About Us

Supporting academy trust executive leaders to plan, grow and thrive…

A very warm welcome to Forum Strategy. Since our inception in 2013, we have proudly served hundreds of executive leaders from multi-academy trusts through membership of our national networks for academy trust CEOs, Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and Education Executives. Established as a membership organisation for trust CEOs, we have grown over recent years to also extend to specific networks for those who work closely with CEOs. When you successfully apply to become a member of Forum Strategy you benefit from a large network of your peers; access to the latest developments from within education and beyond through regular briefing; a huge range of timely, relevant online resources (including articles, podcasts and videos); and some of the best in-person and online events you are likely to find in the education sector. Beyond our membership offer, we also offer a number of other services – including exceptionally high-quality executive coaching and mentoring; strategy consultancy; and other valuable opportunities to work with sector leaders and thinkers on key areas of interest for trusts and boards

As a leading strategy consultancy for the education sector, we work hard for our members to stay at the forefront of education and wider sector policy and practice advancements and remain a highly regarded centre for ongoing professional development and growth for executive leaders. Our values as an organisation are to remain independent, outward-facing and committed to seeking the highest quality of thinking and practice in doing so. Our team here at Forum come with a hugely diverse range of backgrounds from within education and sectors beyond, and our growing associate team are some of the most respected and highly experienced thinkers in their fields.

If you are already a member with us, we look forward to working with you further as we move ahead with exciting developments for our membership. If you are not yet a member, I hope you will join us and become an important part of this vibrant, diverse and highly engaged national network of academy trust leaders!

Alice Gregson

CEO

Forum Strategy: Our commitments to clients are:

  • Supporting improvement wherever possible;
  • Staying informed on the key & emerging issues;
  • Producing high quality research & communications;
  • Ensuring our integrity & maintaining client confidentiality at all times;
  • Being responsive & professional in all that we do.

We work with a range of clients, from local authorities and academy trusts, to small-, medium- and large- businesses and enterprises.

What We Do

When you become a member of one of Forum Strategy’s three national networks, you will benefit from access to the following:

Training and development

Forum Strategy provides a wide range of training and development support for CEOs, board members and executive teams. Our national #TrustLeaders networks provide high quality opportunities for learning and reflection on key areas of successful organisational development and change management. Our annual CEO conference has developed a strong reputation for cutting edge leadership thinking and insight, and our suite of provision for academy trustees is ensuring that this important group are well supported as their organisations grow rapidly.

We provide bespoke training for trustees and executives teams and regularly contribute to national and regional leadership conferences, and others’ programmes. 

Consultancy and organisational development

We provide a wide range of training and development support for CEOs, board members and executive leadership teams. Our three national #TrustLeaders networks provide high quality opportunities for learning and reflection on key areas of successful organisational development, leadership development and change management. Our annual CEO conference has developed a strong reputation for cutting edge leadership thinking, insight and inputs.

We provide bespoke training for trustees and executives teams and regularly contribute to national and regional leadership conferences, and others’ programmes. We also run our own flagship programme ‘Being The CEO’ for aspiring and serving academy trust CEOs.

Briefing service 

We provide a strategy and intelligence briefing service for education sector executive leaders, covering key developments in education and wider sectors on research, policy, strategy, leadership development and more. This service also includes a funding and grants briefing detailing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of opportunities each year for academy trusts. Members of our networks automatically receive an individual subscription to these briefings.

Executive Coaching

Our executive coaching provision is highly regarded. Numerous CEOs and executive leaders have benefited from the expertise of our executive coaches in recent years. Coaching provides CEOs and executive leaders with important time to reflect on, discuss and develop strategic thinking.

Our coaches have a wide range of backgrounds, expertise and experience; but all are bound by their knowledge of the CEO (or equivalent) or executive role and appreciation of the demands and challenges that it brings. This ensures that – whilst not directing or instructing – our coaches provide a degree of empathy and the ability to signpost, whilst respecting the ethos of coaching such as the ability of the coachee to identify their own goals, needs, and solutions as an executive.

“I have appreciated time out of the working day to reflect on important strategic matters; actions have been taken as a result of the discussion in the sessions and they have supported Trust development. I have valued time facilitated by a professional person who understands the education system and who effectively facilitates the discussion in order to help develop my strategic thinking.” 

Academy Trust CEO

Marketing and communications

We believe that the development of a strong brand and clear and engaging communications is an essential ingredient in the success of all organisations. Forum Strategy collaborates with our partners Papillon Communications, as they deliver high quality PR and media support to trusts and other organisations. Currently, when trusts engage with Papillon, they can also be confident that Forum is available to provide Papillon with a sounding board and support in its work where needed.

Our approach to supporting marketing and communications delivery is grounded in our sector knowledge and research around key contextual issues, our deep understanding of policy and change in education, and our credibility advising CEOs, executive teams and boards – which has been developed through our sector-leading support over the years.

We advise on the design and delivery of marketing and communications strategies, consultations, marketing of organisations and their central team services (including CPD), and social media strategy. We can also support crisis management response and delivery in partnership with Papillon.

Papillon is a highly respected organisation with experience supporting a wide range of national early years, care and education providers with their communications and growth strategies. You can find out more about Papillon at https://www.papillonpr.co.uk/