The second annual MAT Leaders survey shines a light on the current educational landscape. Strictly Education’s Barry Smith reveals the multiple challenges MATs are now tackling
Tightening budgets, recruitment and retention, people management and development and pupil attendance are just some of the issues MATs face today, according to our second annual MAT Leaders Survey. The top three challenges for the future were staff workload and stress, education funding and staff recruitment – unchanged from our 2022 survey.
Education funding appears to be a bigger worry for leaders from MATs when compared to those from SATs, with 80% of MAT participants mentioning funding as opposed to 69% of SATs. Stress is an ever-present issue for most of our respondents: 85% were stressed at work to some degree (46% sometimes, 21% usually, 8% always), with stress more prevalent in MATs than SATs.
Pay is the key to staff recruitment and retention, according to our survey, with 88% agreeing that it had an impact. The survey revealed that 40% of schools and trusts did not have a people strategy or written people plan in place, increasing to 49% of all MATs and SATs.
The vast majority of respondents had implemented energy efficiency measures which had had a positive impact on the overall budget and resources.HR, financial and budget management and reporting take up most time of leaders’ time.
We discussed these and other findings with an expert panel of MAT leaders. With balancing the budget, a top priority for leaders according to our survey it was unsurprising that the topic was front of mind for our panel members.
Nicola Johnson, director of HR at Prince Albert Community Trust in Birmingham, said that tight financial management shouldn’t compromise core priorities. “As a sector, it can often be that when we look at cost savings we want to squeeze as much as we can out of people, but we can’t lose sight of the basics and wellbeing support and mental health support still needs to be in place,” she said.
“I think another really important thing is to have a solid reserves and investment policy and that’s backed up in our trust by a strong reporting and analytical focus on cash flow so that we can ensure we’ve got the best balance of returns,” said Claire Pritchard, CEO of Broadleaf Partnership Trust in Sutton Coldfield.
“We have the cost of living and pupil numbers may not always grow,” said Canon Peter Bruinvels, governor at Priory Church of England Secondary School, Dorking. “There’s also going to be a demand, I think, from the private education sector with a lot of parents no longer able to afford to keep their children in those schools so they’ll be coming across to the state sector.”
Values and ethos are key to recruiting and retaining employees, said Nicola Johnson. “All of our schools are in the inner city, and we serve communities that have high levels of deprivation. That is part of our attraction to some people, especially if they come from those communities or if they have served those communities in other job roles…but I do realise that we can’t just rely on this and that we need to do more.”
Competition from other, more flexible sectors has made recruitment harder in recent years, said Claire Pritchard. “We are doubling down on our efforts to find the right people. We are really looking hard at our job adverts and making sure that they’re authentic, illustrating our culture right from the outset and the value that employees will get when they join us.”
At Nicola Johnson’s trust 80% of its leadership started their teaching careers in the trust’s schools. “We’ve set out clear career pathways, identifying people early on that we know are going to be good leaders, and then supporting them through that,” she said.
Regular staff surveys will help MATs keep a close watch on issues such as job satisfaction, morale and stress, said Peter Bruinvels. “I’m a service chaplain, so I offer pastoral care to the staff as well and we’ve embedded this in our policies. We need to show that we appreciate them. And the headteachers need to work closely with the staff.”
The real challenge for all schools and MATs is to meet staff demands for a better work-life balance. “We have developed an employee assistance programme, but people want that flexible working,” Peter Bruinvels added. “We do grant more flexible working requests than ever before, but we need to move away from just being reactive and find creative, proactive ways of making their work life balance better.”
Pupil attendance is another priority for MAT and school leaders highlighted by our survey. For Claire Pritchard, having effective systems for tracking pupil attendance were key. “Having the right information and the right team and a qualified attendance team who can focus on analysing that data will make a big difference,” she said.
“The next step for us is treating each case individually. There is the DfE’s attendance guidance but there is a danger that people see this as the blueprint when each child’s story, each parent’s circumstances, are very different. What’s made the biggest difference for us is engaging with the parents early.”
Barry Smith is head of Business Development at Strictly Education, which helps school leaders run their schools more efficiently. Providing hands-on operational support, advice and guidance to more than 2,000 schools and 180 MATs. www.strictlyeducation.co.uk.
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