Jubilee Park and Summerhill MAT (Multi Academy Trust)

Why a MAT? Aims: To formalise the working relationship between the two schools – support with leadership and staffing – experience Support the governments agenda – all schools formally working together – work with other schools To share and procure services and resources – cost effective To continue to develop the quality of provision in both schools for the pupils and the community – joint working To strive for each school to be outstanding

What would a MAT look like? A MAT is a single legal structure that is responsible for multiple academies within it. One board of trustees/directors govern the MAT, but often there is delegation to local academy level committees. All academy trusts have articles of association, the legal governing document that sets out the governance composition and procedures for the academy trust. The MAT structure has been preferred by the DfE as it offers the ability to intervene quickly and robustly when one school in the MAT is under performing. Academy Trust Scho0l Improvement Summerhill Jubilee

The Academy Trust Board As an academy is set up as a company but also as an exempt charity, there will be directors (who are also known as charitable trustees). In MATs there is an additional layer – the governing bodies. The board of directors will agree what decision making powers are passed to these governing bodies (typically through a written document called a scheme of delegation, or terms of reference) but the board retains ultimate accountability for each academy within the MAT.

The role of Directors/charitable trustees. making sure the academy trust complies with the law and its governing document, e.g. regard must be had to guidance released by the Charity Commission, as well as the requirements in the funding agreement, articles of association and the Academies Financial Handbook acting responsibly, in the interests of the charity exercising independent judgement managing any conflicts of interest exercising reasonable care and skill - using relevant personal knowledge or taking; professional advice where appropriate promoting the academy trust's success

How might the MAT work? Academy Trust Board A governance structure should fit with the complexity of the organisation. The first thing to do when considering any governance model review is to establish where you are, and where you want to be in 3-5 years' time. Academy Trust Board Scho0l Improvement Governing body with delegated powers e.g. curriculum, staffing etc for Summerhill Governing body with delegated powers e.g. curriculum, staffing etc for Jubilee Park

Composition of the MAT Board Representative of individual academies - i.e. made up of members of each schools committee and headteachers. While this can allow continuity and communication between the various levels of governance in a MAT, it can mean that there is less objective assessment of how the individual academies are doing and a resultant conflict of interest. Traditional - i.e. with trustees drawn from stakeholder groups, such as the staff team, the parents and the community. This tends to be more common where there are only a few schools in the MAT. Appointed - i.e. where the membership of the board is separate from the constituent academies with the trustees mostly appointed by an external body or organisation. This is most often the case in sponsored academies where the sponsoring organisation may appoint the trustees. Furthermore, having several headteachers on the board can potentially confuse roles. In the charitable sector chief executives are generally not Trustees as it is seen as a conflict of interest to serve on the board which holds one to account; we do not take the same approach in schools where almost always a headteacher is a governor. However, although conflicted, there is only one person on the local academy committee who is carrying out the role of executive and non-executive, but on a MAT Board with several headteachers who are Trustees, NGA is concerned that the non-executive directors may be less able to hold the executives to account.

Clarity to the role of the board: There are eight elements of effective governance: 1) The right people round the table 2) Understanding the role & responsibilities 3) Good chairing 4) Professional clerking 5) Good relationships based on trust 6) Knowing the school - the data, the staff, the parents, the children, the community 7) Committed to asking challenging questions 8) Confident to have courageous conversations in the interests of the children and young people. Clearly, when considering the above elements within a MAT, there is always the added benefit of knowing your school.

Crucial Questions: Is succession planning for those in governance roles happening in the MAT? How will the structure enable the development of those governing? How will you recruit skilled persons to be a part of the governance? Are you using the governance structure to build in strength or are too many people sitting at several levels? Have you got the people with the right skills at the right level?

Committee structure As we might expect different MATs have come up with different organisational structures. There is a lack of research that makes it difficult to say that one structure is going to be advantageous over another. - It's about what works in your situation -but you shouldn't be afraid to try something and change it if it doesn't work out.

No committees The size of the MAT should be reflected in the size of the governance structure. As such, a small MAT may only have one level of governance, without local academy committees for each school, and resemble a maintained federation governing body. However it can result in too large a workload for one board and serious thought needs to be given to whether one board could cope without any committees.

Trust committees These are often committees that report directly to the board of trustees. These might be used like committees in a maintained federation, such as one covering resources issues and another on educational achievement. This allows the needs of the whole MAT to be looked at when considering priorities and allows good practice to be shared.

Committees to local academy committees Often academy trusts leave it up to local academy committees to decide how they should structure themselves. In experience, many local academy committees have retained a similar sub-committee structure from their maintained school days e.g. resources committees and education committees. With many MATs growing over time, boards should be aware of the need to have a governance model that can easily be expanded or adapted.

Sharing practice One of the major opportunities to MATs as they grow is the ability to share governance practice and experience with other schools. Mentoring of new chairs from more experienced chairs in other local committees can take place and if a school is struggling, governors from other schools can be used to help bolster any local academy committee.

Conclusion Both MATs and maintained federations offer a great opportunity to use the collective talents of governors to meet the challenges of governance across multiple schools. Governance is key to enable schools improve and at the heart of this is clarity about what the role is so that everyone is on the same page. MATs are one structure that governing bodies can choose to use and offer a flexible solution to the governance of multiple schools. With such flexibility come decisions on what and how a MAT wants the governance to look like and function, which will inevitably depend upon the individual circumstances of the schools that are within it. There is no one size fits all approach to MAT structures and so boards should feel confident in exploring some of the options that may enable them to better fulfil their role.

Areas to think about: Supporting staff, pupils and parents through change – involving them in decision making Ensuring all stake holders have an understanding of the process and the eventual outcome – keeping them up to date and informed What would our MAT look like/how would it work? Who would be on the Academy Trust Board? What powers would the board devolve to the sub committees?