MAT Growth Audits
Trust Growth has become a key factor in the Academy world. MATs have grown, and are still growing, rapidly. The measurement of success of any education setting is, quite rightly, student outcomes. That is indeed what we are all here for.
There are, however, too few ways to check the overall health of the trust. Sadly, issues usually only come to light when it is too late and problems have become apparent.
Our MAT Growth Audit has been established to act as an overall health check on a trust. Using a mix of educationalists, School Improvement Partners, Education Advisers, finance and back office support practitioners, Governors and NLG’s, the audit assesses five critical areas of an organisation, and answers one key question: Is the trust ready and robust enough to welcome more schools into their family?
The benefits go far beyond helping your organisation to avoid pitfalls and strengthen the offer. Previous audits have provided RDs with information to enable them to broker negotiations with other schools or MATs, and trusts have provided their findings to schools that are interested in joining them to show their capacity and capability to lead school improvement at every level.
In short, a MAT Growth Audit can help rubber stamp your trust’s ambitions.
The process is straightforward and simple. The scope of the project is defined with an initial meeting with CEO and Trustees.
A timetable is set, work undertaken and then a draft report issued to Trustees for comment before a final version is produced.
Costs are dependent on the size of MAT and the agreed activities to be undertaken.
When we started on our MAT journey Jeff’s company came up in our research. They had testimonials from other trusts in our area and from people I knew and respected. After making contact with Jeff, back in November 2019, and up until the present day, I cannot speak highly enough of the service he and his team have provided. Jeff has supported us, challenged the DfE on our behalf, assisted us in jumping through numerous hoops, used his nationwide contacts to ensure we were best placed for conversion and has become a personal friend and guide to me and our chair of trustees. Jeff and his team worked with us for over two years before we paid anything to his company for the services provided. That spoke volumes! Jeff went out of his way to find out whether our Trust was eligible for TCaF funding, and when we were, provided support and guidance leading to the Trust receiving a significant sum to develop central functions. This was beyond the remit of the conversion contract and there was no charge for this. We have been so impressed by his team’s work that we have commissioned Trust and LGB audits from him, along with a growth audit and CEO training course. All of these have been of high quality and helped the Trust develop further. I would be happy to speak to anyone considering using J&G Marshall to tell them of our experience which was first class and definitely value for money.
Steve Campbell, CEO, LET Education Trust