MAT central services review

The Trust requires an organisational readiness and capacity assessment to ensure that the business support functions (Trust Central Services Team) of the multi-academy trust are well-positioned and prepared to meet future challenges. The review will ensure that the Trust Central Services Team continues to support and enhance the overall mission of the Trust, to provide an outstanding education to its children and young people. 

This work is intended to serve as a general guide and not a complete list of all tasks necessary to complete the assessment project. The scope is subject to change as a result of negotiations between the Trust and ourselves. 

Overview

• To undertake a review of the Trust’s central business support services to include roles, responsibilities, policies, procedures and systems to ensure an effective, efficient and value for money operation that meets all of the statutory, financial and compliance requirements for academy trusts. 
• This will also include a review of in-house capacity versus external bought-in services and central trust versus in-school capacity.
• Review of the current structure, including job descriptions, roles, responsibilities and costs. 
• Benchmarking of admin hours and admin costs against other trusts and schools where available.
• Survey of the Trust leadership team in terms of their perception of the effectiveness and efficiency of current operations.
• Review of reports provided to Directors and Local Governors.
• The review will culminate in the production of a report for the CEO and Board of Directors on key findings and recommendations, including areas of good practice and areas for improvement.

Deliverables

• We will provide a draft report and a final report documenting the results of the review of the Trust Services Team. We will present the results of this review to the CEO and Trust Board.

Part I - Overall assessment

1. To assess the effectiveness of the Trust central services and its ability to meet current and future demands by providing an objective third party analysis utilising the knowledge, experience and “best practices” of other organisations. 
2. To make recommendations for a cost-effective and efficient organisational structure (including staffing levels and span of control), division of work and workload review that provides excellent customer service, added value, and flexibility for future growth that will result in increased performance demands.
3. Evaluate whether the Trust Central Services Team is structured in a manner that facilitates and promotes the achievement of the Trust’s goals and objectives. Assess whether changes to how the service is structured could improve the organisation’s performance and effectiveness.
4. Evaluate whether the Trust Central Services Team current performance measures are the most appropriate ones available. Where applicable, develop recommendations for new performance measures based on industry best practices, and provide guidance on how those new measures should be implemented. Evaluate the “cost-effectiveness” of proposed performance measures, the ease or difficulty and associated costs of gathering supporting data.
5. Develop recommendations for improving the Trust Central Services Team performance, and identify the steps required to implement each recommendation.

Part II - Function by function assessment

1. For each of the functions within the Trust Central Services Team (Governance, Finance, Administration, Human Resources/Payroll, Health and Safety, Estates and IT), evaluate and assess the following topics:
    
   1.  Area of goals and objectives
   2. Measures utilised to track productivity and performance against its goals and objectives
   3. Review and assess staffing levels for each function, including the number of positions and core competencies necessary for high-performance. This evaluation should incorporate analyses of:
       
      1. How management and supervision of each area are structured and whether the level of resources devoted to management and supervisory functions is appropriate.
      2. The balance between in-house and external providers and administrative staffing levels within each area and trust-wide.
      3. The balance between individual school level functions and central trust functions to meet the needs of both.
2. For each of the functions, review and evaluate its performance and effectiveness in meeting its goals and objectives over the last academic year.
3. For each of the functions, review the reporting structure and the existing performance measures, develop recommendations for changes to existing measures or implement new measures where appropriate, based on best practices of your expertise.

Part III - Programme specific reviews

Procurement process

1. Review and evaluate the policies and procedures that the trust utilises to procure goods and services and provide recommendations for changes to the current policies and procedures as appropriate.
2. To consider the trust’s procurement processes against the requirements of the AFH and ESFA best practice.

If you would like to find out more about our MAT Central Services Reviews, please talk to us.