A Practical IT Due Diligence Framework for Schools Joining a MAT

The Context

When a school joins a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), the focus is primarily on educational performance and financial health. IT infrastructure is often an afterthought, discovered only after the ink is dry. MAT central teams are then unexpectedly saddled with failing servers, punitive long-term broadband contracts, and undocumented safeguarding risks.

Who This Guide is For

MAT executives, Chief Operating Officers (COOs), and central IT directors.

Why This Matters

Discovering massive technical debt post-transfer can obliterate a MAT's central budget. If the joining school requires an immediate £100,000 infrastructure overhaul just to meet basic safeguarding standards, the MAT must absorb that cost. Thorough due diligence allows the MAT to negotiate funding or condition the transfer before liability is assumed.

What Good Looks Like

A standardized IT due diligence framework applied to every potential joiner. This framework assesses infrastructure health, cybersecurity posture, safeguarding compliance, and contractual obligations, resulting in a costed 'Integration RAG Report' for the Trust board.

Approach and Methodology

1. Contractual Review: This is the most urgent step. Identify all long-term IT contracts (broadband, MIS, telephony, managed services, photocopiers). When do they expire? Are there early termination penalties?
2. Infrastructure Baseline: Conduct a physical and logical audit of the core network. Are the switches and servers within vendor support? Is the Wi-Fi capable of supporting the MAT's 1:1 device strategy?
3. Cyber Security Posture: Does the school have basic controls in place (MFA for all staff, offline backups, patched firewalls)? If not, the MAT will inherit a significant cyber risk on day one.
4. Safeguarding Systems: Verify that the school's web filtering and monitoring systems meet statutory requirements and can be integrated into the MAT's central oversight processes.
5. Data and Identity Integration: Assess how difficult it will be to migrate the school's user accounts (Active Directory / Google Workspace) and MIS data into the MAT's central tenant.
6. Costing the Integration: Generate a capital expenditure (CapEx) estimate required to bring the school up to the MAT's minimum baseline standard.

Evidence to Retain

• The completed IT Due Diligence Report presented to the MAT board prior to acquisition.
• Copies of all active IT contracts and service level agreements from the joining school.
• The costed technical integration roadmap.

Questions Leadership Should Ask

• "Have we identified any IT contracts that will financially penalize us if we try to migrate this school to our central systems?"
• "What is the total estimated cost to bring this school's cybersecurity posture up to our Trust's minimum baseline?"

Common Pitfalls

• Relying on the School's Word: Asking the joining school "is your IT okay?" instead of conducting an independent, evidence-based technical assessment.
• Ignoring Cultural Differences: Focusing only on the hardware and ignoring how staff use technology (e.g., migrating a heavily Google-reliant school to Microsoft 365 without a change management plan).
• Post-Transfer Paralysis: Identifying the technical debt during due diligence, but failing to secure the budget or timeline to actually fix it once the school joins.

How asitplan Can Help

asitplan provides MATs with a consistent, repeatable framework for due diligence. Central teams can use the platform to rapidly ingest asset data, map network topologies, and generate standardized integration reports, ensuring the board has a clear view of the technical liability before approving the transfer.