Almost every day we read a news article about a MAT scandal. Whether it be a financial notice to improve, a poor Ofsted report or a failure of governance, these stories have become all too common.

The questions that are often asked are: why has it taken Ofsted, the DfE or the ESFA to come along for people to realise how bad it is? Why hasn’t something been done before?

A MAT cannot lose all of its money or shift from good to special measures overnight. These things happen over time. 

So how do you know if you’re working in a mismanaged MAT? What are the symptoms you should be looking out for that may lead to a detrimental diagnosis?

In my experience, there are three key areas that you should assess to determine whether your MAT is being mismanaged:

Governance

• Consider the constitution of your Board and Governing Bodies. Determine whether they are the right people to undertake these roles in terms of their values, skillset, personal interests and capacity. 
• Review the governance self-evaluation systems that are in place. Consider how objective this process is, how often it is undertaken and how effective your MAT is at following up on areas for development. 
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your Scheme of Delegation. Determine how well it is adhered to and whether it is effective in operation. 
• Assess the quality of your meetings in relation to schedule, agendas and records of discussion. Evidence of accountability, scrutiny, challenge and support should be clear and documented.
• Consider the level of transparency of your governance systems. You should be able to clearly articulate your decision making process and justify the actions of governors both to local stakeholders and external bodies.

Leadership

• Consider the capacity of your leaders in relation to delivering sustainable improvement within your MAT. 
• Assess how well your leaders tackle poor performance and conduct and whether they execute their role as leader fairly, equitably and consistently.
• Determine how well your leaders apply the policies of your MAT. Consider how you ensure that MAT systems and processes are followed in relation to education, employment law, finance and compliance.
• Review the performance management processes for your leaders to ensure that they focus on MAT determined core competencies beyond education specific targets. Consider finance management and people management as indicators of leadership quality.
• Consider how well the leaders within your MAT respond to challenge and the opportunity to collaborate. Issues within these areas can indicate an underlying cultural problem that can erode the effectiveness of the MAT over time.

Finance

• Consider the level of experience of your finance staff and the qualifications they hold in the context of the role that you expect them to perform. Assess their ability to provide correct and timely information and whether they present it in an audience-appropriate way.
• Determine how your finance team responds to challenge and scrutiny both within meetings and from external bodies. Questions that cannot be answered or data that cannot be supported is a red flag that should not be ignored.
• Review the financial systems within your MAT to ensure that there are appropriate checks in place to act as an ‘early warning’ system. An external audit report should not be the first time that you learn about financial issues within your MAT. 
• Assess the value of the MAT central team in terms of the capacity that they add to the schools and whether the relationships between the financial team and local school leaders enables sound financial management.
• Consider how the finance function integrates with other areas across the MAT including school development planning, curriculum planning, staffing strategy and capital expenditure. A financial team that works within a silo cannot be effective.

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Written for: Primary School Management Magazine (@primaryleaders)