This is a time of change for school trusts, with new approaches to inspection being rolled out by Ofsted, and a revised approach to curriculum and careers on the way courtesy of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
The upcoming white paper looks set to reform specialist provision, with implications for all schools. Changes to how parents and schools interact have also been trailed by government, and legislation making its way through Parliament will affect how academies employ teachers and support staff.
Trusts face seemingly ever more pressure on budgets with costs rising faster than funding, and the spectre of falling pupil numbers. Many trusts say they are having to look at structural changes to balance the books, as CST’s National School Trust Report set out starkly.
On top of that, parents used to getting rapid responses from companies online now often expect public services to react with similar levels of customer service, something few are geared up to do. The media can expect similarly snappy responses, with time-poor journalists less able to build relationships and instead looking to bash out stories that get clicks before moving on.
Many of these things we cannot change. But we can control how we react to them, and how our trusts build a culture of communication – both internal and external – that provides a protective structure for staff. Their flourishing feeds directly into what we can do for children, and how we take our place in the community to work with parents, other public services, charities, and business.
Our upcoming CST Communications Summit in Birmingham in March is focused on this. We will explore these changes, and how effective strategic communications can help us meet them head on, hearing from trust voices and external experts.
We will hear first-hand from Ofsted about changes to inspection, particularly looking at how we can help staff, parents, and the media understand their new report cards –with a focus on resisting the temptation to try to parse across to old gradings.
The Information Commissioner’s Office will give guidance on freedom of information, often seen as a costly burden for trusts when used by commercial suppliers and increasingly used by parents pursuing complaints. Trusts must comply with the law, but there are approaches that can help reduce the costs of doing so.
I’m delighted our summit will hear from experts from our CST member trusts.
Kate Caine from Yorkshire Causeway Trust will bring her extensive experience in television - from news programmes to Emmerdale – to offer tips on how schools and trusts can use the ubiquitous mobile phone to efficiently create compelling video content, now often preferred by time-poor parents.
Jen Fook from Ted Wragg will share some of her trust's experiences and how they have refined their approach to parent communications, encouraging schools to build on a trust-wide baseline approach that helps ensure good practice and consistency, while reflecting the individual character and setting of their schools from nursery to sixth form.
It can often seem that schools are expected to fix every problem involving children. We can’t, but trusts can be powerful convenors, bringing in partners to leverage their experience and bring the community together. Jane Livesey and Richard Ronksley from Altus Education Partnership will outline the trust's approach to relational working with its community, parents, and local businesses, from primary through to sixth form, and the reputational and marketing returns that can bring.
We’ll also hear about how to apply similar principles to how we communicate internally from REAch2’s Michelle Rosemond. Her session will show how trust, tone, and belonging can turn brand from a broadcast tool into a cultural anchor, a way to create clarity, belonging, and connection for our people. At a time of change, that is all the more important.
Trusts have never been about ‘once size fits all’, but they are about aspiration. Fiona Taylor from Evolution Academy Trust will share how she grew her part-time role, working with colleagues to prove the value of communications and improve practice within the organisation.
Trusts are also instinctively geared for collaboration, and I’m excited that we’re trying a new element to our communications summit in 2026: an ‘unconference’ strand that throws the floor open to delegates on the day. It’s a chance for everyone to share work they are proud of with the community, or get advice on areas they need help with. Communications should be two-way, and what better way to embody that than co-creating our summit. Come and join us.
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Booking for the CST Communications Summit on 5 March 2026 is now open for CST member trusts; find out more and book your place.
