The development programme
Practical estates education for trustees, governors, governance professionals, clerks, school business professionals, executive leaders and estates teams: what good estate management looks like, grounded in the five connected domains of estate management and the DfE framework, delivered by practitioners who also do the work.
Nobody has to admit anything to take a place. The programme is for the board that wants to understand what its own instruments now ask of it, the executive team that wants to set direction for the estate without being pulled into its day-to-day, and the estates lead or school business professional who carries the estate and wants the framework to be a support for the job rather than an accusation. A place on the programme leads naturally to the introductory conversation and, where it fits, to the staged pathway; it requires neither.
The launch modules
The programme opens with two modules and a standing seminar.
Estates development for governors and trustees.
The Academy Trust Handbook 2026, which academy trusts must comply with as a condition of their funding agreement, names estate management within a trust board's responsibilities from 1 October 2026, and the governance guides place the estate within board and governor responsibility in the maintained sector. This module gives boards what that responsibility asks of them: the responsibilities they now hold, and what good oversight and assurance look like from the board seat. It is led by the partnership's governance lead, and it is the programme form of the partnership's governance training.
Strategic leadership, risk and accountability.
For chief executives, chief operating officers, chief financial officers and boards: the estate as an organisational asset and an organisational risk, and how leadership teams set direction for it without being pulled into its day-to-day.
The termly seminar
A standing termly session for members of the programme community: what is new across the framework each term, with a practical theme and a guest speaker.
Further modules join as the programme grows, including a leadership development pathway for estates professionals and development for chairs, governance professionals and clerks; both are available now as engagements in the people, capability and training area of support.
Briefings and roundtables
The partnership also convenes and joins briefings, roundtables and listening circles through trusted networks and established forums. They are described on How We Work, where the CTA for them sits.
Where a place leads
A programme place leads naturally to the conversation and, where it fits, to the pathway. If you would like to talk first, the conversation is short and carries no obligation.