As part of their commitment in the 2022 School Resource Management Strategy to research good practice and share findings with the sector, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned CooperGibson Research (CGR) and St. Mary's University, to conduct qualitative research exploring school and trust business practices. The research aimed to better understand: (1) The practices which successful multi-academy trusts (MATs) find most effective for managing school resource and adding value, including how they (a) identify the practices, (b) access the business capability, and (c) implement those; and (2) How school and trust business professionals with responsibility for finance, procurement, estate management, human resources and marketing and communications gain, develop, demonstrate and maintain capabilities (as manifested by skills, experience and knowledge) in these areas over time. In-depth interviews were conducted with 103 business professionals, from 24 MATs across 73 interview sessions. The majority of the interview participants were based in trust central teams, five were school based.