Guidance and tools

This section contains guidance, resources, and toolkits focused on helping school trusts to operate.

You can also view our:

The search function and category filters on these pages works across all the above types of content, so you can easily find all CST published material on a particular topic.

Some content is available only to CST member trusts - you will need to login to view this.

Risk management is the process by which risks are identified, their severity assessed and cost-effective actions are taken to address, or mitigate, them to bring them down to acceptable levels. This guidance provides a risk template for trusts as a starting point for a bespoke approach.

Board evaluation is too often viewed as a compliance activity — a mechanical process of checking off items on a list with little real value for the board. But meaningful evaluation can be transformational.

Results from the third annual National School Trust Survey, conducted by the Confederation of School Trusts with Edurio. The survey is designed to uncover the main priorities and challenges for the sector for the upcoming academic year, as well as to provide some detail on specific approaches.

It is crucial that trustees conduct themselves in a responsible manner, in line with their responsibilities as both charity trustees and company directors.
This model code of conduct outlines principles to follow both as individual trustees and corporately as a whole board.

Role description: Member

The role of a member of a school trust is one of the least well understood positions in a trust. This document sets out the key qualities of a member and their relationship with other aspects of trust governance.

The scheme of delegation is a vital document within a trust. It is a document that is, and should be, bespoke to every trust in order to describe how the trust board has decided to delegate responsibilities within the organisation. These checklists have been devised to help trusts develop a clear and comprehensive scheme of delegation.

Governing a school trust

The proposition of governing a school trust is fundamentally different from governing a maintained school. While there may be comparable challenges in maintained schools, problem-identification and solutions are often specific to trust governance and need a different approach.

This guidance sets out the strategic and operational considerations for head teachers and governors of maintained schools considering joining a school trust.
School trusts are groups of schools that come together to form a single organisation. This guidance includes many of the questions and considerations that your governing board will need to ask when you are considering joining a trust, as well as during the due diligence process. It also sets out a high-level overview of the legal considerations and processes to be followed during the conversion process.

At the request of members, we are providing some useful checklists and templates relating to suspensions and exclusions. If you have any questions about them, please contact us at governance@cstuk.org.uk

The aim of this work is to establish a common set of concepts, language and framework that will allow trusts to explore, capture and compare their models of school improvement so that we can build more knowledge and a stronger evidence base about what is more likely to work when improving schools at scale.

CST members can access a range of model policies covering staffing and school operations provided by CST Platinum Partner Stone King, along with additional guidance papers on how to create and review policies.

This study delves into school improvement in school trusts. It employs Q Methodology and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to explore the viewpoints of trust leaders about effective school improvement. The research blends the subjectivity-focused Q Methodology with the analytical depth of LCT to explore what trust leaders value most.

This survey explored the roles and responsibilities of the trust safeguarding team, the support that trusts provide at a school and trust level, and the factors
influencing the retention and career progression of safeguarding professionals. It also invited trust safeguarding leaders to share their priorities for the year ahead.

For the second year running, the Confederation of School Trusts has partnered with Edurio to conduct the National School Trust Survey. The survey is designed to uncover the main priorities and challenges for the sector for the upcoming academic year, as well as to provide some detail on specific approaches.

The Academy Trust Governance Code is a voluntary code that draws upon the Charity Governance Code and relevant Department for Education guidance.

This frequently asked question document collates the information presented at a recent legal surgery webinar for CST members hosted by our Platinum Partners Stone King and Barker Associates.
It gives school trusts an overview of issues with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) that was used in construction from the 1950s through to the 190s.

The aim of this framework is to identify trusts' most significant areas of strength and challenge, so that they can build organisational capacity. It is diagnostic, not evaluative, or judgemental.
The framework is supported by Ambition Institute, Challenge Partners, Evidence Based Education, the National Institute of Teaching, and ImpactEd.
Updated September 2024.

This rapid audit tool for trustees provides a way for trustees to self-assess their understanding, using CST’s Assurance framework for trust governance as a base. The form can be filled in electronically and saved for return to trust governance professionals, or printed out for completion on paper.

This glossary is intended primarily to help new trustees and academy committee members with some common terms used in education. It focuses on terms relevant to academies and trusts, rather than legacy terms for maintained schools.
A downloadable version is available but we recommend using the online version for ease of use and to ensure you have the most recent information.

Process planning and delivery is the second in a series of three guidance notes on the performance review of chief executives. The series provides robust sector- and role-specific guidance on the principles and practices of executive performance review to support your trust’s process from end-to-end, whatever its size or stage of development.

In advance of the detailed publication of the formula to be used to distribute the additional Autumn Statement funding to schools, Susan Fielden, our Trust and School Funding Policy Specialist, has shared her insights which we hope will help.

The Confederation of School Trusts has released its 2022 salary benchmarking report in conjunction with partners XpertHR and Browne Jacobson. This is the second year the report has been published, offering a reliably current and comprehensive annual salary report of executive roles in school trusts.

School trusts are facing substantial unplanned and unfunded costs. Analysis of budget information and survey data by CST has found that, without further financial support, more than half of trusts could be in deficit by 2024/5 with the remainder down to worryingly low reserves.

School trusts are complex and agile organisations. The proposition of governance should therefore be a live conversation and boards should monitor and improve their performance continually. This updated toolkit outlines our 20-element assurance framework including guiding questions to consider and descriptors of what strong and weak assurance would look like in a trust at board level.
The new September 2023 version can be either completed electronically or printed out.

Following analysis of Budget Forecast Return submissions, shared by over 70 Trusts representing more than 700 schools, we have produced an infographic highlighting the scale of economic challenge facing the sector.

CST’s first National Survey of School Trusts aims to create a unique and powerful picture of our sector. Supported by our Platinum Partner, Edurio, the report explores the progress and priorities of school trusts across England.

The performance review of the chief executive or executive leader of a school trust is one of a trust board’s most significant responsibilities. It is key to the board’s leadership of strategy and values, its accountability for educational outcomes and financial health, and supports the development and well-being of the trust’s most senior employee. School trusts have the freedom to define their own appraisal process for chief executives in line with their trust’s ethos and values and approach to performance management.

Trusts have become a central part of the English education system, providing the core of school-to-school support, improvement and governance. This means that it is increasingly important for us to know what high quality looks like in a trust. In this paper we have reviewed the evidence from four countries: England, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden. The latter three countries were chosen as they have somewhat similar (though by no means identical) systems. This literature review draws on a search conducted using several evidence bases, websites of government agencies, and a general google search. We also drew on the references to other studies in those sources.

Before the pandemic, schools and colleges were already finding worsening mental health amongst children and young people a serious challenge. This briefing note sets out aspects of current provision.

Larger trusts may meet the criteria to register their organisation to the Modern Slavery Statement registry following the Government’s Transparency in Supply Chains consultation. This briefing note from Stone King LLP covers the general requirements affecting trusts.

School Trusts are exempt charities. This means that they are not registered or directly regulated by the Charity Commission but rather have the Secretary of State for Education as their principal regulator. School Trusts still have charitable purposes and apply them for the public benefit, and trusts must comply with the general law of charity.

Model civic compact

As part of our work to locate School Trusts as a new form of civic structure, CST has drafted this model civic compact which members are welcome to use and customise as the basis for dialogue with a local authority.

This guidance is intended to support trust boards with an evidence-based process to set executive pay and should be read in conjunction with the CST Code of Principles for Setting Executive Pay and the Academy Trust Handbook.

This guidance sets out the principal roles of the accounting officer as expected by Parliament and set out in the Academy Trust Handbook. It also covers the key messages for trusts in the statutory guidance Managing Public Money.

This document is the final report of Ethical Leadership Commission, to which CST contributed alongside other leading education organisations and thinkers. The Commission was set up in 2017 to help school and college leaders consider the ethical foundation of their work, and to offer guidance for our colleagues at a time of great change and unprecedented pressure in education.

This guidance offers a process or framework for auditing organisational culture. It is designed to meet the requirement in the Competency Framework for Governance in relation to the responsibility of the trust board to determine, embed and monitor the culture, values and ethos of an organisation. It will help trust boards to answer the question: how do you know?

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Confederation of School Trusts (CST)
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