The social challenges that have emerged from the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis are “beyond the knowledge and expertise” of trust leaders alone, the national body representing multi-academy trusts has said.
And an expert has warned that schools and the trust system are like islands “in a social landscape that feels...like a raging, flooded river”.
A research paper produced by the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and law firm Browne Jacobson today sets out the “civic role” that trusts perform, detailing a number of approaches they can take to respond to the challenges facing both schools and the wider sector.
But the CST report warns that leaders are struggling with the “sheer number of issues affecting our children, young people and communities”.
Schools have struggled with a “host of negative legacies” from the pandemic, including a battle against lost learning, a “tsunami of pressures” hitting pupils’ wellbeing, and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, it adds.
MATs ‘must be part of collective response’
The CST says that it is “beyond the reach of individual organisations”, such as schools, to tackle the problems with education, society, the economy and health. It argues, instead, for a “collective response”.
The research paper says: “We believe wholeheartedly that leaders must have the domain-specific knowledge to lead their organisations.
“But we increasingly think that the domains of leadership required to address the challenges we face in our school system go beyond the knowledge and expertise of leading a group of schools - essential though this is.”
Nick MacKenzie, a partner at Browne Jacobson, said: “Schools, school trusts and even the school system itself are all islands in the stream. Perhaps, though, rather than a stream, it feels like schools are operating in a social landscape that feels more like a raging, flooded river.”
CST chief executive Leora Cruddas said that while a school’s first role “will always be to educate”, pupils who are hungry or homeless or struggling to get support for their mental health “cannot fully benefit from that rich and foundational education we all want to provide”.
Ms Cruddas added: “In many cases schools are the only civic institutions left standing in a community.
“Civic working is not about schools doing everything or replacing those [services] that have gone but reversing that decline and working together with public services, charities and business to build new ways of supporting pupils to do better, on both sides of the school gates.”
In its report, the CST puts forward four approaches to civic working, drawing on existing examples from school trusts: Embark Federation, Oasis Community Learning, Windsor Academy Trust, the Reach Foundation and Dixons Academies Trust.
The CST suggests working with creative arts, local businesses and charities to provide new opportunities for pupils, as well as extending existing curriculum work.
And the organisation recommends a “community convening approach”, bringing together a broad coalition of people and organisations to tackle common problems.
Furthermore, the report suggests targeting one key problem for pupils or the local community, such as mental health provision, and working with other services to help make improvements.
And finally, the report promotes a focus on one key relationship with an external organisation, and building a deep partnership with it on a range of topics.
CST also sets out that a “civic mindset accepts that the complexity of social issues means that it is unlikely that a single public institution, acting alone, will be able to solve any particular issue”.
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