Trust Governance
The Trust has established a clear organisational structure with identified lines of accountability and reporting for all its operations. This includes defining the responsibilities of the Trust Board and those delegated to its committees and officers within the Trust.
The Trust Board has a set of committees to whom it delegates specific roles and responsibilities as documented in their Terms of Reference:
- Audit and Risk Committee
- Finance Committee
- People Committee
- Standards and Curriculum Committee
Local governance
While the formal responsibility for governance of our academies rests with the Trust Board, we believe it is important for local voices to be represented both within our formal governance structures and at academy level.
As detailed in the documents below, we currently ask our academies to maintain an Academy Advisory Council (AAC), which is a small group of parents/carers and community representatives designed to offer advice and support to the Principal.
AACs do not have delegated powers within our Scheme of Delegation, although their members can be asked by Trustees to sit on pupil suspension and exclusion panels.
In common with many educational organisations, we find that recruitment to governance positions is a challenge and it is not always possible to maintain a fully functioning AAC in each of our academies. As outlined above, this does not mean that 'governance' does not take place, as the GAT Board continues to scrutinise and challenge performance within each of our academies.
During the 2023-2024 academic year, it is our intention to establish Regional Governance Committees (RGCs) one for each 'hub' within which we operate. RGCs will have a number of important governance responsibilities and will work directly alongside the Trust Board. More details of this will be published in our governance documents in September 2023.
Each of our academies will ensure that it has its own parental and community engagement strategy. It is likely in some of our academies that groups of parents/carers and community representatives will be formed to support the Principal of each academy to ensure that the voice of the local community is heard at academy level. Many current AAC members are likely to be involved in this work and RGCs will be especially keen to hear the views of parents/carers.
Everyone involved in our local governance is encouraged to participate fully in the life of our academies and act in an ambassadorial role within their community.
Further details of the Trust governance arrangements are contained within the documents below:
Please click on the links below for further information: