The Confederation of School Trusts’ new Building Strong Trusts Assurance Framework offers trusts a practical tool to help them continually develop and improve. It covers 14 key elements that together make up CST’s model of what it means to be a strong trust.
he framework is being supported by several major education sector organisations, including Challenge Partners, National Institute of Teaching, Ambition Institute, and Evidence Based Education. These organisations will apply its core principles to their own activities with school trusts.
The framework sits alongside and is aligned with the Department for Education’s recently published Commissioning High Quality Trust’s guidance but is designed to support trusts in their own development rather than government decision making. It was developed in consultation with CST members, sector organisations, and panel members from CST’s Inquiry on Trust-led School Improvement.
CST Deputy Chief Executive Steve Rollett said: "CST’s work is about supporting the sector to build organisational strength and resilience. The Building Strong Trusts Assurance Framework is intended to be a reflective, practical tool that trusts can use to understand their strengths and to address areas in which they could approve.
"We are very grateful for the feedback from our members and for the support of our sector partners that has enabled us to create the framework.”
Challenge Partners Chief Executive Dr Kate Chhatwal OBE said: "Challenge Partners is pleased to support the assurance framework. It invites trust leaders to consider where they are and what they need to do next to deliver an excellent and equitable education, recognising there is always room for improvement. We look forward to embedding key elements of the framework in our Trust Peer Review."
Ambition Institute Chief Executive Hilary Spencer said: "We are pleased to support this new framework. Describing and capturing key elements of effective practice is an important mechanism to support reflection, and ultimately drive improvement. This is an important step in enabling groups of schools to review what they are doing, against a clear set of criteria, and to identify areas where they need to take action.”
Evidence Based Education Director of Research and Development Rob Coe said: "Evidence Based Education is delighted to support the assurance framework. In a trust-led system, identifying the components of quality that make a difference to children’s outcomes, and supporting local, honest and constructive evaluation of the status of each trust, are crucial to enhancing the beneficial impact of education. The framework really moves this forward.”
National Institute of Teaching Chief Executive Melanie Renowden said: "There is comfort in generalism; it can easily obscure a lack of clarity, alignment and specificity. The real hard work – and the real value when it comes to fostering understanding – is in pushing beyond generalisms to the detail and specificity that lies beneath. With the trust assurance framework, CST have taken on this hard work on behalf of the school trust community and created a truly useful tool. I am sure it will be the stimulus for many productive conversations about improvement, carried out in service of a high quality and inclusive education for all children.”
