Central Services Review

Our Central Services Review examines how a trust’s support functions operate across roles, responsibilities, systems and service delivery. The aim is to help leadership understand what is working, where capacity or cost is misaligned, and what should change.

Strategy & Assurance

How we can help

  • Organisational effectivenessAssess whether the central team is structured to meet current and future trust requirements.
  • Internal vs external capabilityReview what should be delivered in-house and what may be better sourced externally.
  • Central vs school responsibilitiesClarify where responsibilities and resources should sit between the trust centre and individual schools.
  • Structure and rolesReview roles, job descriptions, management spans, responsibilities and associated costs.
  • BenchmarkingCompare administrative resource and cost with relevant trust or school benchmarks where data is available.
  • Leadership feedbackGather structured feedback from trust leadership on service quality, responsiveness and effectiveness.
  • Governance reportingReview the quality and usefulness of reports reaching executives, directors and local governance.
  • Functional analysisReview core functions such as governance, finance, administration, HR/payroll, H&S, estates and IT.
  • Procurement governanceAssess procurement arrangements against academy trust requirements and good practice.

Let’s talk about your estate.

Whether you are shaping a strategy, reviewing FM, planning a capital project or simply need experienced estates advice, start with the issue and we will work out the right support together.