OpEx Reflections
Reflections from Nexus Multi Academy Trust
Organisation snapshot
Organisation: Nexus Multi Academy Trust
Pupils: 3,184
Staff: Over 2000
Schools: 21
Annual budget: £110 million
Region: South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire
Trust type: Special schools trust
Trust lead: Warren Carratt, CEO
OpEx Lead: Lana Stoyles, Executive Director of Business Transformation
Review: CEOE Operational Excellence Review, 2026
Why Nexus commissioned an OpEx review
Nexus had built a distinctive operating model, balancing local autonomy with strong central expertise. With continued growth and a significant merger ahead, leaders wanted to know how well that model would cope with greater scale and complexity.
Nexus was not looking for a review because it had a problem to fix. Leaders wanted an independent view of what was working well, where there was room to improve and what the organisation would need for its next stage of development.
The review experience
Over three days, colleagues from operational and educational teams shared how processes and services worked in practice.
It did not feel like an audit. Staff were able to question assumptions and talk openly about how different parts of Nexus worked together.
As Lana Stoyles, Executive Director of Business Transformation, recalls: “I couldn't believe how much they understood Nexus in three days because they asked the right questions.”
What Nexus discovered
The review confirmed many of Nexus's strengths. It also showed that some of the most useful improvements did not require major transformation programmes.
Small points of friction, repeated across 21 schools and more than 2,000 staff, could create a significant amount of unnecessary work. Looking at services from the point of view of the people using them also prompted different conversations about demand, performance and the support schools receive.
It gave colleagues a common way to talk about those issues, including concepts such as customer experience, failure demand and operational value.
What that has enabled and why it matters
Nexus has already started using some of the thinking from the review beyond the recommendations themselves.
There is now greater focus on end-user insight, organisational capacity and how performance is measured. Nexus is also considering how to build Operational Excellence capability across its leadership teams.
As the Trust grows, the aim is for teams across Nexus to be better equipped to spot and act on opportunities themselves.
Reflections for other leaders
For Nexus, the value of the review was not limited to the final report. It gave people a framework they could continue to use as the organisation changes.
Lana says: “Even though it was only three days, we have taken so much knowledge from those three days, not just from the review outcome on paper, but from being with people who think very differently.”
Why CEOE?
Nexus wanted people who understood operational excellence but also understood education.
As Lana puts it: “You need the expertise who have got both what education needs for frontline delivery whilst looking at the operational side. I think it is the perfect match of the two.”
That combination meant the team could ask challenging questions about how Nexus operates while understanding the realities of running schools.
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