (GIAS). If there is an existing federation record, this will need to be closed on GIAS and a new federation record set up. Use the GIAS guidance documents to help, or get support by using the data collections request for assistance form.
When a school decides to leave a federation (defederate), the School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 must be followed.
A written request to leave a federation must be sent to the governance professional (clerk) or chair of the governing body of the federation. It must be signed by one of the following:
The governing body of the federation must give notice of the request to:
Not less than 14 days after giving notice of the request, the federation’s governing body must consider the request and all responses received and decide whether the:
This decision must be made at a governing body meeting, as a specified item on the agenda.
The governing body must notify the group of people listed above about their decision within one week. If it is decided the school should leave the federation, the Secretary of State must be notified within one week of the decision by email to SchoolFederation.NOTIFICATIONS@education.gov.uk.
The governing body of the federation must review the instrument of government and may need to consider elections to fill staff or parent roles which were previously filled by staff or parents from the defederating schools.
The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 provides further information on the process including what to do with budgets and the transfer of properties, rights and liabilities.
If a school in a federation is closing (discontinued), follow the specific steps in the School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012.
If there are at least 2 schools left in the federation, the governing body of the federation:
If only one school is left, the federation will dissolve as set out in the School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 and Dissolving a federation.
The dissolution of a federation happens if the governing body of the federation decides to dissolve the federation, so that the individual schools become separate maintained schools. This includes where a school has made the decision to leave a federation or is discontinued, where they are one of only 2 schools.
The schools may also join or form a multi-academy trust (MAT).
The governing body of the federation must give notice of the decision and of the date of dissolution within one week to:
If a school has made the decision to leave a federation, where it is one of only 2 schools, or where a federation is to be dissolved and a notice of dissolution has been received, the local authority must:
On the dissolution date:
An application for an Academy Order for a federated school must be made under Section 3 of the Academies Act 2010 and Part 9 of The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 by those governors, being no fewer than 3 in number who:
Where a federated school with a religious character is intending to apply for an Academy Order, the school should consult their religious authority at the outset.
The relevant regional director will then consider the application and decide whether to issue an Academy Order.
Find out more from the guidance on forming a multi-academy trust.
The process for a federation to convert to a multi-academy trust is not set out in legislation.
The federation’s governing board should make an application for an Academy Order. When the application process is complete, the federation should then be dissolved, immediately before the schools’ conversion to academies. The schools will not need to create a new instrument of government because of the conversion.
The federation governing board should follow the steps of notifying relevant parties of its dissolution. The federation should also update GIAS, including closing the federation on the dissolution date.
The legislation does not provide for automatic dissolution. A federation that wants assurance about whether the federation automatically dissolves when its schools become an academy should seek their own legal advice.
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