From MAT-Sceptic headteacher to chief executive: A reflection on autonomy, accountability and support from both sides of the fence

Abstract

This reflective article revisits an argument I made some years ago, when, as a serving headteacher, I resisted pressure to join a multi-academy trust and questioned the power such trusts placed in the hands of distant chief executives. Three years into leading a small primary trust myself, I return to that argument from the other side of the fence. Writing as a practitioner, I use autoethnographic reflection to re-examine four themes: scale and growth, executive power, collaboration, and local autonomy. I do not offer a conversion narrative. Instead, I argue that the structural features I once feared are neither inherently harmful nor benign; their effect depends on how leadership intent is exercised. The question worth asking is not whether trusts hold too much power, but whether those who hold it do so with transparency, restraint and moral purpose.