As a new academic year begins with much anticipation, hope and opportunity ahead – as well as plenty of continuing challenges to address – we thought it would be helpful to share some key developments of relevance in your role as an operations leader.
National #TrustLeaders COO Conference
Our national COO network conference will be held on 9th October, Hotel du Vin, Birmingham. The day will be led and facilitated by Alice Gregson, CEO, Forum Strategy alongside Innovation Coach at the Bromford Flagship, Paul Taylor. The theme for the day will be driving operational excellence through building strategic partnerships and will balance inputs from Forum Strategy and a leading external expert on partnerships and innovation, with the opportunity to connect with and learn from peers.
If you haven’t already booked, here’s the link: National COO Conference 2025 I Forum Strategy
Consultancy support through Forum Strategy
As you begin a new academic year, you may be thinking ahead to key strategic areas where you would benefit from some high-quality external expertise. At Forum Strategy, we offer a range of consultancy support services ranging from vision and strategy development days and board development days to executive coaching and CEO mentoring, as well as expertise in a number of other critical areas (such as trust-wide SEND reviews, attendance strategy support and employer of choice strategy development). Please email us at admin@forumstrategy.org to explore this further.
10 tips for Chief Operating Officers
We recognise that the role of COOs (and equivalent roles) is an increasingly vital part of trust executive teams across England, mirroring other industries and sectors where it has long played a key part in organisational success, efficiency and effectiveness. But how can you as a COO, operations director, CFOO or equivalent, ensure you get the very best from the role and add maximum value to the organisation? In this article, we share our learning from several years of running our national COO network: 10 Top Tips for COOs I Forum Strategy
Developing business links and fundraising opportunities
We know that the finances continue to be of significant challenge for trusts and schools and as COOs, you will be exploring as many opportunities as possible to bring further funding in to your trust. In our July network meeting, we heard from Neighbourly UK, an organisation connecting businesses who wish to offer volunteer time, funds or surplus produce to good causes who may be in need of additional support. View our video here from Zoe Colosimo, COO of Neighbourly UK, to consider how linking with Neighbourly can support your trust: Being the COO Neighbourly UK I Forum Strategy
Linked to this, our video on how the trust model can be maximised for greater efficiency and effectiveness may also be of interest: Maximising the trust model I Forum Strategy alongside this case study from TEAM Education Trust about how they have developed business links to support fundraising and resource development efforts: A collaborative approach with local businesses I Forum Strategy and this case study from Rivermead Inclusive Trust: Developing a trust-led service model I Forum Strategy
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our fortnightly funding and grants briefing too for dozens of potential funding opportunities for trusts and schools.
Taking a lead on environmental sustainability
Developing and delivering on an effective sustainability strategy across trusts continues to be a key leadership priority. Paul Edmond, CFO at HEART Academies Trust, joined our COO network meeting in July to share his thoughts and experiences of how operations leaders can drive forward this work meaningfully – you can access the video from this session here: Developing an effective sustainability approach as operations leaders I Forum Strategy
Alongside this, you may also find this interview with Julie Rowlandson, Sustainability Officer at St Barts MAT useful: An interview with Julie Rowlandson Sustainability Officer I Forum Strategy and this article from Jenn Plews, CEO of North Star Academies Trust, on how they’ve made sustainability a trust-wide priority: Making sustainability a trust-wide priority I Forum Strategy
Ensuring compliance
A core part of a COO’s role is managing risks and ensuring the organisation’s compliance. Graham Shaw, Consultant at Wrigleys Solicitors, joined us at a COO network meeting from last year to share some key lessons learnt around trust compliance – you can view the video here: Lessons learnt around compliance I Forum Strategy You might also find our sixth thriving trusts thinkpiece from Sir Steve Lancashire and Charlie Tebbutt helpful in support of this: Thriving Trusts Thinkpiece 5 I Forum Strategy, and this recent input from Alacoque Marvin and Daniel Lewis from Wrigleys Solicitors around the most recent updates to the Academy Trust Handbook
Dates for your diary
We continue to add events to our members events page throughout the year so please keep an eye on our page here: Events page I Forum Strategy Our national network meeting dates have been set well in advance and can be viewed on this same page (just scroll to the bottom).
Wider networks through Forum Strategy
We also run two other highly successful national networks for trust leaders – one for CEOs and one for Education Leaders (leaders of improvement and/or specialisms across trusts). The feedback these networks receive in terms of inspiring, informing and supporting colleagues in these roles is exceptional, and if you are keen to support investment in your executive team members this year, please do share links to these networks with them.
We hope this is helpful and we look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead.
Best wishes
