This year’s CST Annual Conference brings school and trust leaders together under a shared ambition: to create a system where every child and every adult in education can flourish.
It’s a theme that resonates deeply with us at EPM, and we’re delighted to be attending the event. Flourishing can cover a manner of things - it’s a concept that goes beyond a word. It represents a long-term commitment to excellence, inclusion, and equity. But in a sector navigating constant policy changes, resourcing pressures, and increasing complexity, how do we rise from good to great? How can we ensure that flourishing is more than an aspiration and lived out in classrooms, staff rooms, and boardrooms every day?
Flourishing starts with people and systems
While flourishing is most visible in the classroom, it begins long before lessons start and is powered by what happens behind the scenes: robust governance in schools, strategic workforce planning, and operational resilience (to name a few).
For children to thrive, the adults around them must feel confident, valued, and supported by the structures in place. That’s why the systems and processes that underpin schools - effective HR, accurate payroll, compliant recruitment practices, and timely professional development - matter just as much as pedagogy.
We often say that people are a school or trust’s greatest asset. But people can only give their best when the infrastructure around them works seamlessly; otherwise, we risk falling short of our potential.
Flourishing isn’t just about wellbeing; it’s about removing barriers so that staff can focus their energy on what matters most: education (not unnecessary administration).
Collaboration over complexity
Too often, school leaders are pulled into unnecessary complexity, having to deal with fragmented systems, manage multiple suppliers, and balance compliance pressures. Flourishing calls for clarity, simplification, and alignment.
It also requires trusted partnerships. A flourishing school doesn’t just rely on services, but on a wider network of expertise and strategic support.
At EPM, we work with more than 2,500 schools and trusts to reduce administrative burdens, strengthen workforce strategies, and provide leaders with the data, guidance, and confidence to make the right decisions.
Whether it’s helping schools resolve challenging HR matters, delivering timely and accurate payroll, ensuring compliance with safer recruitment standards, or guiding boards on governance, operational excellence is the engine that enables flourishing to take root.
Workforce planning in education: From siloes to systems thinking
One of the biggest challenges and opportunities for education is breaking down siloes. And this conference rightly challenges us to step outside of those. To flourish, we need stronger relationships within schools, between trusts, and across public services. That means reimagining how we work – not just in pedagogy, but in practice too.
Too often, “back-office” functions are viewed as separate from school improvement. In reality, they are school improvement, and flourishing demands that we stop thinking of them as anything less. After all, a confident, well-supported workforce drives better outcomes for pupils. So, when leadership, HR, finance, and governance align, schools can create the right conditions for innovation, inclusion, and equity.
Flourishing this academic year and beyond
The conference is a valuable moment for us all to pause, reflect, and look forward. It challenges us to ask bold questions: How do we create workplaces where staff want to stay and grow? How do we align operational systems with teaching ambitions? How do we actively turn flourishing from an ideal into an everyday reality?
We’re proud to be part of this important conversation and play our part in answering those questions. Flourishing in education isn’t about quick fixes. We believe that it can only advance from good to great when building sustainable systems, empowering people, and connecting every element of school life to the shared goal of pupil success.
As we gather at CST’s Annual Conference, we look forward to connecting, sharing stories, exchanging ideas, and continuing to support leaders on this journey.
Because when our people flourish, our schools flourish - and so do our children.
- Jen Elliott, Chief Executive Officer at EPM, App sponsor of CST's Annual Conference 2025
We welcome 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.
