Financial Resilience: Key to Success in Multi-Academy Trusts

Financial resilience – the cornerstone of Academic Success in Multi-Academy Trusts

As school trusts navigate budget constraints, forward-thinking leaders are reimagining educational management, leveraging technology and commercial strategies to boost financial resilience and drive academic excellence.

This article covers:

• The critical link between financial resilience and improved academic attainment in MATs

• Strategies for developing a commercial mindset and achieving operational efficiency

• How integrated technology solutions are transforming trust management and freeing resources for education.

Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are facing unprecedented financial challenges in the ever-evolving landscape of British education. As these organisations navigate complex financial waters, a new breed of education leaders is emerging, blending pedagogical knowledge with business acumen. This shift represents more than just a change in personnel; it's a fundamental reimagining of how educational institutions can operate efficiently while prioritising student outcomes.

Stewart Mcluskey, Executive Director of Education at Civica, has observed this transformation firsthand. "MATs require new expertise to balance improved educational outcomes with fiscal efficiency," he explains. "We're seeing trusts explore innovative strategies to enhance their financial resilience, allowing them to invest more in frontline education."

Financial resilience is proving to be a critical enabler for improving academic attainment. By adopting commercial thought processes and operating models, MATs can lower operating costs, raise revenue, and save their teams valuable time, ultimately unlocking resources to improve academic outcomes.

Lord Jim Knight, Chair of E-ACT, a multi-academy trust educating around 20,000 pupils across almost 40 academies in England, emphasises this point. "Stronger finances offer more resources, time, and choice for leaders to empower academic outcomes. Developing a commercial mindset enables us to control financial outcomes more."

There is an urgent need for a proactive approach. "Funding is hard at the moment," Lord Knight explains. "We've been having to set budgets without knowing what 70% of that budget – people – will cost. So we're carrying a lot financial risk at a time when there's not enough money." This financial squeeze prompts a significant shift in how MATs deal with operations.

This approach is at the heart of Civica's mission. "We champion the vital role that schools and trusts play in our communities, enabling them to deliver successful operational transformations that result in more money for frontline education," says Mcluskey.

MATs require new expertise to balance improved educational outcomes with fiscal efficiency. "We're seeing trusts explore innovative income generation strategies – from running nursery provisions and uniform shops to renting out facilities for community use."

These innovative approaches are about more than just boosting the bottom line. They often provide valuable services to the broader community, creating a win-win scenario that exemplifies the potential of applying commercial thinking to the education sector.

Strategies for enhancing financial resilience

Several key strategies have been identified that successful MATs are employing to enhance their financial resilience. First, centralising functions like HR, finance, and procurement can achieve significant economies of scale.

Civica's integrated solutions, such as their financial management and HR systems, support this centralisation, providing a single source of truth across the entire trust.

Leveraging data analytics allows trusts to make more informed decisions. Civica's insights tools enable trusts to gain valuable perspectives on their operations, from financial performance to catering efficiency.

"The power of data cannot be overstated," Mcluskey says. "When trusts can see clearly where their money is going and what impact it's having, they can make much more strategic decisions about resource allocation."

Implementing cashless systems and efficient catering management can lead to significant savings. Civica's cashless and catering solutions streamline operations and provide valuable data on student eating habits, supporting targeted initiatives that can impact student wellbeing and concentration levels.

Indeed, effective people management is crucial for financial efficiency and educational outcomes. Civica's HR solutions provide a centralised and intuitive source of truth that enables MATs to maximise staff effectiveness and drive staff growth and retention for better continuity of teams.

Further, investing in the financial literacy of school leaders and governors is crucial. Civica supports this through its professional services team and ongoing support, ensuring that trust leaders can gain the most out of their technology investments.

Enhancing capacity and specialisation

Beyond financial resilience, MATs offer enhanced capacity and specialisation that individual schools might struggle to achieve independently. Lord Knight highlights the importance of this collective strength. "MATs provide specialist capacity in crucial areas such as attendance, safeguarding, and behaviour management," he says. "They also offer comprehensive support for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This level of specialised expertise is typically much harder for standalone schools to access or maintain."

This specialisation can lead to improved student outcomes. The latest government data offers a nuanced picture of MAT performance and highlights areas where financial resilience could potentially drive improvements.

In the 2021/22 academic year, 59% of pupils in MATs met the expected standards in reading, writing, and maths combined at the end of Key Stage 2. This compares to 60% in non-academy institutions and 63% in Single Academy Trusts (SATs). However, these overall figures mask important variations within the MAT sector.

MAT converter academies, for instance, saw 61% of pupils meeting the expected standard across all three subjects. In contrast, MAT-sponsored academies, which often face more challenging circumstances, achieved 54%. This disparity underscores the potential impact of targeted financial support and resource allocation within MATs.

Looking at individual subjects, MATs show competitive performance. In MATs overall, 74% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, 71% in maths, and 71% in writing.

The data suggests that MATs have the potential to close performance gaps and enhance overall academic achievement with strategic financial planning and investment in areas such as literacy and numeracy programmes, teaching resources, and staff development.

The technology enabler

Technology plays a crucial role in enabling this commercial approach. Integrated financial management systems are helping trusts navigate their digital transformation, providing a holistic view of operations and enabling data-driven decision-making.

This integration is part of a broader trend towards centralisation and efficiency in MATs. "Everyone has realised that you need to achieve a certain scale of operational efficiency, a certain number of schools in a MAT, to unlock the benefits," says Mcluskey.

Civica's integrated suite of solutions supports this trend by providing a platform for success. From financial management to catering, from HR to operational insights, these tools work together to support the complex needs of growing MATs.

Tech is helping in other ways – not least in the classroom. Some MATs are leveraging technology to drive both financial efficiency and educational outcomes. Lord Knight cites the example of the Truro and Penwith Academy in Cornwall, which has adopted an "every child an iPad" approach. "This initiative has dramatically reduced photocopying costs. It has also led to significant workload savings in marking and assessment. There are time savings at the beginning of lessons too, as there's no need to distribute worksheets, glue sticks, and pens. All these resources are now embedded in the iPad."

Reimagining the classroom

This approach streamlines operations and reimagines the classroom experience. Here, it pays to be bold, argues Lord Knight. "You have two choices: you can recreate the traditional classroom by adding technology and removing paper, making some savings along the way, or you can completely reimagine what a classroom should look like in the 21st century," he says.

However, Lord Knight acknowledges the challenges of such intensive technology approaches. "Implementing one-to-one devices is a significant undertaking. There's a substantial initial outlay that many schools can't afford on their own. While the costs can be recouped over time, and there are options like lease schemes, many schools have looked at the numbers and decided it's beyond their means."

This is where MATs' financial robustness can make a difference. They can potentially enable investments that individual schools might struggle to afford. The collective resources and economies of scale within a MAT can make such transformative technology initiatives more feasible and sustainable.

Lord Knight makes a compelling case for schools joining MATs, emphasising the enhanced capabilities and resources they can access. "By joining a MAT, schools can achieve far more than they could on their own," he posits. "It's not just about financial sustainability; it's about expanding our capacity to serve children effectively."

As MATs continue to grow and evolve, the link between financial resilience and academic success will likely become even more pronounced. By leveraging technology, developing commercial acumen, and focusing on operational efficiency, trusts can be well-positioned to provide high-quality education, regardless of financial challenges.