How do we ensure that the purpose and values of the trusts we lead are lived and shared?

Held over two days, this in-person summit will explore this year's theme 'Values in action: Purpose, public value, and public narrative'. The conference will explore the problem of trust and confidence in public institutions, and how it affects our schools and trusts.

It will offer some possible solutions in the form of answering four powerful questions:
• Who is education for? In system design terms, our most vulnerable learners are often at the margins. We need to bring them into the centre of system design. And we need to make this a first consideration, not an afterthought.
• Public value shifts our organisations away from the view of public services that has been dominant since the mid-80s (choice, competition, markets). Public value has emerged as a response to the limitations of new public management, to incorporate notions of more democratic and inclusive dialogue and deliberation.
• Relational trust is about how we build and value our connections with one another. Viviane Robinson’s work has helped us understand that the ability to build relational trust is a core leadership virtue. Relational trust is grounded in social respect – and respectful exchanges are marked by genuinely listening to people say and by taking these views into account in subsequent actions.
• Public narrative is a leadership practice of translating values into action. It is a way of engaging the head and the heart of others to join you in action on behalf of a shared purpose. Public narratives are narratives that many people share and that reflect deeply held cultural perspectives and shared histories.