Case Study: Centurion MAT
How TrustGov helped CMAT cut meeting prep time, shorten meetings and deliver better governance outcomes
Overview
Centurion Multi Academy Trust (CMAT) was spending too much time managing governance processes (meeting prep, communication & pack creation) and needed to use their existing resources more effectively.
They faced challenges, due to reliance on resources from other teams for timely calling notices and meeting packs, leading to frequent inter-team communications and delays, which was impacting governance meetings and the ability to make timely decisions.
Through careful analysis, Louise and her team identified the need for greater transparency to enhance accountability, with a view to improving overall service delivery.
Louise was looking for a solution that:
- Significantly reduced operational workload.
- Improved consistency of governance service delivery.
- Facilitated transparency between internal/external teams and governance layers.
Key Takeaways
Challenges
- Heavy administrative workload
- Missing documents/meeting packs
- Inefficient meetings
- Governor engagement
- Data recall
Outcomes
- Significant time savings
- Consistent, high quality, governance
- Shorter meetings
- Faster decision-making
- Painless audit & compliance
- Cost efficiency
- Transparency & Accountability
Solution
Centurion implemented TrustGov in Feb 2024 and Louise mandated that it become the Trust’s “single central governance record”.
All governance calendaring/meetings, agendas, document packs, training and compliance would be stored, and managed, through the platform.
Louise was particularly interested in TrustGov’s automated workflows for meeting comms & pack creation, and gathering of declarations and believed that it could help solve some of her service delivery challenges and take some of the workload off of her central team.
CMAT saw immediate gains from the TrustGov implementation and, because it’s so easy to use, her Governors have embraced it.
Louise Guthrie (CEO)
- 5 governing bodies
- 1600+ pupils
- Established 2024
THE IMPACT
CMAT saw immediate gains after implementing TrustGov
Significant Time Savings
For Governance Managers & Clerks
“TrustGov has saved us doing all of the manual tasks, it’s made my life easier, and has cut my preparation time by at least 50%. I’m saving at least half a day every week.”
TrustGov has transformed the team’s meeting preparation process through task automation – saving significant time & effort and nothing gets missed.
Her team defines agenda templates to use as launchpads for LGB meetings; agendas are auto populated and documents are automatically organised by topic.
TrustGov then automates calling notices/reminders and gathers attendance & apologies.
Painless Audits
For Governance Managers
“TrustGov has made audits painless. Our documents and reports are in one place and by giving the auditors read-only access, they pull what they need to themselves.”
Audits used to be painful but in the last two audits, Louise’s team simply granted access to the auditors to gather what they needed themselves.
Because TrustGov is so intuitive, auditors found everything they needed, with minimal support from the central team.
This took the pain and stress away from the audit and the central team now has one less job to do when the auditors come calling.
Shorter Meetings
For Governors
“With TrustGov, my governors have instant access to papers on any device. They now do their pre-reading which results in prompt decision making / more effective meetings.”
With more transparency, Clerks and Governors are more accountable. Papers are submitted on-time and because TrustGov is so easy to use, Governors are more proactive by pre-reading documents and coming prepared with questions.
The result is shorter, more effective, meetings where LGBs focus on strategic discussions, responding to questions and making better decisions.
Cost Efficiency
For Executives
“We project that CMAT will double in size in the next few years and the time savings from TrustGov will allow us to delay hiring additional resource.”
Louise’s team does more, with less, she planned to hire and now she doesn’t need to.
This is especially important because CMAT has plans to double in size in the coming 2-3 years and Louise foresees that TrustGov will only add more value (and savings) to the Trust as they grow.
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