{"id":231066,"date":"2025-06-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=231066"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:27:09","slug":"is-trust-centralisation-delivering-its-promises-to-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/is-trust-centralisation-delivering-its-promises-to-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Is trust centralisation delivering its promises to staff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Schools Week<\/em> readers will be no strangers to teaching\u2019s recruitment and retention crisis<\/a> or to the causes of this attrition. What we don\u2019t know \u2013 until now \u2013 is whether teachers working in one trust experience different levels of satisfaction to those working for another, and if they do, then why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper, trusts offer a number of advantages when it comes to job satisfaction, among them increased development opportunities, access to centralised resources and opportunities to collaborate with a wider network of professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilised successfully, this kind of centralisation has the potential to create a significantly improved work environment for teachers. However, \u2018horror stories\u2019 are well known, as are tales of teachers scrambling for places in good trusts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous research has shown<\/a> that teachers\u2019 sense of professional autonomy is an important part of improving retention and reducing attrition, as autonomy has been found to positively impact teachers\u2019 commitment and satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trusts risk leveraging their built-in advantages for efficiency at the expense of this autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other research<\/a> has shown that this sense of autonomy isn\u2019t just about curriculum; it pertains to values too. Alignment (or lack of it) between their personal beliefs and the educational practices they have to implement can also affect job satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research explored these factors with teachers from three different trusts in the Midlands. The aim was to learn more about their experiences of these factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classroom leadership<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In all three trusts, teachers commonly responded that they were \u2018dissatisfied\u2019 when asked about the sense of achievement they get from their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In two of them, teachers were also \u2018dissatisfied\u2019 with their scope for using their initiative at work. In one, teachers tended to express dissatisfaction with their level of influence over their job. In the other, they were more dissatisfied overall with their amount of involvement in decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings suggest that teachers value the ability to manage their own work, use their initiative and have influence in their roles. Therefore, trusts keen to hang onto their teachers and keep morale high should look at ways to seek their views and encourage their feedback on decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teacher resourcefulness<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In principle, centralised resources like lesson plans and materials for schools in trusts have the potential to enhance teaching and learning, reduce teacher workload and share expertise across schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this research found that access to and the impact of centralised resources varied between trusts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers in two of the trusts mostly agreed that their trust provides access to centralised resources, while those in the third largely disagreed. But regardless of their access to centralised resources, teachers across all three trusts were rather sceptical of their value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the two trusts with high levels of resource centralisation, a greater emphasis on their mandatory use was linked with lower job satisfaction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings suggest trust leaders need to find a careful balance between providing centralised resources and allowing teachers to exercise their professional autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fostering creative adaptation of the resources, for example, can nurture a sense of professionalism and<\/em> ultimately lead to a wider range of better materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only connect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trusts\u2019 capacity to improve under-performing schools is often attributed to the high levels of collaboration within and between schools they enable. However, when we asked teachers about their experience of this, we found that such collaboration was in short supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers in all three trusts mostly disagreed that their trust encourages collaboration between teachers in their school. Similarly, while there is some variation in responses, most teachers in all three also disagreed that their trust encourages collaboration between teachers in the same specialism across the different trust schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suggests that trust leaders need to actively facilitate collaboration rather than assume that it will happen organically within and across the schools in their network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing in this research negates the promise of trusts to create a positive work experience and high levels of job satisfaction for their teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, however, this research shows that trusts that foster teachers\u2019 initiative, creative adaptation of centralised resources and collaboration among their trust networks are likely to be more successful in delivering on that promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research delves into how staff are experiencing the promised benefits of pooled resources and networked development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311124,"featured_media":216613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3734],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3730],"class_list":["post-231066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-the-leader","post-theme-the-research-leader"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t