What does an effective approach to environmental sustainability look like as a COO? How can you help to forge links with local and national businesses to help to address funding gaps? How can an offer of phased retirement help to retain great staff for longer?

All of these questions and more will be explored within our national COO network meeting. This COO network meeting will involve:

– Opportunities to hear about the current priorities and challenges of trust COOs from right across the network, and to share with colleagues how you are responding to some of these issues too

– An input from the COO of Neighbourly, Zoe Colosimo, about how their platform can connect you with businesses across the country who may have funds and resources to offer or who might want to offer volunteer time and expertise. Zoe will talk us through how the platform can help trusts to connect with businesses nationwide and she will also reflect on her role as a COO and some of the learning she has taken from her time in the role.

– A session from our partners at Wesleyan Financial Services on how we can help to retain great staff for longer through offering phased retirement options. Wesleyan will provide an overview of how phased retirement (and transparent communication of the options to staff) links to retention, offering you as COOs, some different ways in which your trust might be able to offer this.

– The opportunity to hear from Paul Edmond CFO at Heart Academies Trust, reflecting on how his trust has committed to and driven forward work around environmental sustainability and how his role as CFO has been integral to the work. Paul will share some of the challenges and enablers he has experienced and will reflect on why the role of COO/CFO/CFOO and other operational roles are so critical to the success of an effective trust-wide sustainability strategy and approach.

Please note that Wesleyan are part of a paid for partnership with Forum Strategy. We also choose our partners based on their specific expertise and ethos.

To book onto this event, you must be a current member of Forum Strategy’s National COO Network. Please use the form below to book your place:

Booking Form