EVENTS
National #TrustLeaders Symposium 2026
Pure Accountability: people and communities at the heart of improvement and innovation. A post-white paper reality
with Jon Alexander, strategist and co-founder of the New Citizen Project, and a range of other leading thinkers and practitioners
Trent Vineyard Conference Centre, Nottingham 3rd June 2026
The National #TrustLeaders Symposium is the annual ‘think tank’ event for CEOs, Education Leaders and Operational Leaders of academy trusts and other educational organisations. Previous symposia have welcomed leading societal and educational thinkers, including Sir Michael Barber, James Plunkett, and Dr Steve Munby. This year’s event will be no different – bringing trust leaders together to anticipate, plan, and define their agendas. It’s the event where we connect, imagine, and innovate – together.
What will the 2026 event focus on?
Accountability is evolving. Our focus as a sector and in society as a whole, is turning more and more towards ‘community informed’ intelligence and involvement as a force for improvement and innovation. We call the outcome of this shift: pure accountability. It’s accountability that is not limited to central oversight and national common measures of success – important though these can be. It’s accountability that is local, real-time, inclusive, and formative in nature. Exceptional leaders are enabling and encouraging pure accountability and harnessing its potential, a shift that is increasingly also reflected across wider sectors and society. And the new white paper puts shared endeavour and community impact at the heart of the 2026 onwards new era for academy trusts. Pure accountability is going mainstream!
In the current context, we increasingly need to harness the potential of people and communities at the heart of decision making, for informing and contributing to improvement and innovation, and keeping our organisations relevant and impactful in a changing world. We will consider how trusts can and are adapting to this new reality, through forward thinking executive and board level leadership.
Accountability is no longer dominated by the summative – it is also formative. What does this mean? What does it look like in practice? How can pure accountability be enabled, harnessed and encouraged as one of the most powerful forces for improvement?
Active members of our national CEO, Operations Leaders and Education Leaders networks can now book their place to join this highly engaging and thought-provoking day (memberships must be active as of 3rd June 2026). You must be an active member or partner of Forum Strategy to attend.
At this year’s symposium we will welcome Jon Alexander – a leading thinker on citizenship – for a day of cutting-edge, timely and game changing sessions on how organisations thrive. He will be joined by Michael Pain, founder of Forum Strategy and developer of the concept of pure accountability, and Sir Steve Lancashire, who works closely with trust leaders to bring pure accountability to life; together with a wide range of workshop contributors providing practical examples of pure accountability in action. We will also be joined by Kate Davis, a practising CEO and a leading researcher in this space; Dr. Sam Parrett OBE, who is leading the concept across her own academy trust; and Sam Henson of the National Governance Association, a leading advocate and thought leader in community participation through good goverance. The event will include active dialogue and participation of attendees, with opportunities to form practical next steps.
It promises to be a day of inspiration, cutting-edge thinking, connection, and practical ideas and solutions.
All members of Forum Strategy’s CEO, COO, and Education Leaders networks, can attend the event. Attendance is included in all individual memberships of the networks with no extra charge. Pre-reading for this event will now be the ‘Pure Accountability: In Practice Guide’, which will be sent to members two or three months before the event takes place.
To book onto the event, click the button below. You must be an active member of Forum Strategy’s networks to attend (memberships need to be active as of the 3rd June 2026).
Appearing at the symposium
Jon Alexander
Jon is a strategist, storyteller and connector whose work is devoted to opening the way to a “Citizen Future”: one rooted in the deep truth that all of us are smarter than any of us. Jon began his career with a decade in the advertising industry, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year, before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring “Consumer-ism” and its alternatives from every angle. His writings have been included by McKinsey as one of its Top 5 Recommended Reads in its Summer Reading Guide 2022 and selected by the World Economic Forum for its CEO Book Club. Jon is also a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and the University of Manchester, and sits on the advisory councils of DemocracyNext, the Democracy and Culture Foundation, and the Better Politics Foundation.
Jon will share his pioneering thinking around the critical shift from consumer to citizen, why it is so critical to the future of our society and the next generation, and how leaders across a range of fields and disciplines are making it a reality.
Dr Sam Parrett CBE
CEO, Elevare Civic Education Group
Dr Sam Parrett CBE is Group Principal and CEO of Elevare Civic Education Group, which comprises large group of colleges, a growing multi-academy trust spanning primary, secondary, Alternative Provision, and Special schools across South London, Kent, Sussex and Surrey, as well as a charity serving learners across London and the South East. With over 30 years’ experience in the sector, Sam is dedicated to education being a catalyst for social change, supporting both individuals and communities by spearheading the Group-wide mission to transform lives through the power of learning. Under her leadership, the Group received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize (2020), the National Public Leadership Award (2021), TES FE Provider of the Year (2021) and TES Trust of the Year (2024) awards.
Sam is a Board Member of Canterbury Christ Church University, where she completed her Doctorate in Education.
Sam’s work exemplifies civic leadership and the power of education to build resilient, thriving communities. She is particularly passionate about supporting SEND and disadvantaged learners. She will share with colleagues how the trust is developing and embarking upon its own form of pure accountability with its stakeholders and communities – called ‘inclusive accountability’
Sam Henson,
Deputy Chief Executive, National Governance Association
Sam has been the National Governance Association’s Deputy Chief Executive since January 2024 and previously worked as NGA’s Director of Policy and Communications. Sam oversees NGA’s policy, research, advocacy, external affairs and advice and guidance work. Sam works closely with and deputises for NGA’s Chief Executive, leading the organisation to achieve positive change and drive influence at a national level through our policy and influencing work.
Sam specialises in several areas, including Ofsted, school accountability and workforce. He is the lead author of NGA’s guide, Governing a Multi Academy Trust and authored and co-authored NGA’s policy and research reports Moving MATs Forward, the Mature MAT system, Ofsted and governance and NGA’s annual governance survey reports.
Sam has is frequently featured in education media and has also driven NGA’s governance focus into national policy conversation, featuring in the Independent, the Times, the Guardian and BBC Breakfast.
Michael Pain
Founder, Forum Strategy
Michael Pain is the founder of Forum Strategy and an entrepreneur, overseeing the development of successful businesses and a national network of well over one hundred Chief Executives. He is a long-standing strategic adviser to CEOs and Chairs, a ‘sought after’ coach to executives, and author of the acclaimed book: ‘Being The CEO‘. In 2021, Michael’s Being The CEO framework was endorsed and published as the template job description for academy trust CEOs by the National Governance Association. Michael is a barrister by training, having been Called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 2007. He is also a co-owner of Satis Education, a sector-leading executive recruitment organisation
Michael developed the concept of ‘pure accountability’ in 2020, and has written on it extensively in sector publications, as well as supporting a number of trusts and other organisations to take it forward in practice.
Sir Steve Lancashire
Chair of National #TrustLeaders CEO Network
Steve is Chair of our national #TrustLeaders CEO network & a Forum Strategy Associate offering mentoring to academy trust CEOs and working alongside Michael Pain on our Being the CEO programme. Sir Steve has delivered his highly anticipated annual keynote speech at this event since 2022. Previously, Sir Steve was the founder CEO of REAch2, one of the largest primary academy trusts in England and has been involved in primary education for over thirty years as an Executive Headteacher before becoming the CEO of REAch2. He is the author of the acclaimed book ‘Reflections on Being The CEO’.
He is a highly respected thought leader, mentor and educational thinker – nationally and internationally.
The agenda includes
9.30am: Pure Accountability – a defining shift in today’s landscape. Michael Pain
9.50am: Initial Group Discussion
10.00am: From Customer to Citizen – the role of participation in the new era of public service leadership and securing thriving communities. Jon Alexander
10.35am: A dialogue with Sir Steve, Jon Alexander and members
11.05am: Break
11.25am: Kate Davis, CEO and doctoral researcher – the evolution of community-engaged trusts. Including dialogue with Sir Steve, Jon Alexander and members
11.55am: The role of the board and models of governance in securing pure accountability. Sam Henson, Deputy CEO of the National Governance Association. Including a dialogue with Sir Steve, Jon and members
12.30pm: Lunch
1.10pm: From concept to reality. Dr. Sam Parrett OBE. Including a dialogue with Sir Steve, Jon and members.
1.40pm: Group dialogues around next steps
2.10pm: Plenary with Jon Alexander, Sam Parrett, Sam Henson and Kate Davies
2.40pm: Sir Steve’s closing keynote
3.15pm: Close
More speakers to be confirmed shortly
National #TrustLeaders Symposium 2025
One year in: navigating the change as trusts and as a sector
Read all the details from the 2025 #TrustLeaders Symposium by clicking the button below.