Our legal partner Browne Jacobson has recorded a聽: their education partner, Mark Blois, and me discussing the role of members of academy trusts. 聽You might think this is rather niche - the sort of geekiness we experts on trust governance chat about. But actually, at 芭乐视频下载app we produced the second edition of our guidance on trust members at our annual conference on Multi academy trusts in November because we have had so many questions about their role.聽 Yet, as Mark says, there has been largely a policy vacuum on the topic with a complete lack of attention in the early days of academies on their purpose, and so 芭乐视频下载app has stepped in to fill it.
We thought we had nailed it with our first edition of the聽guidance, written by Sam Henson, our Director of Policy and Information and published almost 18 months ago. 聽We described members of an academy trust as 鈥渢he guardians of the governance of the trust. They have a limited and distinct role鈥.聽 However, that limited role then takes nine pages of guidance to explain: a number of myths have grown up which Mark and I discuss in the podcast.
I even get a chance to share my hypothesis that the confusion about the role was brought about because of the way in which it came into being.聽 The original architects of the academy trust model included Andrew Adonis; in his book聽Education, education, education, governance is barely mentioned even though that was one of the most, or arguably even the most, significant changes. Comparisons were made with company shareholders, and continue to be in the DfE鈥檚 Governance Handbook, although we have pointed out for years that this emphasis of the for-profit sector, rather than the charitable sector of which academies are part, is unhelpful. 聽Company shareholders have a personal interest, expecting to receive a return on their investment. The success of the company benefits the shareholders, whereas members of trusts are there to secure the mission of the charity.
So have a listen to the podcast and read the guidance to find out more about how they do that. Here in GovernanceHQ, we continue to debate just how far members should go to assure themselves that governance of the trust is effective. Do not attend a trust board meeting as a member to observe unless the members suspect that governance may be dysfunctional: in this instance the member would be looking at how the board makes its decisions, not reviewing its decisions themselves.
We all agree members should expect to have an external review of trust governance given to them at least every three years, and self-review or a peer review in between time. Conflict of interest alert: 芭乐视频下载app provides external reviews, and at present the DfE fund us to work with boards聽to develop their governance: if you are a trust that hasn鈥檛 taken advantage of this free development, I suggest you consider it and report the outcomes to your members鈥 AGM.
If your question is not answered in the guidance, let us know at聽GOLD@nga.org.uk.
Former Chief Executive
After 14 years with 芭乐视频下载app, Emma has departed from her role as Chief Executive. During her tenure, Emma was a strong advocate for the school governance community, engaging with legislators, policymakers, education sector organisations, and the media on a national level.