27th November 2023Trust Governance
We believe that the best people to govern our schools are their own governing bodies - people who are local to them, know them well, care about the students and have the appropriate professional skills.
The board of trustees oversees several committees to conduct its work in depth, inviting additional professionals to these committees to assist.
Local Governing Bodies (LGBs)
The board of trustees believes in the importance of establishing a Local Governing Body (LGB) to oversee each school within the trust, in pursuit of the trust's vision and values, learning from best practice and taking into account the local community context.
Their core purpose is to:
- Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school
- Hold school leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff
- Oversee the school’s financial performance of the organisation and make sure its money is well spent
The trust's scheme of delegation describes their delegated powers, with further detail in their terms of reference.
- LGBs are to reflect the view of their stakeholders and therefore include representation from parents, staff and the community
- LGB members are recruited for a 3-4 year term, on a skillset basis
- Minutes and supporting papers are made available to the trustees and executive team
- Membership of LGBs is published on our school websites
LGBs will find that many of their more ‘bureaucratic’ duties (e.g. policy writing) will be carried out by the Trust, freeing up more of their time to focus on learning and teaching.
Governance Leaders Group (GLG)
All Chairs of Governors and Chairs of Committees of the Board meet every term to improve the effectiveness of governance, through:
- Two-way communication between the board of trustees and the Local Governing Bodies (“communication”)
- Consultative strategic conversation (“strategic consultation”)
- Self-evaluation and training (“reflection”)
As set out in their terms of reference, the Governance Leaders Group will be responsible for implementing standards in governance effectiveness, guided by the DfE Governance Handbook.
This will involve (but is not limited to):
- Strategic Leadership: clarifying the trust's vision, ethos and strategy
- Accountability: for educational standards and financial performance
- People: e.g. ensuring that skills audits are undertaken on a regular basis, that the governor training programme is tailored to their needs and that succession planning is in place
- Structures: ensuring that roles and responsibilities are appropriate and effective
- Compliance: understanding statutory and contractual requirements
- Evaluation: e.g. of external reviews of governance, schools causing concern and Ofsted outcomes
