Chris Kirk, Director, CJK
Trust leaders today are facing unprecedented challenges. The widening disadvantage gap, rising levels of mental health and special needs, and ongoing funding pressures create a crisis of sustainability. The question many are asking is: how can we continue to deliver the high-quality education and care needed for all pupils in such a constrained environment?
For an increasing number of trusts, the answer lies in consolidation. Mergers are becoming a key strategy to secure long-term sustainability. By joining forces, trusts hope to realise a better entitlement for their pupils, economies of scale, enhance improvement capacity, and ultimately deliver better outcomes for pupils.
A recent CJK survey of school and trust leaders (July 2025) showed that financial reasons are the primary driver of mergers, with educational outcomes for children much lower down the list. While one could argue that financial stability should free up resources for teaching and learning, leaders must keep returning to the core question: why are we doing this?
Let’s start with the why
At the heart of any merger must be a clear purpose. Financial sustainability may be the trigger, but the deeper vision is about serving children, staff, and communities. As experienced former trust CEO John Murphy has observed, “leaders need to articulate how a new, larger organisation will create better capacity, provide wider professional pathways, and support retention in an era where retaining great staff is often harder than recruiting them”.
Part of this “why” is ensuring two trusts are genuinely a good match. The survey highlighted the single biggest cause of failed mergers: culture and ethos misalignment. Trusts that rushed ahead without carefully exploring values, leadership styles, and expectations often found themselves having to deal with those clashes later. Spending time upfront to get to know each other is essential.
Recognising the risks
Mergers carry risks. They can distract leaders from the day-to-day business of school improvement, at exactly the moment when pupils most need attention. Leaders must ensure there is capacity in the trusts to manage both improvement and change.
Respondents to our survey also flagged common pitfalls:
- Financial surprises: staff harmonisation and equal pay claims can leave trusts with a more expensive staffing base than before, and school estates, including PFI, can bring additional financial risks.
- Leadership conflicts: disputes between CEOs, headteachers, or trustees were a recurring theme in the most challenging mergers.
- Stakeholder resistance: parents, staff, and unions can derail even the most logical merger if communication is poor.
- Loss of identity: many staff and communities fear “becoming faceless” or losing their unique ethos in a larger trust.
Making change work
So how can leaders ensure a merger is successful? The lessons from our research suggest a framework built around three principles:
Build a compelling vision
Staff, parents, and pupils need to hear a clear narrative: how will this merger improve outcomes for children? Without this, it will be hard to take people with you.
Focus on people
The mechanics of due diligence, finances, and governance matter – but people are the heart of the change. The most successful mergers in our survey featured extensive consultation, regular communication, and staff reassurance. As leaders reflected: “Information about the merger was shared timely with opportunities for us to feed back any worries we had,” “Good relationship and consultation with other partner,” and “Staff kept informed; clear rationale for merging.”
Communicate relentlessly
This was by far the most cited success factor. Transparent, regular, and honest communication helps build trust and reduce fear. Staff need to feel they have agency at the right time, rather than being left powerless.
On this note, Mandy Coalter, founder of Talent Architects, advises that “segmentation of communication and engagement is vital. Take the pulse and check with people throughout the whole process that you are managing change with care and sensitivity.” In practice, this means tailoring communication for different groups - trustees, leaders, teachers, support staff, and parents - and checking in regularly with each.
Final reflections
Mergers are not a silver bullet. They won’t automatically solve financial pressures, nor guarantee improved outcomes. As one leader reflected: “People can be naïve, thinking merger will fix financial problems – but there are hidden costs.”
Yet when done well, mergers can create something greater than the sum of their parts: better entitlement, stronger schools, better opportunities for staff, and more sustainable organisations able to weather the challenges ahead. Leaders in our survey highlighted the positives, citing “curriculum and outcomes for the children,” “curriculum links between different Key Stages and coherent progression from 5–18,” and “behaviour support – excluded pupils have 5-day provision or a fresh start at a new school.”
The key is to start with the ‘why?’ – keeping children and communities at the centre – and then deliver the ‘how?’ with empathy, clarity, and integrity. If leaders can do that, mergers can become more than a survival tactic: they can be a chance to build a brighter future for education. As one leader summed it up: “Better opportunities for everyone.”
- To explore these themes in greater depth and hear directly from trust leaders who have been through mergers, sign up for the new CST masterclass: Leading trust mergers, starting 25 September.
Chris Kirk is director of CJK, a CST platinum partner, whose services include support for trust operational reviews, mergers and ed tech purchasing.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
