As a former CFO in a multi-academy trust, I know first-hand how difficult it can be to judge whether your finances are in good shape and if resources available are deployed in the areas that matter the most. I often had to rely on instinct, experience, or patchy data. Were we spending too much on support staff? Was our curriculum affordable in the long term? Were our reserves healthy enough? The answers were rarely clear.
That is why I believe in the value of IMP’s new personalised benchmarking report. It provides a supporting framework I always wanted but could not access at the time. By drawing on consistent and comparable data across hundreds of MATs, it gives you insights that are tailored to your Trust and grounded in sector-wide reality.
The report provides a clear picture of how your Trust and schools compare with their peers, drawing on consistent and comparable data from across the sector. It turns instinct into insight and equips leaders to make more confident decisions.
To show the difference a personalised benchmarking report can make, here we take a look at the financial questions it helps to answer, from staffing and curriculum to central services and reserves.
Benchmarking your staffing profile
Staffing is the biggest cost for every Trust and the area most often questioned by boards and governors. Without reliable benchmarks, it is difficult to know whether pupil–teacher ratios, support staff levels, or pay assumptions are proportionate.
The report provides that clarity.
It allows you to see how your staffing profile compares with others of a similar size and context, either reassuring you that you are in line or giving you the evidence to consider change.
Balancing curriculum and finances
One of the hardest tasks for MAT leaders is ensuring the curriculum remains both effective and affordable. Without sector comparisons, it can be difficult to prove that a model is sustainable in the medium term. Benchmarking shows how your curriculum spend compares with peers, giving you confidence that the balance between educational outcomes and financial health is right.
Strengthening resilience with income and reserves
Reserves and income mix are crucial for long-term stability. Yet it is difficult to judge whether a Trust is holding the right level of reserves or is too reliant on specific funding streams without comparison. Benchmarking income and reserves against peers provides an early warning system for resilience planning and helps leaders make informed strategic choices. Likewise, it identifies areas of opportunity where others are generating funds through means other than general grant funding.
Uncovering risks and opportunities
Often, it is the smaller anomalies that reveal the biggest insights. The benchmarking report highlights areas where spending is higher or lower than sector averages. Every Trust has its own context, but these markers provide a valuable starting point for review.
Leaders who have used IMP’s benchmarking report say they uncover risks and opportunities that would otherwise remain hidden.
How Trusts are using their reports
- Trusts using personalised benchmarking reports are already seeing benefits. They are using the insights to:
- Strengthen governance conversations with independent evidence
- Bring finance and curriculum leaders together around a shared picture
- Provide reassurance that performance is in line with peers
- Highlight risks and opportunities across staffing, curriculum, and central services
Making Sense of Data Through Context
Context is everything when interpreting benchmarking data. No two Trusts or schools operate in the same environment, so differences in the numbers often reflect genuine variations in context rather than inefficiency or poor decision-making. Our approach groups schools by type, size, region, and levels of deprivation to make comparisons fairer and more meaningful, but it does not replace professional judgement. Benchmarking highlights where things look different; the real value comes from exploring why and deciding whether action is needed
Getting the most from your benchmarking report
Taking part in the benchmarking exercise gives your Trust a personalised view of how you compare with peers while contributing to a dataset that grows in value each year. The insights are powerful for your own strategy, but their real strength comes from building a shared picture across the sector. As more Trusts join in, the comparisons become richer and the evidence base stronger, helping every leader make more confident, forward-looking decisions.
Why personalised benchmarking is only possible with IMP
With more than 550 Trusts and 6,000 schools now using IMP, we are able to create a dataset that has never existed before in the sector. In the past, benchmarking often felt too broad or unreliable because the underlying data was inconsistent. IMP’s MAT-first platform changes that. By bringing together consistent, comparable information from across a growing community of Trusts, it makes meaningful benchmarking possible for the first time. This is what allows the personalised report to not only show where you stand today but also give a forward-looking view that helps shape your decisions for the future.
Turning insight into confident decisions
A personalised benchmarking report does more than show where an individual Trust stands today. It contributes to a wider picture of how multi-academy Trusts across the country are managing staffing, curriculum, central services and reserves. That shared insight is shaping the future of MAT finance. By taking part, Trusts gain the evidence they need to challenge assumptions, strengthen strategy and lead with confidence, while also helping to build a clearer understanding for the sector as a whole.
See what benchmarking could do for your Trust
If you would like to understand how your Trust compares and play a part in building the most comprehensive picture of MAT finance in the sector, speak to our team today. By joining more than 550 Trusts already contributing their data, you will gain personalised insights for your own strategy while helping shape a stronger, evidence-based future for every MAT.
