{"id":246124,"date":"2026-05-07T23:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=246124"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:08:02","slug":"trusts-ease-expansion-to-become-professionally-generous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/trusts-ease-expansion-to-become-professionally-generous\/","title":{"rendered":"Trusts ease expansion to become \u2018professionally generous\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long-running academy trusts have shed the desire to \u201cgrow, grow, grow\u201d and are instead \u201creaching out\u201d to help colleagues, a senior government mandarin has said.<\/p>\n

Tim Coulson, the head of the Department for Education\u2019s regional teams<\/a>, told the Schools and Academies Show<\/em><\/a> on Thursday there was less a sense of growth for a trust\u2019s own sake, but a willingness to reach out and help colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to see that sense of a system of professional generosity. Many of you will have both given professional generosity over the years and experienced it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coulson said it was a \u201ctime for optimism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the government\u2019s ambition for all schools to be in a trust, he said academy chains would be “expected” to have “inclusive support\u201d.<\/p>\n

There would also be a “greater focus on geographic coherence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tim Coulson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFor trusts that have 10 years under their belts, I think we\u2019re now beginning to see not a sector where \u2018I\u2019ve just got to grow, grow, grow\u2019 but \u2018I\u2019ve reached a stage where\u2026 I\u2019ve got something to offer the system\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coulson added that over the next few months his teams would be encouraging \u201cconversations\u201d over what geographical coherence \u201cmeans for the area you live”.<\/p>\n

“What would a further development of the school system look like in your area?\u201d<\/p>\n

On the government’s SEND reforms, he stressed the changes would usher in a \u201ccompletely different system in three years\u2019 time\u201d.<\/p>\n

But before that the government was \u201clooking to see strong partnerships in every area with much greater resources for local authorities to build experts-at-hand services\u201d.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there would be \u201cchallenges within recruitment\u201d, but there was a \u201ctremendous opportunity to really provide hands-on support that people have been longing for for a long time\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Time for optimism’, says regions boss, as trusts turn to ‘giving something back to the system’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":246122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"post-theme":[2381],"class_list":["post-246124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","post-theme-academies"],"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