Collaborative Working For Academy Trusts

The financial landscape, changes in education policy, workforce challenges and the drive for consistently high educational standards continue to encourage academy trusts and schools to look beyond operating in isolation. As in many areas, it can pay dividends to take a proactive approach to collaboration with others operating in similar sectors or locations.

This article explains what collaborative working means in the context of academies, explores the benefits and drawbacks, and highlights key governance risk areas trust leaders should consider.

What do we mean by collaboration?

Collaborative working is not a single model, but has varying degrees of formality, commitment and integration. Understanding where a proposed arrangement sits on that scale is critical to any cost benefit analysis and decision to proceed.