Chair of Board of Trustees: Melvyn Booley
Trust Principal (CEO): Mandi Collins
Trust Operations & Finance Officer: Ann-Marie Willett
Trust Governance
Success Academy Trust was established as a Multi Academy Trust in 2016. Governance of SAT has three levels of accountability, overview and scrutiny: The Success Academy Trust Members, the Trust Board and its Committees and its Local Academy Governing Bodies (LGBs).
Members
Members are the guardians of the organisation: they have ultimate responsibility for the Trust achieving its’ charitable objectives. They approve the Articles of Association of the Trust and hold the Trust Board to account for effective delivery of strategy in accordance with the values, vision and ethos of the Trust. Member have powers, amongst other things, to appoint and remove Trustees.
Currently there are five Members .
Bruce Perrett*, Diane Vernon, Tim Moralee and Christine Freeman and one vacancy
*also local governor at Thomas Estley Community College’s LGB
Trustees
Trustees form the Trust MAT Board. Currently there are 8 SAT Trustees which includes the Trust Principal as a non-voting Trustee. The Board is responsible for the strategic direction of the Trust, developing policy and strategies to further Trust objectives and monitoring and holding the Executive to account for effective delivery of those policies and strategies. Trustees also ensure compliance with company and charity law and with the Trust’s funding agreement with the Secretary of State.
Current Trustees:
· Melvyn Booley (Chair)
· Mandi Collins (Trust Principal)
· Gemma Crofts
· Christine Stansfield
· Chris Southwell
· John Horan
· Sally Allen (Chair of Finance, Audit and Risk)
- Graham Smith
-Peter Karran
Trust governance consists of the principles set out below, the Trust Articles of Association and the detail set out in the Scheme of Delegation.
1. The Trust actively carries out self-review to ensure and build its effectiveness. It reviews itself against a MAT Improvement Capacity Framework to understand current capacity to support and drive school improvement and to identify how and where to build and strengthen current capacity and potential to grow capacity to support more schools.
2. The Trust does not enter into any connected party transactions with trustees on the Trust’s Board.
3. Governance is underpinned by the Scheme of Delegation: this establishes and documents who is responsible for policy and operational decision making. The Scheme sets out the decisions reserved to the Trust Board and those delegated to LGBs, Heads/Principals.
4. The Trust Board also operates two sub committees of the Trust Board – ‘Finance, Audit and Risk’ and ‘Curriculum, Performance and Standards’; to split out work of the board. The Terms of Reference to each subcommittee set out their delegated remit.
5. The Executive (ie Heads/Principals of the Trust’s Academies and the Trust Operations and Finance Officer), not Trustees or Governors, are responsible for all operational activity and decisions. Trustees and Governors hold the Executive to account for their actions through the system of assurance reporting.
6. The Trust operates a differentiated Scheme of Delegation for Local Governing Bodies subject to an annual review. LGBs may arrange themselves into a single committee or into different sub committees with remits as agreed locally within overall delegated authority from the Trust Board.
7. The Trust Board is committed to, and ensures, that financial governance is compliant with the principles and regulations of the Academies Financial Handbook. Where local oversight of finance is in place for LGBs, appropriate assurances are in place from the Trust Board to check LGBs are compliant with the Academies Financial Handbook.
8. The Central Trust provides a range of services to Trust academies. A statement of the services provided, and their cost and funding, is reviewed annually for value for money by the Board and provided to each Local Governing Body.
9. The Trust Board has overall responsibility and ultimate decision-making authority for all the activities of the Trust, including establishment and management of the academies and admission of additional schools to the Trust.
10. Effective governance in the Trust is supported through:
a. Trust Members – the guardians of the constitution.
b. Trust Board – the trustees
c. Trust Board Committees – of which there are two: Finance, Audit and Risk, and Curriculum, Performance and Standards.
d. Link Trustees – a Trustee acts as a link Trustee to each school/LGB in the Trust and is able to attend LGB meetings to share information between Trust and LGB.
e. Heads Group – of the Head Teachers/ Principal within the Trust
f. The Chairs’ Forum – whereon the Chair of the Trust Board meets termly with the Chairs of the Local Governing Bodies.
g. Local Governing Bodies – technically also Committees of the Board, overseeing and providing assurance to the Board as to the effectiveness of the local academy governance.
h. The Trust Leadership Team (TLT) (the Executive) – the Trust Principal (CEO), Headteachers and Chief Operations and Finance Officer. The wider Senior Leadership Teams of the Academies (SLT) supports the TLT.
11. The Trust operates Strategic (Board level) and operational (Local Governing Body level) risk management. The Risk Registers and related risk management processes are overseen by the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.
12. Annual Business Plans are agreed and in place for the Trust Board, Trust Board Committees and LGBs. These include an agreed Programme of Policy Review, assurance reporting and Governance Improvement Plan.
Intervention Powers
The Trust Board attaches great importance to the role of the Local Governing Bodies which underpin the performance of the Trust. Whilst through the Scheme of Delegation, LGBs are granted a varying degree of autonomy, the Trust Board remains ultimately responsible for the conduct and performance of the Trust and of Trust academies. The Trust Board therefore reserves the right to review, vary or remove any power or responsibility which it has delegated, where it considers this to be necessary in the best interests of the Trust.
For example, and as an exception, circumstances may arise which require the Trust Board to intervene and, for example, withdraw or modify delegated authority from an LGB, or from the Executive. Where this became necessary, the Trust Board would work closely with the Trust Principal, TLT and (where required) the academy. Those involved in governance would be expected promptly to implement any advice or recommendations made by the Trust Board and/or TLT.
Local Governing Bodies
The Trust Board is legally responsible for the performance of each Academy. The Board requires the active support of LGBs to provide assurance and oversight of effective governance at individual Academy level.
Local Governing Body links:
Thomas Estley Community College - https://thomasestley.org.uk/governance
Cosby Primary School - https://www.cosby.school/about-us/governors
Hallbrook Primary School - https://www.hallbrook.leics.sch.uk/page/?title=Governors&pid=87
Richmond Primary School - https://www.richmond.leics.sch.uk/governors/meet-our-governors