What is LeadingTrusts?
Identifying the next generation of trust leaders
Click here to download the full programme overview
Rationale
England’s schools have made great strides—but deep injustice remains.
Today, 90% of schools in England are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted (Ofsted, 2024). That’s up from 68% in 2010. It’s a big shift and an impressive achievement. It means that around 5,000 more schools are achieving the top Ofsted grades. Schools have adjusted to demanding curriculum expectations, and our understanding of how we can improve the quality of teaching across the system has improved rapidly.
Yet, too many children still feel unsafe, unseen, and disconnected from the futures they deserve.
Less than two-thirds of UK teenagers feel like they belong in school, below the OECD average of 75% (PISA, 2022).
With over 5 million children now educated in trusts, the stakes have never been higher. School trusts could be engines of equity and belonging—or they could entrench the gaps we endeavour to close.
Yet leadership pipelines are fragile. Many trusts lack succession plans, and too few aspiring CEOs have spaces to wrestle honestly with what it will take to lead in a new era.
LeadingTrusts exists to meet this moment. Through direct experience with serving CEOs, deep reflection, and peer connection, we are cultivating a generation of trust leaders ready to do the hard, human work: building organisations where all children thrive—not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and culturally. Leaders who will not settle for sustaining the system they inherit, but who will be ready to reshape it.
Objectives
Over the course of a 12-month leadership development programme and a lifelong network, aspiring trust leaders will:
1️⃣ Sharpen their vision
Through visits to a range of existing trust CEOs and system leads and deep, carefully facilitated discussions, leaders will develop the clarity and conviction they need to lead a trust where all children can thrive.
2️⃣ Prepare to become a CEO
Leaders will build and implement an individual development plan; receive 1:1 leadership coaching; be mentored by serving CEOs; and build the peer network to be ready to lead change across their trust and through our system.
3️⃣ Locally rooted, (inter-)nationally connected
Leaders will build a deep understanding of the needs and assets in their region and mix this with cutting-edge insight from leading experts (in education and beyond) from across England in the USA.
4️⃣ Strengthen your capacity to lead change
Learn to navigate the ambiguity of a changing education system, lead a trust where all children belong and flourish, and help reshape the narrative about what trusts are for.
5️⃣ Cultivate a close network
Leaders will build strong, trusting relationships with a cohort of future trust leaders in their regions, and a wider national network of next-generation CEOs, all of whom are committed to running trusts that prioritise children experiencing disadvantage.
Structure
LeadingTrusts is built to challenge and sharpen thinking. Through various stimuli (visits to trust CEOs, webinars, conference days) and carefully facilitated reflective discussions, the programme structure aims to sharpen and challenge thinking about the role of school trust CEOs and what the next generation can achieve.
Eligibility
We are now recruiting for the third LeadingTrusts cohort. We are looking for aspiring trust CEOs who want to take their organisations on to the next level.
Aim to become a trust CEO within 3 years
Are driven by the desire to serve children experiencing disadvantage as a priority
Have substantial leadership experience and potential to lead change at scale
Possess the humility and desire to learn from and alongside others
Are willing to challenge prevailing orthodoxy about what success looks like and create a vision for a new generation of school trusts
Applying to join
To join LeadingTrusts100, follow the three steps below:
Secure a 'sponsor'. Speak to your trust lead (often, CEO) and secure their permission to participate in the programme
Complete the application form. By Friday 27th June @ 5pm (including contact details for your 'sponsor')
Supporting statement. If selected, we will write to your 'sponsor' to request a supporting statement for your application to join LeadingTrusts
Price
The price of participating in LeadingTrusts is £5,000 per person. This includes the following:
10 x visits and interactions with leading trust CEOs (inc. food and accommodation; exc. travel)
4 x 'deep dive' training days
12 x webinars (all featuring serving trust leaders and CEOs)
Termly 1:1 leadership coaching sessions
Termly mentoring from serving CEOs
For more information about the LeadingTrusts programme, including an indicative schedule, head here.
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