There is a real challenge facing multi-academy trusts, big and small, in developing a smarter approach to their budgets to keep up with the trajectory laid out by the Schools White Paper. Whilst this has been a persistent topic in the sector, recent economic circumstances have brought it into sharper focus.
The Schools White Paper, which suggests that schools should become part of a MAT by 2030, presented a definition of a “strong trust” that revolves around high quality and inclusive education, school improvement, strategic governance, financial management, and workforce.
However, the desired outcome of the White Paper is shrouded in uncertainty in terms of the sector’s ability to meet the 2030 timeframe. At the time of writing, this is still the political trajectory, though we now know that the Schools Bill will not progress in its proposed form. But the immediacy of rising costs, energy prices and part-funded pay increases means our value as a sector partner has also been helping MATs to quickly understand the scale of changes in a difficult operating environment.
Improving financial management
Financial management is our area of expertise at IMP Software. And its emphasis in the White Paper has subsequently initiated discourse on centralising functions, GAG pooling, and top slice mechanisms as tools to support effective and efficient operations in trusts.
Trusts are under more pressure than ever to adopt smarter MAT financial management and consider the impact of their chosen operating model on their attractiveness to new schools as they seek to grow.
Introducing our new insight report
We have been working with MAT leaders to produce a report detailing how trusts are dealing with the issues outlined above. Our objective with this report is to convene a range of perspectives on the challenges facing trusts, and document how their approaches are working in practice. What we present is a combination of insight and experience. Our position is not to argue for or against centralising functions or GAG pooling – there is no right answer, and no one-size-fits-all approach.
In our work with 200+ MATs, we have lots of interaction with trusts who are all doing things differently. But our budgeting and forecasting software is designed to support whatever approach they wish to take. The common factor is that degrees of ambition to centralise always lie with a trust’s organisational strategy.
We hope that readers of our report will digest all of this – what they could do and how they could do it – in line with knowledge of their own trust’s strategic plan, vision and values.
In terms of the White Paper objectives, the baton has now been passed on to the sector. The general direction is set out, and only “strong trusts” will remain come 2030.
