Labour’s Educational Vision: Preparing MAT boards for change, part 1

With the growth of Multi-Academy Trusts, what is expected of our boards, and what impact will a labour government have?

In 2020, the Conservative government released its Schools White Paper, “Opportunity for All: Strong Schools with Great Teachers for Your Child“. This paper outlined the drive for all schools to join a multi-academy trust (MAT) or plan to do so by 2030. We are continuing to see multi-academy trusts growing and our sector changing. With a new Labour government, the conversation remains prevalent across schools, leadership teams, and boards nationally.

As times change, so must we.

With an increase in MAT mergers and the new Labour government promising 6,500 new teachers, we expect significant changes across our sector. With over 1,400 MATs, whether you are one of the smallest or largest, your non-executive body needs to be equipped with the right skills, diversity of thought, and motivation to ensure your future success.

The new Labour government has committed to improving education in various ways, including bringing multi-academy trusts into the inspection system, investing in professional development, and focusing on SEND, inclusion, mental health, curriculum, and assessment. Whilst this is only a short summary of some of Labour’s plans, and no specific changes have been implemented, your board needs to start planning for change to ensure improved outcomes and success for your organisation.

There continues to be a diverse range of challenges across the education sector, and as the recognition of the board’s influence increases, so does its accountability. The recognition and influence a trust board can have are becoming increasingly acknowledged, and so is the pressure for accomplished, successful, and strategic individuals to join these boards as governors, trustees, and members.

The challenge is to successfully recruit these exceptional individuals to join education boards during a period of change. In the 2024 NGA governance annual review, 76% of respondents recognised this challenge, reporting that recruiting governors and trustees is one of their main challenges.

With a breadth of successful appointments across schools, MATs, FE, and HE, Peridot Partners can help you overcome this challenge. We are board recruitment specialists for organisations that demonstrate social impact, and our clients are purposeful organisations making change in the education, charity, and health and social care sectors.

Board Recruitment Challenges

A range of challenges can impact the successful recruitment and retention of exceptional trustees and governors on MAT boards, and the ultimate success of a board and effective trust-wide governance.

Diversity

When asking boards how they currently look to recruit new governors, it is often ‘through their board’s existing network’. So, it is no surprise that our boards do not fully reflect the demographic their schools serve, and increasing diversity on boards remains a challenge.

With only 9% of governors under 40 and only 1% reporting under 30 (a statistic that hasn’t changed since 2015), young adults continue to be underrepresented in this field. Coupled with 95% of respondents identifying as white, ethnic diversity also continues to be underrepresented, and both, along with other areas of diversity, must be addressed in order to create a board that encapsulates all thoughts, skills, knowledge, expertise and understanding.

Thinking locally and only locally

Traditionally, governing boards are comprised of local individuals looking to give back to the community they have either grown up or live in. This model has been effective as the governors know their area and truly understand the cultures that their local schools (should) embody. However, as the MAT landscape sees Trusts expanding across regions, it’s becoming important that our boards look to draw on expertise from across the country.

In the post-Covid world, it is easy and beneficial to meet people no matter where they are. Boards need individuals to challenge local ways of working, seek alternatives, and collaborate with leaders to find the best solutions to their problems. Diverse trust boards that are ‘blended’ in composition are proving to be more effective and are a model that more and more MATs should and will follow in years to come.

Outdated Skills Auditing

Often, a board will conduct a skills audit to identify gaps in expertise in their board, but with an ever-increasing need for diversity of skills, knowledge, developing strategy, and variety of expertise, how do we meet all those needs?

Without broad and diverse knowledge and experience, MAT’s risk ‘mission drift’ as their attention is drawn to growth and the challenge of acquisition or merger. Without the right skills on the board at the right stage of a trust’s strategic journey, boards can lack purpose and punctuality in their meetings. Boards must continue to evaluate their existing skillsets against their strategy and direction of travel to continue to find the right people for their board.

We hope this will have sparked a discussion with your board, networks, and colleagues about the importance and impact of your board, how you recruit to your boards, and how future government plans may start to impact your organisation.

We have acknowledged only some of the challenges we face, and now we must discuss how to overcome them. We look forward to sharing with you ‘how’ in our next blog and discussing in more detail how the Labour government will impact MATs.

How can we help?

At Peridot Partners, we thrive on the challenge of attracting the very best people to your board. We’ve been recruiting both paid and voluntary trustees, governors and non-executive directors to charities, universities, colleges, and other non-profit boards since 2009, and through helping to create better leadership have often helped these organisations to grow and develop beyond their expectations. It’s time for schools and MATs to realise the benefits of professional recruitment support for non-executive roles. I believe that it starts with us having a conversation about what you need on your board. If you are unsure, we can help with skills audits, board reviews, and general guidance and advice on board performance.

The big benefit of recruiting through us is that we research, approach, and engage a targeted list of people with the skills you need and who have probably not considered a board role at a MAT and school until we invited them. As your partner, we represent you, and through speaking to and meeting hundreds of people throughout the search process, telephoning, meeting face to face and encouraging them to make an application, we can generate a shortlist of candidates that no advertising or ad hoc process can compete with. We have no greater feeling than seeing your organisation succeed because of the people we find for you.