The simplest way to create your trust board self-evaluation and improvement plan.
The simplest way to create your trust board self-evaluation and improvement plan.
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Try it for yourself for FREE
Our unique online platform guides your board through a proven cycle of insightful self-evaluation, deep diagnosis, and actionable strategic planning. It empowers your board to move beyond compliance to govern with greater clarity, confidence, and lasting impact.
Our unique online platform guides your board through a proven cycle of insightful self-evaluation, deep diagnosis, and actionable strategic planning. It empowers your board to move beyond compliance to govern with greater clarity, confidence, and lasting impact.
The Problem...
The Problem...
Board self-evaluation and improvement planning is critical, yet often feels like a complex, time-consuming battle. Choosing the right framework, dedicating sufficient time for deep analysis, and translating insights into truly actionable steps can be overwhelming, frequently resulting in plans that lack real impact and fail to become the living guides your trust needs.
The Solution...
The Solution...
iAbacus for Trust Boards cuts through the complexity. Our guided online platform, built on decades of leadership expertise, helps your board select a framework, efficiently gather evidence, diagnose the real 'helps and hinders' to your effectiveness, and seamlessly build an actionable improvement plan that drives sustainable governance improvement.
Benefits
Benefits
Beyond Evaluation:
Real Benefits for Your Trust Board
Beyond Evaluation:
Real Benefits for Your Trust Board
Achieve Crystal-Clear Clarity & Structure
Achieve Crystal-Clear Clarity & Structure
Overwhelmed by frameworks? iAbacus provides pre-built templates for key national standards and a guided, visual process. This brings immediate structure to your self-evaluation, ensuring a clear, focused approach from the outset, no matter the complexity.
Unlock Deep, Diagnostic Insight Behind Board Performance
Unlock Deep, Diagnostic Insight Behind Board Performance
Go beyond surface-level reviews. Our unique 'Helps & Hinders' analysis helps your board pinpoint the root causes of its successes and challenges. Understand the why behind your performance to inform truly effective strategic decisions.
Drive Actionable, Strategic Improvement
Drive Actionable, Strategic Improvement
Turn insights into impact. iAbacus seamlessly connects your diagnostic findings to a robust action planning module. Create specific, measurable, and trackable improvement plans that your board can own and implement with confidence.
Maximise Efficiency & Save Valuable Trustee Time
Maximise Efficiency & Save Valuable Trustee Time
Respect your board's time. Our streamlined platform simplifies evidence gathering, centralises documentation, and offers one-click professional reporting. This significantly reduces the administrative burden, freeing up trustees to focus on strategic dialogue and decision-making.
Build an Evidence-Based, Auditable Process
Build an Evidence-Based, Auditable Process
Demonstrate your board's effectiveness with confidence. iAbacus ensures your evaluations are grounded in solid evidence, creating a clear, auditable trail. This robust approach supports accountability to Members, the DfE, and your wider community.
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Make your improvement plan a living guide, not a static document. iAbacus supports an ongoing cycle of evaluation, planning, and review, embedding a dynamic culture of continuous governance development and strategic alignment within your board.
How it works
How it works
The iAbacus Methodology:
Evaluate, Diagnose, Plan, Improve, Sustain.
The iAbacus Methodology:
Evaluate, Diagnose, Plan, Improve, Sustain.
We transforms your board's approach through a clear, powerful, and cyclical process. It’s designed to ensure your self-evaluation leads to genuine understanding and impactful strategic action.
We transforms your board's approach through a clear, powerful, and cyclical process. It’s designed to ensure your self-evaluation leads to genuine understanding and impactful strategic action.
Make a Judgement: Harness Your Board's Insight.
Make a Judgement: Harness Your Board's Insight.
Visually and intuitively assess your current performance against chosen areas (from a national framework or your own) by sliding the abacus 'bead'. iAbacus values your board's collective professional 'nous' as the crucial starting point.
Verify with Criteria: Ensure Accuracy & Alignment.
Verify with Criteria: Ensure Accuracy & Alignment.
Instantly check your initial judgement against the specific criteria of your selected framework. This step refines understanding, ensures consistency, and grounds your evaluation in recognised standards.
Provide Evidence: Build a Robust, Auditable Case.
Provide Evidence: Build a Robust, Auditable Case.
Move beyond opinion. Securely link documents, meeting minutes, relevant data, and observations directly to your judgements. A judgement without proof is just an assertion; iAbacus helps you build an evidence-rich foundation for every conclusion.
Analyse Factors: Understand the 'Why'.
Analyse Factors: Understand the 'Why'.
This is where iAbacus truly differs. Go beyond surface-level assessment with our unique 'Helps & Hinders' (Force-Field Analysis) feature. Your board collaboratively identifies and prioritises the specific people, processes, resources, or cultural elements that are either driving success or creating barriers. This deep diagnosis is the key to effective, targeted planning.
Plan for Success: Turn Diagnosis into Doing.
Plan for Success: Turn Diagnosis into Doing.
Seamlessly develop targeted, measurable improvement plans directly from your diagnostic analysis. Specify what needs to be done, who is responsible, how success will be measured, and by when. Crucially, link these actions directly to the 'Helps' you want to amplify and the 'Hinders' you need to overcome.
Review & Sustain: Embed Continuous Improvement.
Review & Sustain: Embed Continuous Improvement.
iAbacus isn't a one-off exercise filed away. It's a dynamic tool. Add new 'beads' over time to visually track progress, update evidence as situations evolve, and refine your strategic plans. This fosters a culture where board evaluation is an ongoing, iterative process that drives sustained success and actively challenges complacency.
This proven, cyclical approach transforms board evaluation from a compliance task into a powerful engine for strategic dialogue, deep understanding, and continuous governance improvement.
This proven, cyclical approach transforms board evaluation from a compliance task into a powerful engine for strategic dialogue, deep understanding, and continuous governance improvement.
Try it for FREE
Try it for FREE
Experience iAbacus Firsthand
Experience iAbacus Firsthand
Curious about how iAbacus can streamline your board's workload and enhance its strategic impact? Sign up for a FREE 30-day trial and explore the full platform with no commitment. Discover the clarity of our visual evaluation, the power of our diagnostic tools, and the ease of our action planning. It’s the perfect way to see if iAbacus for Trust Boards is the right fit for you.
Why?
Why?
The iAbacus Difference:
Insight, Diagnosis, Action, Lasting Improvement.
The iAbacus Difference:
Insight, Diagnosis, Action, Lasting Improvement.
Why choose iAbacus for your Trust Board's self-evaluation and strategic planning? Because we offer a unique blend of proven methodology, intuitive technology, and focused support that genuinely transforms the process.
Why choose iAbacus for your Trust Board's self-evaluation and strategic planning? Because we offer a unique blend of proven methodology, intuitive technology, and focused support that genuinely transforms the process.
Methodology Born from Decades of Real-World Practice:
iAbacus isn't just software; it's built on a foundation of over 50 years of leadership, education, and improvement research. This deep expertise is embedded in our process, guiding your board towards more meaningful insights.
Values Professional Judgement, Demands Robust Evidence:
We believe in the power of your board's collective experience. iAbacus starts with your professional judgement, then provides the structure to rigorously test, verify, and substantiate those insights with concrete evidence.
Powerful Diagnosis Drives Truly Effective Planning:
iAbacus isn't just software; it's built on a foundation of over 50 years of leadership, education, and improvement research. This deep expertise is embedded in our process, guiding your board towards more meaningful insights.
Framework Flexible, Process Powerful:
While we provide ready-to-use templates for leading national governance frameworks, the core strength of iAbacus is its adaptable process. This powerful methodology makes any framework actionable, ensuring relevance to your trust's unique context and priorities.
Fosters a Culture of Continuous Governance Development:
iAbacus is designed for an ongoing cycle of review, learning, and adaptation – not for creating a static annual report that gathers dust. It encourages your board to see evaluation and improvement as a live, evolving conversation that drives sustained success.
Expert Support Focused on Your Board's Effectiveness:Our dedicated onboarding and training are specifically geared to help your Trust Board master the iAbacus process and effectively apply your chosen governance framework. We empower you to lead with confidence and achieve tangible improvements in your governance.
With iAbacus, your board doesn't just go through the motions of evaluation; it embarks on a journey of genuine insight, strategic action, and lasting improvement.
With iAbacus, your board doesn't just go through the motions of evaluation; it embarks on a journey of genuine insight, strategic action, and lasting improvement.
Pricing
Pricing
We believe in straightforward, transparent pricing that gives your MAT Board everything it needs to strengthen its evaluation and strategic planning.
We believe in straightforward, transparent pricing that gives your MAT Board everything it needs to strengthen its evaluation and strategic planning.
£595 pa (+vat)
£595 pa (+vat)
This all-inclusive subscription provides:
iAbacus Platform Access for 5 Key Users: This can include your Chair, CEO, Governance Professional, and other Trustees, enabling effective collaboration.
Full Access to all 6 Pre-Built Governance Framework Templates: Including those based on DfE and CST guidance, providing a robust starting point for your evaluations.
Dedicated Onboarding Session for Your Trust Board: A personalised, live online session to ensure your key users can confidently navigate the platform and apply your chosen framework effectively from day one.
Targeted Training: Focused guidance to help your board master the iAbacus process for insightful self-evaluation, deep diagnosis, and strategic improvement planning.
Ongoing Support: Access to our team to ensure you maximise the benefits of the iAbacus platform throughout your subscription.
Empowered from Day One: Your Trust Board CPD Session
Empowered from Day One: Your Trust Board CPD Session
Your subscription is more than just software access; it includes an expert-led, interactive CPS Session. In this live online session, your key users will:
Master the iAbacus Cycle: From making informed judgements to deep-diving into 'Helps & Hinders' analysis and crafting strategic action plans.
Confidently Apply Your Chosen Framework: Ensuring you can effectively use national standards (DfE, CST, etc.) within the iAbacus environment.
Work Through Practical Scenarios: Tailoring the tool to your trust’s specific context and priorities.
Unlock Collaborative Power: Learn how your key users can best work together within the platform.
Understand Effective Reporting & Progress Monitoring: Discover how to generate clear reports and use iAbacus for ongoing monitoring.
Get Your Questions Answered: Direct access to iAbacus specialists who understand MAT governance.
This CPD Session is designed to build confidence and capability, ensuring iAbacus becomes an invaluable asset in your governance toolkit from the very start.
Book a Demo
Book a Demo
See iAbacus in Action
See iAbacus in Action
Ready to see how our intuitive platform can transform your board's evaluation and strategic planning? Schedule a personalised, no-obligation demo with one of our specialists. We’ll walk you through the iAbacus process, show you how to leverage governance framework templates, and answer all your questions. Discover how iAbacus can be tailored to meet your board's unique needs and help you drive meaningful improvement.
Instant, Professional Reports
Instant, Professional Reports
Effortlessly Share Your Board's Progress and Plans.
Effortlessly Share Your Board's Progress and Plans.
iAbacus streamlines your reporting, allowing you to generate professional PDF documents in moments. Communicate your board’s insights and strategic direction with clarity and confidence, saving valuable trustee time and enhancing stakeholder communication.
One-Click Professional Reports: Transform evaluations into polished PDFs, perfect for printing or emailing.
Customisable for Your Audience: Tailor reports with cover pages, logos, and select only the most relevant information for external bodies or internal reviews.
Demonstrate Effectiveness: Provide a clear, auditable trail of your board's evaluation process and strategic planning.
Try iAbacus for Trust Boards for FREE or Book a Demo today.
Our Story
Our Story
Over 50 Years of Insight, Distilled into One Powerful Tool.
Over 50 Years of Insight, Distilled into One Powerful Tool.
The iAbacus journey began not with software, but with decades of real-world leadership experience and a commitment to effective, actionable self-evaluation.
The iAbacus journey began not with software, but with decades of real-world leadership experience and a commitment to effective, actionable self-evaluation.
The Genesis of an Idea:
The Genesis of an Idea:
Our story starts with John Pearce, an educator, headteacher, inspector, and consultant whose career spans over 50 years across diverse sectors. Underpinned by extensive university research and practical application, John developed the original "Abacus" methodology. This wasn't about complex spreadsheets or jargon-filled reports; it was a deceptively simple yet profound sequence of activities designed to enable genuine self-evaluation and strategic success planning. The core idea? To empower individuals and teams to understand where they are, why, and what they need to do to improve, using a clear, visual, and kinaesthetic approach.
From Insight to Innovation:
From Insight to Innovation:
In 2010, John Pearce partnered with Daniel O’Brien, a pioneer in internet technology and the founder of Opeus. Daniel immediately recognised the potential to transform John’s robust, hands-on Abacus process into a dynamic and accessible online tool. Together, they launched iAbacus in 2012.
The platform was quickly heralded for its unique and transformational approach to evaluation and planning, earning recognition as a Bett Awards finalist in 2014 for its innovation in ICT provision and support.
The platform was quickly heralded for its unique and transformational approach to evaluation and planning, earning recognition as a Bett Awards finalist in 2014 for its innovation in ICT provision and support.
The Guiding Philosophy:
The Guiding Philosophy:
iAbacus is built on the principle of starting with users' inherent knowledge and professional insight – their 'nous'. It then guides them through a structured process to verify judgements, gather robust evidence, diagnose the critical 'helps and hinders' to performance, and create targeted, actionable plans. It's a methodology that challenges complacency and fosters a culture of continuous improvement by consistently asking the vital questions: How well are we doing? What’s our evidence? What’s helping and hindering our success? And crucially, what will we do to improve and sustain that success?
As John Pearce emphasises, "I wanted something deceptively simple, that anyone... could own, understand and use to tame the intricacies of... improvement."
Your Assurance of a Proven Approach:
Your Assurance of a Proven Approach:
When you choose iAbacus, you're not just adopting a piece of software; you're leveraging a proven methodology refined over half a century. It’s a system designed to empower your board with clarity, focus, and the practical tools to drive meaningful, lasting improvement in your governance and, ultimately, for the communities you serve.
Templates
Templates
Align with National Standards or Define Your Own:
iAbacus Empowers Your Choice.
Align with National Standards or Define Your Own:
iAbacus Empowers Your Choice.
We know aligning with recognised national standards is crucial for MAT governance, but also that some trusts have their own established approaches. That's why iAbacus for Trust Boards comes equipped with ready-to-use templates based on key guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) and the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and steering groups.
But iAbacus offers more than just templates. While these provide an excellent and efficient starting point, the true power lies in the iAbacus methodology. Our unique cyclical process (Evaluate, Diagnose, Plan, Improve, Sustain.) is designed to make any framework – whether it's a national standard you select from our library, or your trust's own bespoke criteria you build into the platform – a dynamic tool for deep diagnosis and sustainable improvement planning.
With iAbacus, you get the best of both worlds: the assurance of established frameworks if you need them, the flexibility to use your own, and a powerful, intuitive process to turn any set of standards into meaningful self-evaluation, clear diagnosis, and genuinely actionable strategic improvement for your board.
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