Governance

Effective governance is crucial to the success of a multi-academy trust. It provides confident, strategic leadership and creates robust accountability, oversight and assurance for the educational and financial performance.

Through a culture of compliance, care is taken to ensure that the Trust operates within the legal framework of its Articles of Association, Scheme of Delegation and within the regulations of the DfE Academies Handbook.

We ensure that risks and threats across the Trust are understood and well managed through internal controls that measure and manage the risks.

Our governance support is fulfilled through both an in-house service and complementary external providers, City of Stoke-on-Trent Council and SIPS.

Our core offer and support includes:

• Developing and driving the annual schedule of business/agendas in consultations with the Chair of Trustees, Chairs of the Academy Committees and executive/academy leaders to ensure that business is planned to enable the core purpose of governance functions to be fulfilled effectively and coherently across the Trust
• Convening the meetings as required by the Board of Trustees and Academy Committees, drafting agendas, writing minutes and following up action points
• Ensuring that decisions are taken within the remit of the Scheme of Delegation, Scheme of Financial Delegation and Terms of Reference
• Advising the Board and Academy Committees on membership, and succession planning and ensuring there are transparent procedures for appointments, elections and removal of individuals as appropriate
• Managing the Register of Business Interest for Members, Trustees, Local Governors and both Executive and Academy Leaders
• Arranging an annual Skills Audit and Trustee/Governor development through accredited training packages both in-house and via the NGA Learning Link
• Ensuring that the Trust and each of the academies has in place the statutory policies and procedures to meet the regulatory and statutory obligations
• Supporting internal audit preparation and following through on audit recommendations
• Overseeing the Risk Register, mitigating actions and reporting the positions to Trustees
• Membership to GovernorHub which offers a set of board tools designed to hep boards work together better, keeps members connected and provides a ready-made body of evidence
• The provision of an online complaints platform and advice and guidance on the handling of complaints at all stages

Governance Contacts: