In May the government announced its ambition to academise all schools by 2030. Since then, literature based on how to create or sustain an academy has been circulating within the industry. Steve Rollet, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Confederation of Schools Trusts (CST), wrote a piece on 'Understanding what makes as strong academy trust' Rollet pointed out that “each of us have our own experiences, views and biases about what we think a strong Trust looks like”. It is important for schools, when embarking on this journey, to take into consideration the schools’ location, the organisational culture, and most importantly the pupils who attend these schools.
These aspects, and extensive considerations not mentioned above, contribute to the building of an academy trust. However, as stated by Rollet in his piece on “Understanding what makes a Strong Academy Trust”, there must be a consensus on the key characteristics that make a successful academy trust. This consensus is important if schools are to follow the Department of Education’s (DfE) guidance which states that building a strong academy trust is reliant on a central operational model.
As a result, the CST published a discussion paper highlighting five key priorities that schools must focus on to ensure a successful academy trust. The five key areas are:
- Expert governance
- Quality education
- Efficiency and effectiveness: Finance, sustainability and compliance
- Workforce development and well being
- Public benefit and civic duty
For more information on the discussion paper click here.
If a trust is to ensure a central model of operations, having an online solution to manage school services is very important.
Having an online solution should be a key priority for academy trusts.
Whilst reading through the CST’s discussion paper and their National CST School Trust report published in June 2022, the importance of having an online solution to manage trust services and ensure a centralised operational model is not mentioned. Digitalising back-office processes is an integral part of the DfE’s guidance and if it is not seen as a key priority, it definitely fits in all, if not most, of the key priorities above. As a result of this, it is the purpose of this blog to propose that having an efficient online solution that manages all school services is part of each key priority but more specifically having "Efficient and Effective operations: Finance, sustainability, and compliance”
The ‘National Confederation of School Trust Report (June 2022) defines effective and efficient operations as:
- Trust effectiveness – obtaining the best educational outcomes
- Trust efficiency – obtaining the best possible outcomes for the resources available
The National CST School Trust report states that a centralised operational model results in efficient and effective operations, including but not limited to; financial operations, compliance, and overall trust sustainability. It also asserts that centralised processes and back-office functions are effective and efficient because schools can then concentrate on teaching and knowledge building. As a result, a school can achieve the best possible outcomes for its pupils by centralising its resources.
The best way to centralise trust resources is through digitalising back-office functions. Using an efficient online solution that manages school services such as school dinners, extended school services like breakfast and afterschool clubs, holiday clubs and classes, parents’ evenings, and school trips, contributes to effective and efficient operations as a key priority. It allows you to access a central overview of the aforementioned services, including financial reports, from one online platform. An online solution reduces time spent on administrative work, like curating registers and children’s medical data for these services, by up to 85%. Trusts are also able to adopt an effective and efficient way of communication which allows all the schools within the trust to achieve the consensus mentioned by Rollet above.
Online solutions also contribute to key priorities such as workforce development and well-being as it is well-known that back-office staff are constantly inundated with extensive manual processes that adversely affect their outlook on their job roles. Another area that the National CST School Trust report fails to include is the contribution that extended school services make to “Quality education”. Most education literature fails to include the impact that extended school services, such as breakfast and after-school clubs make on child development and quality education. Therefore, ensuring that these services are run efficiently through a centralised digital platform enables all schools in the trust are receiving a quality education.
Although digitalising school services can contribute to the aforementioned key priorities, this should be seen as a separate key priority area for academy trusts. If a trust is to ensure a central model of operations, having an online solution to manage school services is very important. Highlighting this as its own key priority guarantees that trusts include adopting an efficient and effective online solution in their yearly strategic planning, making it an essential part of the delivery of education.
How magicbookingcan help you become a strong academy trust
The magicbooking online solution is the one-stop shop for schools and clubs. It automates all bookings payments, communications, and administration from one online platform. Our easy-to-use online system offers a central overview that allows you to keep track of all financial and administrative tasks from all settings.
Our system was built to ensure that schools and academy trusts run effectively and efficiently by freeing up the time it takes to manually run school services. With magicbooking trusts can take full control of all bookings, payments, and communications from one single log-in. With our online solution trusts can control notice periods, available spaces, and the date range of the services available for all trust settings. Our volume discount, which is applied when you join with more than one setting, helps to ease the financial burden that trusts have to deal with.
For more on how magicbooking can help you meet the aforementioned key priority areas, contact us here.