MAT mulls ‘action short of merger’ with other trusts

A prominent trust chief executive is considering “action short of a merger” in a bid to boost collaboration between her 26-school MAT and others.

Rowena Hackwood, the chief executive of Astrea, revealed her academy chain was “exploring growth”, including “innovative” routes that did not involve joining forces with another trust.

Speaking at a Confederation of School Trusts conference on Thursday, she suggested this could be done by launching a community interest company offering back-office services to local schools.

“One thing that we’re looking at is action short of a merger,” she said.

“Could we become more coherent as a trust in terms of our geographic footprint, if we were to align with other trusts in the locality?”

Hackwood stressed this would not involve “trading services”. She was “not very keen” on such models as no one should “make money out of anyone else within our system”.

‘Models for doing things differently’

“It’s about us creating, for instance, a wholly owned community interest company in one of our localities, which serves all of the schools that want to buy into those back-office services in that area with shares owned equally between all of the people that buy into it.

“I do think that there are models for doing things differently. I’m expecting more trusts to start to explore [this].”

It comes after a group of 20 school leaders, largely based in the north east, banded together to launch Education Mutual, which offers an alternative staff absence insurance. It was created to help schools pay lower fees for cover.

It is run as a mutual, so is owned by members, with all money not paid out in claims returned to them through benefits such as lower fees or enhanced packages.

Schools Week revealed earlier this year that Education Mutual will branch out into covering the legal costs for staff who want to sue social media trolls. This includes a template cease-and-desist letter to abusive parents.

Nick Hurn, the chief executive of the Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust and chair of Education Mutual, has launched a second company that provides substitute staff at short notice.