How staff and parent campaign toppled the leadership of 24-school academy trust

CEO, chair of board, finance committee chair, finance director and well-known trust member have left Arthur Terry Learning Partnership in recent weeks. New vice-chair’s DfE history and role as a School Resource Management Adviser may also raise eyebrows, given trust’s recent struggles.

 

The entire strategic leadership of a 24-school academy trust has stood down, following one of the most energetic and multi-faceted campaigns of concern ever reported on by Education Uncovered.

Richard Gill, the long-serving chief executive of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), was announced on Friday as having resigned permanently, in the face of nine days of strike action by National Education Union members, rallies attended by hundreds of people and a 2,000-signature petition.

This followed the departure of the chair of the trust, John Vickers, who resigned on January 1^st; Brian Cookson, the chair of its finance committee, on December 9^th; David Watson, another trustee, on January 27^th; and the chief finance and operations officer, Simon Smith, on December 31st.

Furthermore, Sir David Carter, who was the first-listed controlling “member” of ATLP in its most recent accounts and is a former national schools commissioner at the DfE, also stood down from that position on December 31^st.

Plans to make up to 100 staff members redundant, which had sparked huge controversy given multi-million pound debts accumulated presided over by the leadership in recent years and its huge apparent “topslice” for central services, have also now been scrapped, I understand.

The developments are the second example of what could be seen as a community or communities exerting serious leverage over a multi-academy trust in recent weeks. Last month, a revolt forced the abandonment of plans for Trinity MAT in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, to take over a smaller trust there.