Hackney has been named as one of the best education providers for GCSE performance in the country in a new report.

The council was ranked sixth for last year’s Key Stage 4 results in the first league table to compare English Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and local authorities.

The authority was outperformed by two English academy chains but otherwise ranked above most MATs out of 218 trusts and authorities, according to today’s report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) thinktank.

The council dropped to joint 31st for primary school performance at Key Stage 2 level but was still well above average when ranked out of 174 trusts and authorities.

Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “It is clear from this report from the Education Policy Institute and last year’s report from the Department for Education that Hackney’s local authority maintained schools perform amongst the highest in the country.

“The benefits for children and parents of a high-performing local education authority like Hackney are exemplified by this research and as a council we want to continue to work with our schools to provide this level of performance in the future.

“We hope the government will take note of this evidence and allow high-performing authorities, like Hackney, to continue to play a role in improving school performance in their areas, or indeed elsewhere.”

MATs topped the Institute’s league tables for performance at primary and secondary level – but the worst education providers were also academy chains, according to the report.

Overall, the research showed that there were more local authorities in the top half of the league table than the bottom, with more academy chains under-performing at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 level.

Jon Andrews, director for education, data and statistics, said: “The analysis we have produced casts doubt on the government’s previous policy of academising all schools.

“It is not clear what the gains from this would be in terms of school performance, not least for schools in high-performing local authorities. The average improvement in performance of pupils in academy groups is similar to that in local authorities.”

The Department for Education (DfE), which also published performance league tables for MATs yesterday, said in a statement: “Our research, like that of the Sutton Trust and the Education Policy Institute, highlights many impressive MATs which are raising standards for thousands of pupils.

“They are playing a vital and increasingly important role in the school system - thanks to their ability to share resources, expertise and provide support to schools that are struggling.

“Our ambition remains for all schools to become academies with more schools joining multi-academy trusts (MATs) - because we know this is an effective way to bring about sustained improvement.”