Abstract/Summary

The English education system is at a moment of significant structural change. Over 40% of schools are academy trusts and these now educate more than half of the children in English state schools. In 2022 the government set a clear policy direction in The Schools Bill for all schools to be in a ‘strong trust’ that either serves a minimum of 7,500 pupils or runs at least 10 schools; while the actual Bill has now been abandoned the ambition appears to remain. This is going to require existing trusts to grow and non-academy schools to convert. Many trusts are still led by their founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and many of those founders are at or near the point of retirement. While there is a growing body of research into Multi Academy Trusts (MATs), there is very little on MAT-founding CEOs and the impact of their succession on the system. Therefore, this study addresses this knowledge gap by considering CEO perceptions of succession planning, leadership development and MAT culture. This study focusses on the perceptions of 14 academy trust CEOs about founding CEOs, succession planning, their professional development and culture in trusts. The study is rooted in a constructivist, interpretive approach and adopts a qualitative methodology. It is based on detailed semi-structured interviews. The study reveals that many trust CEOs have not considered succession planning for their post in detail with their trust boards. The CEOs in this sample are divided on whether their successor should be a qualified teacher and experienced headteacher. The CEOs reflect on their professional development and the study makes a number of recommendations about how prospective trust CEOs should be prepared for the role; these include, time in a role that operates across more than one school or outside the mainstream school system, a focus on developing and supporting strong professional and personal networks, the inclusion of coaching and/or mentoring and the need for consideration of how organisational culture develops in academy trusts as they grow and move away from the founder.