Trust Peer Review
Advance your trust with actionable insights on the areas you want to develop
Overview
All trusts are different. The challenges they can face vary with location, maturity and size, as well as character, ethos and approach. But all trust leaders share a singular ambition to drive school improvement and create better outcomes for the children and young people they serve.
Aligned to the Confederation of School Trusts' Strong Trusts Assurance Framework, our innovative Trust Peer Review (TPR) evaluates your trust’s effectiveness in achieving that ambition and your specific development goals.
“The trust peer review process is reviewing a trust on its own terms, it’s not a fixed framework in terms of judgments… It was confidence-giving that what we are doing is working well and we should be sharing it with others and inviting others to be a part of it."
Dave Baker CEO, Olympus Academy Trust
The approach
This expert-led three-day review enables trust-wide development on priorities you identify through peer challenge and collaboration. It celebrates strengths, brings new insights and identifies actionable next steps in a written report. Recommendations to strengthen your trust are based on evidence gathered from across your trust by a trained peer review team guided by a skilled Lead Reviewer.
The external team links up with host leaders to understand each trust’s unique history, context, and approach. Host leaders are encouraged to involve their colleagues and focus on the challenges they need to address to move forward.
Challenge Partners trains trust leaders as peer reviewers to review other school trusts, providing the experiential development in leadership and evaluation skills, and the chance to learn from trusts in different contexts, and magpie ideas to take back to their own trust.
We encourage trusts to join the Trust Peer Review nationally but also welcome the opportunity to work with groups of trusts to deliver regional reviews.
The Trust Peer Review:
Aligns
Aligns with CST’s Strong Trusts Assurance Framework
Evaluates
Evaluates our trust on its own terms – it is done with, not to, your trust
Bespoke
Is bespoke to your needs, focusing on development priorities defined by you
Captures
Captures and shares effective practice while providing actionable, evidence-based suggestions of how to improve
Powerful
Provides powerful training, unrivalled experiential CPD and insight for reviewers
Identifies
Identifies opportunities for collaboration and connection, deepening relationships between trusts at multiple levels and building a shared sense of responsibility for education, children and young people
“I found this whole experience excellent CPD, I came away feeling that I had positively contributed to the review with the recommendations and feedback that I made as well as having many thoughts on how we can continue to develop our own Trust.”
Michelle Plumtree, CFO, Learning without Limits Academy Trust
100%
of TPR Reviewers reported gaining valuable insights or experiences from their participation in the Trust Peer Review, which they planned to apply within their own trusts.
95%
of Host Trusts stated the TPR will lead to changes/refinements in the trust's approach to school improvement that will have a positive impact on pupils' life chances.
2025/26 subscriptions open now
Secure your place for a year of collaboration and impact. Sign up by 16 May to take advantage of early bird prices. Have a look at our new brochure and get in touch with us at partnershipsteam@challengepartners.org to discuss your options