Earlier this year, a significant milestone was marked in the education system, with the majority of England’s 8.6 million pupils – 56% – now being educated by schools run by trusts.
The tipping point was highlighted by the Confederation of School Trusts in its third annual National School Trust Report – a document containing a range of research insights into challenges – and opportunities – for trust leaders.
The report’s findings confirmed our fears in many areas. For the first time, CEOs put financial sustainability at the top of their strategic priorities for the 2024-25 academic year.
Budget was also cited as the key barrier to them reaching their priorities, closely followed by SEND provision challenges.
One of the most interesting – and encouraging – insights came in the area of flexible working, with most CEOs (67%) reporting that their trust is offering flexible working options for teachers and support staff, such as remote working, term-time leave, flexible hours, or similar. Just 17% of CEOs reported not having any options for flexible working.
It’s clear from this that trusts are acutely aware of the challenges the sector faces in recruitment, retention and wellbeing and are trying hard to accommodate flexible working with different, non-traditional approaches to working arrangements for teachers and support staff. This chimes strongly with me as Supporting Education Group has been emphasising new approaches with the sector for the past 12 months and I’ll continue that focus as we go into 2025 and beyond.
The CST’s second paper of the autumn seeks to emphasise the positive role trusts can play in helping the new government achieve its ambitions for the education system.
The paper, An enduring shared mission: The contribution of school trusts to the opportunity mission, sets out exactly how trusts can play that role, especially in areas such as giving children the best start in life, driving up educational performance and opportunity for all pupils, meeting SEND challenges and recruiting and retaining world class teachers.
On the latter, the paper points to evidence that our workforce is not in as good shape as it might be, highlighting Education Support’s Teacher wellbeing index, which stated that 78% of all education staff report being stressed – rising to 89% of all leaders and 95% of headteachers, with 36% of teachers experiencing burnout.
The paper refers to the Education Endowment Foundation’s rapid evidence review, which suggests there were three interrelated leadership approaches that contribute to staff retention and quality: investing in teachers’ knowledge and skills, building high quality, respectful relationships with colleagues, and improving working conditions.
Everyone in our sector will, I’m sure, agree that those are commendable and achievable approaches, and Supporting Education Group has an important part to play in supporting trusts in these and other important areas over the coming months and years. Indeed, I’ll be discussing many of the themes covered here at next month’s CST Conference, when I’ll deliver a workshop on future fit workplaces with Pioneer Trust CEO Antonia Spinks.