What do we mean by ‘pure accountability’ and why is it relevant to the sustainable development and growth of academy trusts? How can trust boards and leaders begin to shape it and embed it across their organisations? This latest ‘In Practice Guide’ provides some helpful information and reflective questions for CEOs, COOs and Education Executives members.
Alongside this paper we also recommend reading and referring to Thinkpiece 1 of the Thriving Trusts series, which sets out a range of ways in which pure accountability can help drive sustainable trust development and engage more schools and school communities into a trust’s work: https://forumstrategy.org/thriving-trusts-thinkpieces/
Introduction
Accountability has always been a contentious issue in education. Recent debates around the work of Ofsted and the need for reform at a national level are well documented. However, we believe that the role, influence and, indeed, potential of accountability is far greater than simply looking at the role of inspectorates or regulators – though they clearly have an important role to play.
Academy trust boards and CEOs have the potential to recalibrate accountability, so that it is not simply something that is ‘done to’ us through national systems of oversight, but also a constant force for improvement and betterment of our organisations, as well as a means of building deeper connection with our communities.
This potential force for sustainable improvement and connection is what we call ‘pure accountability’. In simple terms, ‘pure accountability is formative accountability at a local level, that puts the end user and the communities we serve in the driving seat of holding our organisations to account; empowering those we serve and work alongside to provide feedback and insights that contribute to the strategic direction, ongoing improvement and responsiveness of our organisations over time.’ This is not an alternative to ‘top down’ sources of accountability such as that provided by regulators and inspectorates, but a balance to them – a rich and crucially important and well-informed source of intelligence and insight that can inform high quality strategy and improvement over time.
“Aren’t we accountable enough? To answer in the affirmative is to miss the potential and to resign ourselves to the position that accountability is only ever something done to us.”
Yet, let’s be frank. This is challenging. Accountability already feels all-pervading for many. Adding more accountability into the mix is bound to cause apprehension and resistance. Aren’t we accountable enough? To answer in the affirmative is to miss the potential and to resign ourselves to the position that accountability is only ever something done to us. However, by generating much more formative, community-focused, accountability at a local level we can perhaps have a different relationship with accountability and build a sense of control and ownership amongst all our stakeholders, especially those who feel a sense of remoteness or disconnection from public institutions. Let’s think a little more about this.