Governance
The Trust no longer uses Local Committees. There are now in place 4 Scrutiny Committees and a Parent Parliament. The Scrutiny Committees are chaired and led by Trustees with expertise and specialist knowledge in the area of the committee. The parent parliament ensures parental representation in Governance to ensure there is excellent communication between Trust Board and parent/care givers.
Reporting and Lines of Accountability and Reporting
There are 10 areas of assurance which are reported at each level.
| Scrutiny Committee | Providing assurance on |
| Safeguarding and SEND | Safeguarding, SEND |
| Standards and Curriculum | Standards, Curriculum, Quality of Teaching and Learning, Leadership |
| Compliance and Premises | H&S compliance, Premises, ICT |
| Pupil Experience | Pupil Experience, Behaviour and Attendance |
Process
- Prior to a Scrutiny Committee, an academy will have met with one or more of the following: Director of School Improvement, Chief Executive, Strategic SEND lead, External Advisors
- Together based on first hand evidence a set of assurances will be completed together around quality and compliance. See example below pertaining to Safeguarding:
There is also an accompanying narrative (see below):
The narrative box is designed to add any qualifying information which may provide further clarification to the statements. This completed and agreed with the assurer.
This gives a final assurance percentage figure based on the number of statements assured.
Statements will either be regarding statutory compliance or best practice and thus as such give a picture of the overall quality of practice.
These reports are then submitted to the Scrutiny Committee members prior to a termly Scrutiny Committee date.
Committee Make Up
The Scrutiny Committee is made up of:
- At least one Trustee who will Chair the Committee
- Up to 2 central team members appropriate to the Committee
- Up to 2 local scrutiny governors
- A headteacher representative
*All Scrutiny Meetings are minuted by the Trust Governance Professional
Prior to the Scrutiny Committee meeting
The members will scrutinise the reports, determining their level of assurance based on their specialist knowledge in this area. This may result in a number of outcomes:
| Degree of Assurance | Outcome |
| Low | Responsible staff from school invited to committee to provide further assurance |
| Medium | Further assurance asked of Central Team to pursue in school and report on |
| High | Trustees are suitably assured by Central staff and schools staff. No representation requested at Scrutiny Committee |
After the Scrutiny Committee Meeting
The reports are aggregated to present a dashboard of assurances which is included in the next Trust Board document bundle. The Trustee that has chaired the Scrutiny Committee will present the assurance document and field any questions with the support of the Central Team. See below:
Parent Parliament
The Academies Handbook emphasises the importance of parental representation. To this end is a termly Parent Parliament. This body is made up of 2 parent representatives from each of the academies, the Chief Executive of the Trust, appropriate Central Team staff and at least one Trustee. This committee meeting provides a vehicle of two-way communication to allow the Trust to inform parents of school and Trust evaluation, next developmental steps and successes. Parents in turn will have an opportunity to feed into the Trust Development Plan, provide feedback on what they see as next steps for individual schools and any input into what schools or the Trust could be doing better. This will be reported back to Trust Board by the lead Trustees.