Governance - Potteries Educational Trust

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Potteries Educational Trust Governance Structure

The purpose of governance in our Trust is to provide strategic leadership and oversight to ensure the Trust fulfils its educational mission and charitable objects, while also managing resources effectively, ensuring legal and financial compliance, improving educational outcomes across all of our academies and ensuring the Trust’s long term sustainability and reputation.

Member, Trustee and Governors are voluntary roles. Our 60+ governance team plays a vital role and makes a valuable contribution to education and our academy community. Trustees and governors make a huge difference to the future of children and young people by driving school improvement and striving to get the best possible education and outcomes for all learners and to be the employer of choice for our staff.

If you are interested in becoming a part of our governance team as either a local academy governor or a trustee please contact our Governance Professional: Mrs Sue Hawley by email info@potteries.ac.uk or telephone 01782 845211

Governance Arrangements

Combining individuals from across the Trust and beyond, our governance board provides confident and strong strategic leadership to foster robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.

Governance Purpose

Our Trust Board provides:

Strategic Leadership – the board defines the trust vision for high quality and inclusive education in line with its charitable objects. It establishes and fosters the trust’s culture and sets and champions the trust strategy including determining what, if any, governance functions are delegated to the local tier
Accountability and Assurance – the board has robust effective oversight of the operations and performance of the academy trust, including the provision of education, pupil welfare, overseeing and ensuring appropriate use of funding and effective financial performance and keeping their estate safe and well maintained
Engagement – the board has strategic oversight of relationships with stakeholders. The board involves parents, schools and communities so that decision-making is supported by meaningful engagement

Governance Structure

Incorporating meaningful input from all members of the Trust, our Governance board reflects our core values and aims. Made up of Members, Trustees and Local Governing Bodies, our governance structure is designed to be efficient and effective.

Members
Trustees
Trustees are both charity trustees and company directors of the Potteries Academy Trust. Trustees are the key decision makers and accountable body for the Potteries Educational Trust. They provide strategic oversight of the day to day management of the Trust, and are responsible for setting the vision, culture, values and ethos for the Trust and reviewing the performance of all of the academies within the Trust. Trustees are supported in their work by the Governance Professional and Company Secretary to the Potteries Educational Trust.
Local Governing Bodies
Each academy within the Potteries Educational Trust has a Local Governing Body that has responsibility for the strategic oversight of the operational management of the individual academy. The Local Governing Body is a committee of the Trust Board and operates subject to the Terms of Reference agreed with the Trust Board and the Scheme of Delegation. The Potteries Educational Trust operates on the basis, as far as is legally possible, of delegating decision making to the Chief Executive Officer, the Principal/Headteacher of the individual academies and Local Governing Bodies.
Academy Local Governing Bodies
Are accountable for:
Vision and Values including
upholding our Trust culture and ethos
championing our Trust strategy
promoting high quality and inclusive education
Monitoring Local Accountability including:
effective performance and provision of education
pupil attendance and behaviour
pupil welfare
monitoring the learning environment to ensure it is safe and well maintained
Engagement – including
relationships with stakeholders, parents, communities
advocacy for learners and stakeholders
feedback and communication within the local community and its context
Executive Leadership Team
The Executive Leadership Team is made up of the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Academy Executive Headteacher/Headteachers/Principals/Heads of Academy, Director of Human Resources and the Governance Professional/Company Secretary. The Executive Leadership Team provides the strategic oversight of the operations of each academy, develops and makes recommendation for Trust wide strategy and policies, and implements, monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of strategies and policies.
Academy Conversion Committee
The membership of our Academy Conversion Committee is determined at a time when academy conversion support is required for a school applying to join the Trust. The Academy Conversion Committee will be responsible for oversight of the completion of the due diligence processes before making a recommendation to the Trust Board. It will usually include a selection of delegated Trustees, the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Finance Officer, senior leaders, local academy governor representatives, Governance Professional/Company Secretary, and governors and senior leaders from the school wishing to convert to become an academy of our Trust.
The Governance Professional and Company Secretary