There was
arguably less incentive for local authorities, knowing the DfE would fund decent MAT - led schools, to fulfil their duties to meet the need for bums on seats; especially with the «500 free schools over the course of a Parliament» target introduced by David Cameron.
While this looks like a good deal for governments in the short run, in the long run it has led governments to exercise
less oversight of what these secretariats do, and
arguably gives secretariats an
incentive to be more entrepreneurial, which tends to help generate more cases against states in the long run.