From pressure to performance: what school and trust leaders need to know about workforce and procurement

The pressures facing finance and operations leaders across schools and trusts right now is high. Budgets are tighter, expectations are higher, and the day-to-day demands leave little room to step back and think strategically.

At this year’s Schools and Academies Show – held at London Excel on 7 May 2026 – IRIS Education hosted a session in the Business and Finance Theatre called ‘From pressure to performance: operational excellence in a trust-led system’.

The session brought together the following four sector experts to cut through the noise and focus on what leaders need to know:

• Bob Yorke, Senior Director, IRIS Education
• Zoe Reuter, COO, Findel
• Jen Elliott, CEO, EPM and Chair of Advisory Board, nEdEx
• Carina Cuddington, MD, EduFin

Drawing on themes from the latest schools white paper, the conversation explored how strong financial stewardship, intelligent procurement, and mature operational leadership allow trusts to build resilience, scalability, and genuine value for money – without losing sight of pupil outcomes.

Here are the key takeaways:

Your workforce is your biggest strategic asset

Workforce costs account for at least 80% of most trust budgets. The challenge is that almost every government priority – such as SEND provision, safeguarding, teacher development, and trust growth – needs the right people in the right roles.

“An optimised workforce is the single biggest driver of educational outcomes, organisational stability and long-term sustainability. At least 80% of the budget sits here – everything else flows from getting this right.”
– Jen Elliott, CEO, EPM and Chair of Advisory Board, nEdEx

Trusts often jump straight to solutions without working out what the problem is first. The starting point needs to be a proper people audit. That means getting a clear picture of:

• Current vacancies and where they’re concentrated
• Absence levels and trends
• Turnover rates and what’s driving them
• Leadership capacity and succession risks
• Skills gaps – both centrally and across schools

Without this baseline information, decisions about recruitment, restructuring, or investment become reactive rather than strategic. Data doesn’t just inform HR decisions, it shapes the entire direction of the trust.

“Too many trusts move straight to solutions without diagnosing the real issues first. You have to start with a people audit – vacancies, absence, turnover, succession risks. Only then can you make smarter, targeted decisions rather than reactive ones.”

– Jen Elliott, CEO, EPM and Chair of Advisory Board, nEdEx

Once that picture is clear, the case for integrated HR and payroll systems becomes obvious. When workforce data sits in disconnected spreadsheets or legacy systems, leaders just don’t have the information they need. When it’s all joined up and connected to finance and governance, trusts can move from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.

The link between workforce stability and outcomes for children is direct and well-evidenced. Stable, well-supported teams produce better attendance, stronger behaviour, greater curriculum consistency, and improved school performance.

“Every workforce issue eventually lands in the classroom. Trusts cannot afford to operate with disconnected HR, payroll, finance, and governance systems – the cost isn’t just admin, it’s outcomes.”

– Jen Elliott, CEO, EPM and Chair of Advisory Board, nEdEx

The final point on workforce is one that often gets lost in operational conversations: staff wellbeing and financial sustainability should not be competing priorities – they should reinforce each other.

Lower absence levels mean lower supply costs. Stronger retention means lower recruitment spend. And both lead to better outcomes. The best trusts treat workforce planning as a core strategic driver of culture, outcomes, and long-term sustainability, not just as an HR exercise.

Procurement: visibility before savings

On the procurement side, Zoe Reuter from Findel challenged a common assumption – that getting value for money means renegotiating contracts and chasing savings. In reality, the trusts making the most progress tend to start somewhere more fundamental: understanding what they’re actually spending.

“Most trusts aren’t short of goodwill around value for money – what they’re short of is time, clarity, and systems that make doing the right thing the easy thing.”

– Zoe Reuter, COO, Findel

The most effective trusts start by building a clear, trust-wide view of what’s being bought, who’s buying it, and how. Without that information, you can end up purchasing reactively. Having different suppliers, prices, and processes when buying the same products prevents value for money and makes financial forecasting much harder.

“The trusts making the most progress don’t start by renegotiating everything, they get a clear view of their current procurement processes to ensure proactive decision-making.”

– Zoe Reuter, COO, Findel

With that full understanding in place, you can take the following steps:

Standardise where it makes sense

Using preferred supplier routes for high-volume, low-complexity spend saves time and reduces price variance without removing headteacher autonomy where it genuinely matters educationally.

Embed procurement into financial control

In mature trusts, procurement is aligned to budget setting, approval thresholds, and on-going monitoring, so spend decisions are informed, compliant, and predictable.

Don’t overlook the admin burden

Paper processes, duplicate data entry, and invoice chasing don’t just cost time – they add risk and make assurance harder.

The key when it comes to working it all out is to not try and solve everything at once. Pick one or two high-volume categories, put a simple trusted route in place, and integrate it with your finance system so schools can easily follow it.

“Despite all the talk of efficiency and e-procurement, people still buy from people they trust. The technology should enable great relationships, not replace them.”

– Zoe Reuter, COO, Findel

The question every trust should be asking

Both conversations came back to the same underlying principle: operational excellence isn’t about perfection, it’s about continuous improvement – removing any activity that doesn’t drive value, focusing of simplification and efficiencies, and listening to the people it affects the most.

Office teams know where the friction is. Heads of finance know where the data gaps are. Listening to them won’t just give you the biggest time-saving opportunities – it will also make those colleagues feel heard at a time when sustained pressure is currently the norm, not the exception.

“What I found most interesting about this session was how consistent the message was – whether you’re talking about workforce, procurement, or financial systems, the trusts that are thriving have stopped treating operations as an afterthought and started treating it as a priority. Conversations like this one remind me of why that shift matters.”

– Bob Yorke, Senior Director, IRIS Education

The question to ask over the next 12 months is a simple one: Does this make it easier for our schools and our people to do the right thing, first time? If the answer is yes, you’re building the kind of operation that will last.

How integrated systems support both priorities

Whether the focus is workforce planning or procurement efficiency, the thread connecting both is integration. Disconnected HR, payroll, finance, and governance systems create duplication, slow decision-making, and increase compliance risk. Joined-up systems save leadership time, reduce admin burden, provide real-time insight, and support faster, better-informed decisions.

IRIS Education provides solutions with exactly this in mind – helping trusts connect finance, HR, payroll and procurement in a way that turns good intentions into everyday practice. If you’d like to explore how integrated systems could support your trust’s operational priorities, get in touch with one of our team.