Thomas Fellows
National Governance Association
Thomas is a research and information officer at the National Governance Association (NGA), the representative body for state-funded school governors and trustees throughout England. He leads on NGA research-based projects, with some of his outputs including work around Ofsted local authority school improvement inspections and executive headteachers. He is currently working on projects around headteacher recruitment, headteacher performance appraisal and multi-academy trust case-studies. Tom is also part of the wider policy and information team at the NGA and leads on secondary assessment, Prevent and sixth-forms. Before joining the NGA, Tom achieved a first class degree in History and Politics from the University of Lancaster. He has recently achieved a distinction in a research methods MA from the University of Birmingham.
With the number of multi-academy trusts (MATs) increasing significantly over the last few years, academics and policy makers have needed to respond quickly to changes across the education sector. However, while there has been... [ view full abstract ]
With the number of multi-academy trusts (MATs) increasing significantly over the last few years, academics and policy makers have needed to respond quickly to changes across the education sector. However, while there has been a particular focus on what makes MATs “effective” (NCTL, 2014), there has been little research exploring the diverse challenges and obstacles that new MATs face and how these can be overcome.
This project involves writing up contrasting case studies of MATs who are willing to share ‘lessons learnt’ so far in their journey from ‘single school’ to where they are now. The aim is to highlight common problems that MATs need to solve at an early stage, how these can be approached and how this links with the wider MAT vision. This research is not only of interest to academics and policy makers, but has a practical importance for those schools forming or joining a MAT that are seeking to learn from those who have gone before.
In each case, the aim is to answer four key questions:
- How and why was the trust formed?
- What is the trusts vision and strategy and what issues has it already (or is attempting) to solve?
- How is governance approached within the trust (including the overall governance structure, how this links to the executive role, levels of delegation and lines of accountability)?
- What are the key learning points you would share with other MATs and what can others learn from your experiences?
As a minimum, the lead executive, the chair of trustees and a local academy committee chair (where applicable) is subject to an in-depth interview for each case. Furthermore, a trust’s scheme of delegation, articles of association, website, terms of reference and funding agreement are also reviewed. Robust ethical procedures are integral to all stages of the project, built around the duty to collect informed consent and protect each organisation from reputational harm.
The research team has currently completed a dataset for one case-study. Here the MAT shared a range of learning points, including the need to think about communication between different governance layers and insights into how the role of the lead executive changes as the trust expands. Data collection for another case will begin in January 2018. At least four cases will be completed by July 2018.
References
NCTL. Governance in multi-academy trusts. DfE: London. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-in-multi-academy-trusts.
