How to scale your MAT sustainably

How to scale your MAT sustainably

For a while now, the government has been debating the best way to help MATs grow. On the one hand, Sir David Carter (the National Schools Commissioner) thinks 1,000 new multi-academy trusts will be needed by 2020, comprised of both new MATs forming and many smaller MATs expanding into double figures. On the other hand, there are concerns that if MATs grow too quickly it can become harder for them to maintain consistent quality across not only school performance, but financial management, operations, and team processes (especially when they are spread over large regional areas).

This leaves MATs in a tricky place, with some being pressured to grow and take on more schools, whilst others are scaling back to focus on quality of provision. There have been various reports by the Department for Education (such as this one looking at the expansion & performance of MATs), and external bodies like the Education Policy Institute (such as this one on the economic benefits of growing a MAT) to help provide guidance, as well as DfE initiatives like the “Expanding your academy trust” toolkit and the new MAT health checks programme which is being piloted as a method to help MATs achieve “sustainable growth.”

Whilst the debate continues, one of the best ways for MATs to seek guidance remains sharing best practice, advice & guidance with other MAT CEOs and Senior Leaders. With this in mind, we are launching the first in a new series of free MAT conferences this week: “Scaling your MAT Sustainably: Centralisation vs. School Autonomy.”

Together with our partner PS Financials, we’re bringing together education, business and industry leaders to share their own stories about how they’ve scaled their strategy, operations, central team processes, systems, reporting & governance. Our aim is for everyone attending to leave with a series of relevant, practical and implementable steps to take back to their MAT to help them grow sustainably.

Speakers include leaders from the Elliot Foundation, United Learning, and the Mulberry Schools Trust, and there will be plenty of opportunities to network and meet like-minded MATs during the day too.

Click here to sign up for your free ticket: https://scaling-your-MAT.eventbrite.com

Can’t make it? Not to worry! We’ll be sharing recordings of the talks as well as presentations from the speakers on our blog after the conference, so check back here soon. You can also email us at tellmemore@arbor-education.com to let us know if you’d like to attend similar events in future.

Hope to see you there!

Full programme for the day:

Agenda

10.00-10.20: Introduction: How scaling strategies vary by degree of MAT centralisation vs school autonomy

James Weatherill (CEO at Arbor Education)

James will illustrate how scaling strategies vary by the size/complexity of your MAT, as well as the level of autonomy vs centralisation you desire for your schools

10.20-11.00: Strategies for scaling sustainably

Hugh Greenway (CEO at The Elliot Foundation)

Hugh will highlight the pressures and pitfalls to scaling, as well as different strategies to plan for and manage this growth

11.00-11.30: How and when to standardise systems

Dominic Norrish (Group Director of Technology at United Learning)

Dominic will speak about his experience in centralising systems, including when and why you need to standardise and how to manage school expectations

11.45-12.15: Refreshments (biscuits, tea and coffee)

12.15-12.45: Scaling culture and maintaining your sense of identity as you grow

Vanessa Ogden (CEO, Mulberry Schools Trust)

Vanessa Ogden will discuss ways you can maintain a cohesive set of values and identity for the MAT, whilst allowing schools to express their individuality

12.45-1.20: Building out your MAT operating model and central team functions

Chris Kirk (ex Partner for Education PwC, GEMS, DfE)

Chris will explore the 5 different stages of MAT growth, including how this affects your choice of management processes, central team structure and systems choice

1.20-2.10: Lunch

2.10-2.40: Utilisation of analytics and centralisation to drive financial health and efficiency

Will Jordan (Education Sector Manager at PS Financials)

Will demonstrates how you can centralise HR, finance and education reporting at scale, producing dashboards for your staff and board to make quicker, better decisions, without all the manual data drops

2.40-3.10: How to procure effectively to achieve economies of scale

John Leonard (Independent Consultant)

John will walk you through his guide and toolkit for how MATs can procure more effectively to achieve savings, whilst reducing the admin burden of big tenders

3.10-3.50: Governance structures that scale

Sarah Pittam (Consultant, Adviser and Project Manager in Education & Associate of Cambridge Education)

Sarah combines top-tier business consulting and education experience to show how different governance structures and processes can scale effectively as your MAT grows

3.50 – 4.00: Final refreshments