Big-picture thinking shared the limelight with practical advice about the challenges facing the education sector at the Schools and Academies Show (SAAS).
Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell declared that education had been put “back at the forefront of national life”, while other speakers addressed the financial and practical demands being placed on schools in the immediate future.
The event, at Birmingham’s NEC, featured a keynote session with Max Whitlock, Britain’s most successful gymnast and the winner of three Olympic gold medals. He spoke of the life lessons that school sport could teach, which last “as you get older and move into working life”. And if those life lessons include resilience, that’s a quality that school leaders might need in turbulent times for the sector.
iplicit was at the show to demonstrate our award-winning accounting software for multi-academy trusts and to take away some of the talking points for MATs.
Catherine McKinnell addressed last year’s Schools and Academies Show as an opposition spokesperson but was speaking as Schools Minister this time.
She repeated her vision of an education system where every child thrives.
“We’re a mission-based government. For education, our key mission is to break down the barriers to opportunity so every child can have the best start in life,” she said.
She said the recent budget had been about “fixing the foundations”, including providing the funding for 6,500 more teachers.
“It put education back at the forefront of national life with a £2.3bn increase to the core schools budget next year. That included almost £1bn for those with complex needs – the first step to much needed reforms of the SEND system,” she said.
She didn’t address school and trust structures directly but did say: “We’re not here to rip up the rule book and impose new ideas from Westminster.
“We want to support school leaders to find and share what’s working and fix what isn’t,” the minister added.
“But none of this will be easy because we find ourselves in an extraordinary financial position as an incoming government at a time of crumbling schools, poor attendance and disillusioned teachers leaving in droves. School staff lack that sense of belonging too, wearied by their workload and the need to help their poorest pupils to access basic necessities.”
We know the government doesn’t intend to change school systems for the sake of it – and that it has promised only to concern itself with what works for pupils.
But in his opening remarks, Stephen Morales, CEO of the Institute of School Business Leadership, said school leaders “would welcome more clarity on the broad direction of travel”.
It would be good to know what the “language of system-agnostic, structure-agnostic” means, and what an expanded role for local authorities might involve, he said.
“What does that really mean? What does that really look like? What are the timescales?” he asked.
While the future role of MATs was not in the minister’s speech, it was discussed a good deal elsewhere.
A panel discussion called The Trials and Tribulations of Trust Expansion saw guests divided on whether all schools would eventually end up in MATs.
Jodh Dhesi, CEO of the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham, said there had been a drop in interest among schools in joining MATs when the Conservative government abandoned plans to make it compulsory.
“We’re pleased the Secretary of State has said she’s not interested in structural change. What we’re not finding at the moment is that expansion of interest that we had previously,” he said.
Andrew Warren, the Department for Education’s Regional Director for the West Midlands Regions Group, indicated that the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, accepts the role of MATs.
“She’s talked about the real importance of academy trusts,” he said.
What’s important to the Education Secretary, he said, is that schools, “whatever the structure, whatever hat they’re wearing”, are working to help pupils achieve and thrive.
“In the West Midlands, 60% of our schools are in academy trusts. They have to play an important part; they will play an important part. The Secretary of State acknowledges that but is also convinced that, as an important part of the structure, they will have to play their role and she’s looking forward to working with them to do that.”
Zoe Carr, CEO of WISE Academies, did not sense a threat to MATs in the current climate.
“What we’re seeing in the North East area is schools have been encouraged to become academies because the local authority structure has really been decimated,” she said.
The panel also challenged any notion that large MATs are remote, top-down organisations. The speakers stressed the importance of delegating to local governors where appropriate.
Jodh Dhesi said there was no question of all schools in his MAT studying the same lessons from the same textbooks on the same days. “There are certain things, as an employer, that have to be the same. However, we operate in the City of Birmingham and the City of Birmingham is a hugely diverse city. Our executive and our trust board would not think it’s important for us to be standardising every aspect of the curriculum and school life,” he said.
Stephen Steinhaus, CEO of Solihull Alternative Provision Multi-Academy Trust, said: “The structure we have in place is less protocol- and paperwork-driven and more of a mindset.
“Everything must constantly be reviewed. Everything is up for review in terms of ‘Is this fit for purpose now?’”
Life in education will continue to be challenging, even with the extra money announced in the budget.
An event called Money Talks: Prioritising Education Funding and Provision, heard Emma Balchin, Chief Executive of the National Governance Association, say only 19% of its members feel confident their organisations were sustainable in the medium to longer-term.
“Sixty per cent of boards tell us that balancing their budget is their top challenge,” she said.
Luke Sibieta, Programme Director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said funding per pupil was only just getting back to 2010 levels in real terms. But most of the increase in core funding would be devoted to tackling demand from the rapidly rising number of pupils with higher needs.
Emma Balchin said trusts need to ensure their governing boards are adequately skilled – including aptitude at finance and “thinking outside the box”.
“One of the skills we really need right now is imagination,” she said.
“Do really draw on your expertise on your board and develop your board if you don’t think you’ve got the expertise there. There’s never been a more important time to have that diverse range of perspectives you can lean on.”
When it comes to structures, Neil Short, Chairman of the National Association of Small Schools, called for a MAT-type structure for small schools. He said many MATs did not see such schools as viable.
“In the present system, imagination seems to be sadly lacking,” he said.
“Most small schools are outside MATs. It seems to me that what we ought to be looking at is trying to form small schools into some form of MAT structure where they could collaborate within an area, within a district, within a region.
“That might need a little bit of pump priming to get the structures in place but hopefully after that they would be self-sustaining.”
With school finances under such pressure, a session called How To Manage Your School’s Finances on Limited Resources looked at the situation no leader wants to deal with – a budget deficit.
Chris Christoforou, CFO of Excelsior Multi-Academy Trust, said finance leaders need quality finance information to spot a looming deficit – and they need to communicate effectively with the leadership team.
“It’s about acting then, before it’s too late, because before you know it, the year’s gone,” he said.
He urged people to analyse where the biggest overspends are – with the likely areas including:
Areas to examine for savings included:
Clare Skinner, Business Manager at Kings Norton Girls’ School, said: “This is not your problem as a school business professional. This is everybody’s problem in the school and therefore everybody has to take ownership.”
She urged finance leaders to make the most of peer support, local networks and other support programmes. And she said it is important to listen to staff in schools, as some will have good suggestions for saving money.
Schools should also be diligent in collecting debts. “We’re very nice in education. We’re all lovely people and we don’t necessarily chase money we’re owed,” she said.
She said it is vital that finance people are involved in top-level discussions. “If you’re not, as a school business professional, part of your senior leadership team, that needs to change in these circumstances,” she said.
People in education are used to processing a daunting amount of information from government, regulators and their peers.
SAAS will have been a rare chance to get above the incoming stuff-to-do and think more broadly. And there were plenty of signals that MATs will have a vital role to play in harnessing the nation’s resources to give children the best possible start in life.
iplicit for Education is tailored to the needs of multi-academy trusts. Find out more about how iplicit helps MATs to thrive and grow.