How well are trusts listening?

In October’s CST Conference, we invited more than 60 education leaders, teachers, and trust professionals to take part in a snapshot version of our upcoming Listening Maturity Self-Assessment. The aim was simple: to understand where trusts in England currently stand in their journey towards becoming listening organisations, those that collect, understand, and act on feedback as part of everyday culture.

The results provide a fascinating overview of how listening is understood and practised across the sector and where we still have room to grow.

Where the sector stands

Workshop participants assessed their organisations across four listening practices: collecting feedback, analysing it, responding to it, and closing the loop.
Across all four areas, the majority placed themselves at the Structured stage of maturity, meaning listening is happening regularly but still feels like an add-on rather than an integral part of planning and improvement.

Overall, Voice practices are more embedded than the other practices, with Understanding being the least embedded in trusts.

A familiar pattern

This echoes what we’ve seen in Edurio’s broader research; most organisations are still transitioning from doing listening exercises to being listening organisations.

Many trusts are confident in their feedback tools but less certain about what happens next.

• Feedback is gathered, but analysis is often surface-level or siloed.
• Action planning varies across teams.
• Communication back to stakeholders can be slow or inconsistent.

Guest contributor to the workshop, Alison Day from LEO Academy Trust captured this challenge well:

When feedback isn’t visibly acted on, trust can erode. The sense that “nothing changes” is one of the biggest barriers to participation in future listening efforts, a dynamic we see across both schools and trusts.

Bright spots: Proactive Listening is practised

Encouragingly, we see signs of Proactive Listening in the self-assessment results, which show that some trusts are further advanced in their listening practices than others. Some trusts are already:

• Using feedback strategically to shape improvement plans.
• Triangulating perspectives across staff, pupils, and parents.
• Developing clearer accountability for follow-through.
• Communicating progress with transparency – moving beyond “you said, we did” to “here’s what we’re learning and exploring together.”

There are already pockets of good examples of listening in the sector, where some trusts are advancing from listening as a data collection exercise to a leadership behaviour, one that strengthens trust, belonging, and shared purpose.

Trusts can benefit by learning from each other about what works on the path to becoming better listening organisations.

Here’s how guest contributor Ash Rahman from Nova Education Trust described the journey, leading through listening:

How to move beyond Structured Listening: Quick wins to start right away

Moving beyond Structured Listening doesn’t have to mean major reform. It starts with small, visible habits that build confidence and consistency. Here are four practical steps leaders can take this term, one for each listening practice:

1. Voice: Plan when and how you’ll listen.

• Publish a simple listening calendar for the term.
• Include who you’ll listen to, when, and through which channels (staff forums, pupil panels, surveys, or informal drop-ins). Visibility matters: people are more likely to share their views when they know when it’s their turn.

2. Understanding: Make sense of what you hear.

• After each listening activity, hold a short sense-making huddle with a cross-section of colleagues.
• Look for themes across groups, not just numbers, and agree on what insights matter most.
• Avoid analysis paralysis; your aim is shared understanding, not a 60-page report.

3. Action: Name owners and set review points.

• Identify the top three priorities that need attention and assign clear owners for each.
• Set review dates to check progress and unblock challenges. Accountability turns listening into learning.

4. Communication: Close the loop.

• Send a short 6-week update to staff and parents:
  “Here’s what we heard. Here’s what we’re changing. Here’s what’s next.” Even when changes are still in progress, showing movement builds trust and keeps the listening energy alive.

Leading through listening

Our early findings make one thing clear: English trusts are ready to listen more deeply. The systems are improving, the intent is there, and the next step is cultural, making listening how we work, not something we do when time allows.

The way we listen shapes belonging, trust, and ultimately the outcomes for our communities. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more insights from the Listening Maturity Framework and supporting trusts to build their own listening plans, turning feedback into meaningful, sustained change.