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Strategic Business Objectives 2020-2023
The Trust Executive Team and the Board of Directors will include business objectives in addition to our educational priorities which will help us to continue to develop the Trust into a market leader over the coming years.
Strategic objectives and Intent: Why we propose to do this work? Implementations: What and how we intend to do this
Consolidated and managed growth
• Grow organically to ensure the 6th form free schools operate at full capacity. • Market both NCD and NCB accordingly to continue to increase student enrolment numbers. • Continue to build positive relationships with schools in both areas to allow further access to Y10/Y11 students. • All colleges are at full capacity by 2022. Further increase in student enrolments September 2021 VM BCF SN Enrolment numbers will be added when all enrolments have taken place.
• Fully integrate
Wingfield
Academy and then start to develop the secondary arm of the Trust. • Successful transfer of
Wingfield Academy into the
Trust 1 December 2020. • Work with Trust leaders and
Phil Davis to ensure Wingfield staff, students, advisors and parents recognise the positive transfer into NCLT. • Wingfield
Academy transferred into
NCLT. • NCLT support
Wingfield
Academy to achieve its DEP targets. December 2020 RPF JV PD • Transfer completed
December 2021. • Alignment of financial processes and procedures. • HR, payroll, IT, Health and Safety, GDPR and safeguarding are now all fully functioning as
Trust Support
Services. • WFA leaders attend
TET, Safeguarding,
Target Impact Milestone Responsibility Lead Progress/Impact September 2021 Progress/Impact 2021 2022
• Consider further growth opportunities which either add capacity and skills to the Trust or provide support to schools in need. • Work with the Regional
Schools Commissioner to explore opportunities to further grow. • Phil Davis (Headteacher
Wingfield) will lead on establishing and liaising with potential schools to develop the secondary arm. • Identification of potential schools to join NCLT. • Exploratory meetings arranged with key leaders and governing bodies. • Additional school agrees to join
NCLT. January –July 2021
September 2021 - 2023 RPF JV PD • RPF/PD have met with the RSC for Midlands and the Humber to discuss future growth in the Secondary sector, South
Yorkshire Regions. • Exploratory meetings to develop Secondary arm of the Trust have taken place with
Winterhill Academy and Selby High School. • Huddersfield New
College approached the CEO to discuss their future options, with one being joining an existing Trust. This is now in the hands of their Governing Body. • Meetings have taken place with Trudi Toms (Thorpe Hesley Head
Teacher and CEO of
Creative Children
Academy Trust), regarding providing some of the shared services via a service level agreement.
Discussions are ongoing.
Teaching for Learning ½ termly meetings. • Cross
College/Academy lesson observations have taken place to learn from each other.
• Explore new post 16 development opportunities through the free schools programme in order to enhance educational improvements and social mobility in areas of disadvantage. • Continue to liaise with
Bradford LA regarding the possibility of a post 16 provider in North Bradford (New College Keighley). • Meet with the Free School
Network to establish when the next wave of free schools will be announced. • Follow up on initial meeting with Bradford LA and local MPs resulting in full support and backing to pursue a 3
rd
Free School application. January 2021 to 2023 RPF JV • Several meetings have taken place with
Bradford Local
Authority regarding a potential post-16 free school for North
Bradford, which would be named New
College Keighley. • Bradford Local
Authority have confirmed that NCLT is their preferred partner for any future venture. • Waiting on
Government announcement on the next wave of free school applications, delayed due to COVID and Government finances.
• Take advantage of any capital growth funding to further develop the estates and increase the capacity to meet the rising population demographic. • Continue to follow the SFCA updates regarding capital growth funding opportunities. • Appointment of Bid Writer for the Trust to keep a breadth of new developments and opportunities. • Capital funding made available by the DfE. • Successful application submitted. JV • Appointed David
Brighton as the internal Bid Writer for the Trust, who now supports all 4 institutions with and grants and funding opportunities that become available. • David is currently working on a Literacy bid for WFA. • An application has been made for post16 capital expansion fund for an extension of LAW at NCP.
Establishing a first class shared services model
• Provide a highly effective and efficient shared services model to support the smooth running and management of Trust services, regularly benchmarked. • Review the current shared services functions. • Provide a benchmarking exercise to the BOD each year – benchmarking the individual colleges against each other on key performance indicators. • A fully functioning shared services model providing effective services for
Wingfield
Academy, including
Finance, HR,
Health & Safety,
Estates, GDPR and IT. • Ensure each of the Colleges is providing value for money and best practice. November 2020-July 2021
January 2021 RPF JV • Benchmarking exercises took place
October 2020 to establish staff views in the current shared services. To be repeated annually to establish progress/views. • COO benchmarked the College against key performance indictors to ensure value for money (currently not available nationally).
• Continue to invest in new technology to support the development of • Ensure that the Trust is investing in new technology to support the development of the shared services looking • The experience for the end users –students, Ongoing during academic JV • Invested in financial project planning software to assist
Awaiting results in
Autumn term. • WFA are currently in consultation to make an application to increase their Pupil
Admissions Number (PAN). • Depending on the success of the application, WFA intend to build new classrooms via CIF or other funding streams.
Trust shared services.
at for example parent pay options, Work experience software, risk assessment software, IT/Site logging systems. • Trust develops an implementation plan for new developments parents, staff is enhanced and the services provided are improved and monitored
• New developments are introduced in a timely way to avoid disruption to services year 202021
financial planning and monitoring. • Research and development of the
Power BI tool to provide live dashboard of data.
Some of this work is now complete and some is on-going. • Invested in Evolve software to assist
Trips and Visits process across the
Trust. • Introduction of new job ticketing system for Estates and IT. • Planned recruitment of a cyber security post for the Trust.
• Continue to ensure that we are an employer of choice, to support talent management, with clear succession plans which are sustainable resulting in strong staff recruitment and retention. • Continue implementing the
‘Employer of Choice’ action plan.
HR will lead on, working closely with the CEO, COO,
Marketing manager and college Principals. • Staff retention rates and staff turnover remain in-line with previous years, continuing to be significantly stronger than national averages. • Staff surveys continue to be very positive and in line with previous years. September 2021 RPF LW • Staff retention and turnover remained very strong this past 12 months and wellabove sector averages. • A systematic review of staffing levels and pay grades has taken place for all the support functions in the Trust. This has resulted in increased staff levels in IT, HR,
MIS, Students
Services, Health and
Safety, Estates, Study
• Ensure the Trust shared services functions are suitably staffed to provide outstanding support for 11-16 schools. • COO and HR Director to lead developments on ensuring the current services fit the needs of an 11-16 school. • Appoint a customer services/relations manager to be the first point of contact for Wingfield staff if they have concerns about the quality of the shared services provided. • Wingfield staff are fully ofay with how the shared services work. November 2020 to July 2021 JV • Appointment of
Finance Director,
Dave Hunt to work closely with WFA and ensure that all finance systems are aligned. This has proven to be an effective appointment. • Numerous training events have taken place to up-skill WFA support staff in HR and finance. • Relations Manager appointed for the
Trust.
Support and Progress
Tutors. • The review has also resulted in the rebanding of most support services. • Well-being policy has been re-vamped to enhanced the provision of wellbeing activities at each College (including the redistribution of the rewards budget into supporting more well-being activities for wider staff).
Strong sustained financial health
• Set challenging financial targets for each Trust school/college to reflect their individual context ensuring they achieve a positive cash surplus. • The trust will set a positive surplus target for the school/Colleges of around 3% – if this cannot be achieved then there must be a three year plan which returns the academy back to positive surplus and in line with the targets set for the other schools/colleges • Those schools/colleges running deficit budgets must have sufficient reserves to meet any deficit. • All the schools/colleges should have regard to ensuring that their budgets balance and that expenditure is closely monitored to avoid deficits. • The curriculum offer should be regularly tested and costed to ensure it is fit for purpose. Budget setting each year in June/July JV • All the colleges have met or exceeded their targets. • Strong student recruitment has resulted in additional in-year funds being available at NCB and
NCP.
• Ensure we achieve value for money in all our purchasing operations, to utilise our collective purchasing power. • By having centralised purchasing for the trust we can take advantage of economies of scale/trust purchasing power. • Tenders where possible will be at trust level to ensure best value. • This will achieve value for money and help to keep overhead costs down. Ongoing during the year 202021 JV • Strong adherence to financial procedures ensures best value for money on all purchases. • Increased buying power has allowed the Trust to negotiate discounts on numerous building and estate contracts. • Tenders have been renegotiated for NCD buses, website redesign and prospectus, LAW extension (NCP) and
LAC shop (NCP).
• Continue to build up Trust reserves which allow for future investment in each Academies estate to provide first class facilities to support outstanding teaching and learning. • Each college/schools to build up reserves to reinvest in large building projects where appropriate. • The estates strategic plan will set out the longer term development needs of each school/college. • The trust will continue to work with other consultants/architects/project managers to bid for any future capital funds. • By having a long term estates development plan for each school/college this will help to ensure that we can meet future needs of students and staff taking into account demographic trends. • To take advantage of any capital funds which might become available in the future to support the development of first class facilities. Ongoing during year 2020-24 JV • Each college has built up a strong level of reserves which will enable them to continue to invest in first-class facilities. • Substantial investment in IT to support home learning during the pandemic (particularly for disadvantaged students). • Due to a down-turn in student recruitment at NCD last academic year, this will result in a deficit budget for 2021/22. This will be met from NCD’s reserves. • WFA are working hard to reduce the deficit with plans to run surplus budget by 2022/23.
