Central services and responsibilities
- Centralising a service, step 1: choose a serviceCentralising services across your schools can help you save money and streamline essential services. Find out which types of services you can centralise and how to pick one to begin this process with.
- Centralising a service, step 2: evaluate the current performance of the serviceYou need to understand how well the service you're thinking about centralising currently works. Find out how to use our operating model assessment and questionnaire to build a picture so that you can decide your next steps.
- Centralising a service, step 3: define your motivating factorsNow that you’ve decided to make changes to a service, find out how to use the results from step 2 to define exactly what it is you want to change and why you want to change it.
- Centralising a service, step 4: consider your optionsWeigh up the options for making changes to your service with our evaluation document. Find out who to involve in this decision and see what your next steps are depending on the option you choose.
- Centralising a service, step 5: understand the needs of your staffPut together a project management team to help you carry out this step. Find out who should be on this team and how they can use our questionnaire to understand what staff across your trust need from the service.
- Centralising a service, step 6: create a full service catalogue to run your serviceThis final step will help you put the right things in place to deliver the service. Put together the service provider, finish the service catalogue and get a service level agreement in place.
- Central services offers: examplesSee what other MATs are doing so you can compare your trust's central services with some examples.
- Flowchart: how to centralise a serviceCentralising services can help you save money and streamline essential services. See our flowchart to get a quick overview of our 6-step process for centralising a service.
- How a 14-school trust set its top-slicing strategy: case studyLearn how one trust set its top-slicing strategy with a focus on investment. Get tips on designing the principles of your service, costing your investment plans and how to make this trust's approach work for you.
- How a 6-school trust set its top-slicing strategy: case studyLearn how one trust set its top-slicing strategy, and get advice from an academy finance expert on how to make its approach work for you. Download the trust's service level agreement to see what central services it provides to its schools.
- Top-slicing academy budgetsLearn about the rules of top-slicing, and see examples of how other trusts with multiple academies approach central financing.