Five takeaways from the CST Finance and Operations Conference

Last week IMP Software sponsored, presented and exhibited at the CST Finance and Operations Conference 2025 in Birmingham.

Attended by over 350 MAT finance and operations leaders, this year’s conference focused on how trusts can enhance their operational functions to build capacity, drive improvement, and provide consistent, effective support for their schools in a shifting policy and funding environment. Keynote sessions addressed the current fiscal challenges facing public services, their impact on the education sector, and explored research, innovation, and tools for achieving operational excellence, and workshops showcased how trusts are reimagining their use of resources, technology, data, and service culture to empower schools and ensure every child receives an outstanding education.

Here are five takeaways from the event.

1. ‘Hot-off-the press’ conversations on the Kreston Academies Benchmark Report

Whilst delegates were arriving for registration, the Kreston UK Academies Benchmark Report 2025 landed in inboxes. Headlines such as Academy trusts in deficit triple in three years and Trusts on verge of going bust, accountancy report claims duly followed throughout the day.

Many of the issues highlighted in the Kreston report mirrored those in our MAT Finance Sector Insight Report 2024, which will be repeated again this year. In our report, we noted that, sadly, painful cuts to education staff are seemingly inevitable to plug financial gaps. Decisions on staff cuts will, however, need to strike the delicate balance between optimal teacher levels and future financial sustainability without sacrificing the quality of education or a school’s ability to provide additional support to the children who need it.

These decisions are not taken lightly, we know that, but it shows the scale of the challenge facing the MAT sector, as fewer teachers and teaching assistants could mean bigger class sizes and less support for children with additional needs.

2. Warnings of further public finance headaches, especially around SEND funding

An opening presentation from Sam Freedman, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, saw him run through the main announcements from the 2024 spending review and look forward to the second phase due to be announced in the summer, which will cover 2026-28. Questions from the audience around the impact on trust reserves and the Academies budget forecast return, amongst other things, duly followed.

There followed a keynote on ‘Spending on special educational needs in England: Something has to change’, from Luke Sibieta, Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The headline was that the number of pupils with SEND has rocketed since 2018 – including a rapid 70% rise in EHCPs – and whilst funding for special needs is up 60% from 2015, spending is up even more due to a legal requirement to deliver.

With slightly faster rises in England of autism, mental health needs and ADHD compared to many high-income countries (and speech, language and communication more UK-specific than anywhere else), spending is currently forecast to rise to £8 billion in 2027-28 without reform or extra funding. The “most natural and government’s preferred solution”, Luke stated, is more provision in mainstream schools, but a big expansion in provision would require double-funding in the short run. Contrast this with the picture painted by the Kreston report.

3. How ICFP can enable objective staff planning, and improve trust finances

IMP Software Co-founder and CEO Will Jordan outlined the findings of our recent MAT CFO Insights Survey which reported the main reasons stopping trusts from implementing Trust-wide ICFP are “struggling to get buy-in from headteachers” and “the tools we use are clunky and therefore ICFP cannot be done effectively”.

Will shared common fears around ICFP, including that schools are not run by metrics and how benchmarks guide, but they do not dictate. He suggested focusing on the benefits that ICFP can bring, such as “enabling sustainability” and “funding the cool stuff”, and pointed to non-core ICFP metrics including whether class sizing reflects a deliberate (and effective) strategy, the use of non-specialist teaching and the proportionality of non-contact time. It also leads to “less snap decisions” in the medium term, he said.

Ebor Academy Trust, a 25-primary school trust in York, has experienced the benefits of ICFP (including the application of IMP ICFP). Finance Director Andrew Robinson detailed an all-headteachers meeting in June 2022 explaining that reserves had fallen to 4% and the Trust would run out of money in two years without intervention. He told delegates that full transparency on all school spending and reserve levels, including sight of a graph on staffing costs as a percentage of income for 2023-24, enabled a new way forward for the trust where schools must aim to “live within their means” each year.

Donna Bedford, Headteacher at Robert Wilkinson Academy, welcomed the new approach brought about by ICFP, how she appreciated the “honesty and transparency”, and it has helped her to “think more about the need than the want”.

We will be profiling our work with Ebor Academy Trust in the coming weeks. Watch this space!

4. Insights from IMP customers in the spotlight

It was great to see so many of our partner MATs sharing their experiences, which highlighted how strong educational leadership and teaching rely on an exceptional finance and operations team to deliver high-quality, inclusive education.

Among these, Paul Edmund (who himself recently contributed to a Heart Academies Trust Enhances Budgeting and Curriculum Planning with IMP ICFP case study) led a session on ‘Procurement with purpose’ reflecting how trusts can achieve value for money through sustainable, ethical, and responsible procurement practices. Subsequent interactive roundtable discussions explored what we buy, how we buy, and who we buy from.

Sarah Lovell, Chief Operating Officer at Cabot Learning Federation, opened the event and Joanne Dawson, Chief Operating Officer at Ormiston Academies, delivered a closing keynote. Jo reminded delegates on the need to ‘start with the why’, to inform every decision in a trust (or any organisation), and to always consider children first. Other insight sessions involved leaders from Plymouth CAST, Dixons Academy Trust, and Vanguard Learning Trust.

5. The quest for further MAT finance intelligence

Speaking to colleagues throughout the conference, the thirst for knowledge about all aspects of MAT finance was clear. Under-explored topics, such as the session with Benedicte Yue, Chief Financial Officer at River Learning Trust, on how an active trust investment strategy can support educational priorities, was another standing-room-only workshop on the day, which brought lots of questions from an engaged audience.

We are deeply committed to helping our customers achieve financial excellence, and to supporting the development of the sector more widely. You are welcome to download our whitepapers and join any of our forthcoming webinars:

• 18^th February: How to Streamline Your MAT Budgeting & Forecasting with IMP Planner
• 6^th March: Unveiling IMP Finance! A smarter approach to purchasing and accounting
• 12^th March: Ensure the effective deployment of resources across your trust with IMP ICFP
• 10^th April: MAT Budgeting 101: How to achieve a cohesive approach across your schools
• Watch back: Budget-Led Finance: The Future of MAT Financial Management is Coming