Our work

We are the national voice for school trusts. Our members educate more than four million children through the dedicated work of their 600,000 staff.

We advocate for trusts by helping politicians, policy makers, and the wider public better understand their power to help children. We support trusts through practical advice, strategic guidance, and bespoke development support. We connect them with each other, and with expert thinking and research. 

Our member trusts are responsible for more than three quarters of academy schools, with trusts ranging from single school trusts to national trusts with dozens of schools. We represent schools of all types, including special schools, alternative provision, specialist schools, and faith schools.

We are the national voice for school trusts and help shape the education policy agenda and lead the thinking about school trusts and a trust-led landscape. Our members educate more than four million children, with the majority of pupils in England attending academy schools.

We have worked with successive administrations to put the needs of children, staff, and schools at the heart of policy making. This includes:

• Securing a commitment in the 2026 Schools White Paper for all schools to be part of a strong school trust
• Winning amendments to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act preserving flexibility for academy teachers’ pay; limiting powers to intervene in trusts; ensuring school quality is key to decisions on admission numbers; and a balanced approach to trust inspection
• Setting the agenda on SEND reform, through our paper on A good life: towards greater dignity for people with learning disability
• Working with Ofsted to amend their proposed new inspection arrangements based on feedback from member trusts
• Attendance at our Annual Conference by the Secretary of State for Education, and by senior civil servants on member calls and at our professional commmunity conferences
• Achieving the creation of separate DfE guidance for governance of school trusts, recognising the fundamental difference from maintained school arrangements
• Representing school trusts on the government's Improving Education Together stakeholder group, and ensuring a trust voice in the creation of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
• Responding on behalf of the sector to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and consultations ranging from funding to food standards

We work with work with organisations across the education sector to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion. You can read more in our statement of action, published and updated annually.