MATs whitepaper series

The Mission-Critical Role of the Multi-Academy Trust

A revolution has taken place which will determine the very future of society in this country. And outside of the sector in question, it has largely passed under the radar.

The original intention in having state education re-organised out of local authority control with schools setting up or joining multi-academy trusts reporting directly to the Department of Education was to deliver an uplift.

Trusts are able to decide whether to follow the national curriculum and can set their own term dates - with the responsibility for budgets which are in the multi-millions.

But while government talks about ‘Opportunity for all - strong schools with great teachers’, trusts are having to address rapidly rising costs, reduced revenue, and unfunded staff wage increases, yet no corresponding change in their educational and financial performance targets.

That is on top of a complexity of management requirements - both tangible and psychological - which would make company owners and directors gasp.

In a major report commissioned by iplicit, the cloud accounting software company, to be prepared and published by DECISION later this year, the chief executives and chief financial officers of multi-academy trusts will be highlighting the issues, and sharing their thoughts on the way forward.

Leading up to publication, the latest thought-provoking interview to be included in the report will be available here for you to download.

INTERVIEW 01

Mark Wilson

Chief Executive, Wellspring Academy Trust

"There is quite a philosophical divide emerging around the crucial question of how to evaluate education. I think society is nuanced, which means education has to be nuanced, and some of the measures the sector sets its stall by are incredibly blunt and can never truly tell the story."

INTERVIEW 02

Janet Sheriff OBE

Chief Executive, Collaborative Learning Trust

"What is important is that a multi-academy trust can provide a depth and range of central services, which a stand-alone school or trust wouldn’t be able to facilitate; a mixture of secondary and primary schools brings more additional resource than primary schools alone."

INTERVIEW 03

Mark Greatrex

Chief Executive, Bellevue Place Education Trust

“To deliver real improvement, multi-academy trusts need critical mass - a single school academy by itself couldn’t really replicate the services previously provided by a local education authority, so there was arguably always a need for academies to come together."

INTERVIEW 04

Sara Spivey

Chief Executive, The De Curci Trust

“Irrespective of how big or small the multi-academy trust, it needs a chief financial officer because the CEO is running in effect a mini local education authority, as well as still being a headteacher of one of the schools in my case."

INTERVIEW 05

Alex Russell OBE

Chief Executive, Bourne Education Trust

“I’m a believer in state education. Our mission is to transform schools so they are at the epicentre of their communities and deliver the best education possible to the children."

INTERVIEW 06

Paul James

Chief Executive, River Learning Trust

“The risk of not having enough process is obvious, but the damage caused by over-process can be less immediately obvious. It demotivates and can extinguish positive thinking and innovation. One of my purposes as CEO is to enable each leader to bring their own humanity and be empowered in their role."

INTERVIEW 07

Jack Mayhew

Chief Executive, Learning Partners Academy Trust

“An original strength of the multi-academy trust concept was the opportunity to reshape education, not a drive to create a different type of uniformity."

INTERVIEW 08

Jon Chaloner

Mentor, Confederation of Schools Trust

“Education needs to be a priority for financial investment and governments need to recognise the need to focus on a ten-year financial plan with at least the rate of inflation upgrade, a timeframe which would cover a child’s journey reception year to key stage four (year eleven) when they finish their GCSEs."

INTERVIEW 09

Andrew Wilson

Chief Executive, Oak Multi-Academy Trust

“A challenge for a multi-academy trust is that it has to be prepared and ready for growth. Schools will want to join largely for two reasons. They need a home because they are unable to support themselves, or their trust isn’t of a sufficient size to provide the means."

INTERVIEW 10

Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne

Chief Executive, Consortium Trust

“I do believe that now, because we have freedoms which we didn’t under local authority control, the purpose of a multi-academy trust has changed. I see it as about improving outcomes for local communities."

INTERVIEW 11

Colin Lofthouse

Chief Executive, Smart Multi-Academy Trust

“Having worked in the maintained sector – local authority owned and managed schools – I couldn’t see any change in the prevailing mindset that something was fine because it had ‘always been done that way’. A multi-academy trust has the opportunity and structures to be more creative."

INTERVIEW 12

David Gurney

Chief Executive, Cockburn Multi-Academy Trust

“So what a CEO of a multi-academy trust has to do is build a team of experts around them and the chief financial officer is a key appointment when your budget increases tenfold in three years. It was a steep learning curve. We had to move from answering to a governing body from the local community to a board of trustees which would have the mindset and role of non-execs at a company."

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The Mission-Critical Role of the Multi- Academy Trust