The trust was formed in 2017 with 2 primary schools in Rochdale. Now based close to the centre of Bury, we have 2 secondary schools and 5 primary schools spread across our designated area of Rochdale, Bury Bolton and Salford, with 8 schools expected to join the trust during 2023/24. It is currently planned that the Trust will grow to include 11 secondary schools and 57 primary schools by 2030, with arrangements in place to ensure an orderly take-on. The trust will be the provider of 3-16 Catholic education in the 4 boroughs, with very close connections to local churches and the communities through their Local Governing Bodies, and also the Diocese of Salford and the local authorities. The trust income will grow from £20m per annum to approximately £150m per annum, with 4,000 staff and 25,000 pupils.

The trust is developing a digitally lead learning strategy, with an initial target of 50% of all learning being digitally enabled at all levels. This is underpinned by substantial investment in both infrastructure and user devices. This investment also provides a very strong modern platform for the support functions, with simple to use agile working on high performance equipment. It is expected that the Finance systems will be further developed to take full advantage of the investment and provide an end user experience comparable to the better examples in commerce and industry.