Trusts have a surplus of data in different, hard to reach places, and in varying formats. Insight can sometimes be gleaned, but it is a painful, manual process to obtain it - and it is often out of date before it can be used. As a result, the process of analysing and exporting this data is doing nothing more than eating up their time.
This is particularly true for Multi-Academy Trusts. Formed from individual schools that each have their own systems, formats, and ways of collecting data, there is often no aggregated view of data across a whole MAT. In an interview with us, Victoria Birch, Finance Director at Beckfoot Trust, highlighted the importance of: “Making sure that your methodology for collecting data, how you report it, the format it’s in, and the software you use are all consistent.”