Themed on ‘building excellence‘, we explored how trusts can optimise their operational functions to build capacity, drive improvement and deliver coherent and consistent support for their schools in the new policy and funding landscape
delegates
speakers
sessions
Main-stage sessions explored:
Breakout sessions included:
Attendees had the opportunity to:
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Senior Fellow, Institute for Government
Senior Fellow, Institute for Government
Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for Prospect, New Statesman, TES, FT, Guardian and Sunday Times. Sam and his father, Lawrence Freedman, co-author their popular Substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ which has over 33,000 subscribers. Previously he was CEO of Education Partnerships Group, which supports governments in sub-Saharan Africa to develop education policy and was an executive director at Teach First. He worked at the Department for Education as a senior policy adviser to Michael Gove between 2010 and 2013. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
Research Fellow, The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
Research Fellow, The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
Luke is a research fellow attached to the Education, Employment and Evaluation sector. His general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality. In the recent past, he has conducted research into the following specific areas: school funding; the impact of the home learning environment on child outcomes; trends in top incomes; trends in child poverty and income inequality; and the politics of tax policy.
Chief Operating Officer / CFO, Ormiston Academies Trust
Chief Operating Officer / CFO, Ormiston Academies Trust
Jo Dawson started her career training as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Birmingham, after being educated at the University of Birmingham. She joined the trust in 2019 from the private sector where she had held a number of senior global leadership roles. Jo’s previous role was at Jaguar Land Rover Overseas where she was responsible for an annual turnover of £6 billion. Having been a chair of governors at an academy in Birmingham for 10 years, Jo is now a co-opted member of the audit and risk committee at the University of Liverpool.
In her role as Chief Operating Officer / CFO at Ormiston Acadmies Trust, she performs all aspects of the role of Chief Financial Officer in addition to having responsibility for all areas of operational activity outside of educational delivery. This includes leading the following professional services: estates management, governance, IT, administration, communications, HR, and finance.
We would love to see you at our next Finance and Operations Conference, taking place on Thursday 5 February 2026 at The Eastside Rooms, Birmingham.
