Meet the Experts: Rosemary Lovatt on Driving Great Governance

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Meet the Experts: Rosemary Lovatt on Driving Great Governance

This is the first in our new Meet the Experts blog series, shining a light on the professionals behind ��Ƶ��app. These experts bring extensive knowledge and hands-on experience to help boards improve governance, develop policy, and access tailored training. In this post, Rosemary, ��Ƶ��app’s Head of Consultancy, shares her journey from parent governor to supporting schools and trusts across the country.

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02/10/2025

Like many of you reading this blog, my journey into school/trust governance began when I became a parent governor at my daughter’s secondary school. Recent redundancy from my role as a global leader in the corporate world left me seeking something in my life with a higher moral purpose. School governance seemed the perfect fit. My twin daughters are now 29, and my passion for good governance is as strong as ever.

Within six months of becoming a school governor, I found myself stepping up as chair of the governing body. It was very much a baptism of fire – a steep and intense learning curve that tested me from the outset.

Soon after, I joined the local authority’s team of consultants delivering governor training. That role led me to become a National Leader of Governance (NLG), and later the Advocate for NLGs across the East of England. Over the next five years, I built a strong regional network of NLGs, working closely with National Leaders of Education (NLEs) and supporting governance in partnership with many local authorities.

My experience as a governor continued to expand. I was invited several times to chair governing boards in challenging circumstances, helped set up an academy trust, joined a MAT, and served on the boards of several trusts. I also spent several years delivering the Department for Education’s Governance Leadership programme nationally.

My journey with the ��Ƶ��app (��Ƶ��app) began as an NLG, then as a consultant, before I was appointed ��Ƶ��app’s Head of consultancy in April 2024.

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It is an absolute honour to work with and represent the team of consultants at ��Ƶ��app. The team is currently about 40 consultants who are spread across the country. Many of them have been ��Ƶ��app consultants for well over 10 years, and all have fantastic levels of experience in trust and/or maintained governance. Some of the statistics on the team are pretty amazing. For example, on the team we have:

4 MBEs and 1 OBE for contributions to education
Several doctors of and at least one professor of education
Consultants who work with the DfE, regional headteacher panels, and MPQ providers
Over 700 years of combined governance consultancy experience
Retired Ofsted inspectors, CEOs and headteachers
Active CEOs, headteachers, SRMAs and governance leaders in MATs
Experience setting up, growing and merging MATs from 2 to 30+ schools
Experience of governance in every educational provision you can imagine from hospital schools to special schools, residential settings and alternative education.
Experience of all main faith schools including CofE, Catholic, Jewish, Methodist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh

We have supported over 50% of the MATs in the country, the majority of which are ��Ƶ��app members.
We have a 100% customer satisfaction rating from the MATs we have supported

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Most people know the ��Ƶ��app for their great Knowledge Centre, help line and training. Being a member of the ��Ƶ��app gives those governing in any setting the reassurance of best practice advice and guidance and advocacy for school and trust governance. Less people know about the consultancy team and what we do. In fact, only last week I was working with a member who wanted an external review of governance who asked me what expertise we have in supporting MATs. Here is what I said:

��Ƶ��app has been supporting trusts for many years and the majority of our consultants have significant experience in leading and supporting trusts. For example:

We have 40 consultants, most of whom are chairs of small, medium and large trusts, and who have led trusts through growth, improvement and mergers.
We have consultants who are retired MAT CEOs, Ofsted inspectors and SRMAs
We have completed hundreds of MAT external reviews of governance
Our team leads and develops thinking in MAT governance. Our trust board reporting template and Scheme of Delegation template are just a couple of examples of resources we develop for MATs
Several MATs employ our consultants on a retainer basis each year to provide ongoing support for their MAT governance.

We have a wide range of consultancy services specifically for MATs��

“Over 700 years of combined governance consultancy experience, including retired Ofsted inspectors, CEOs, headteachers, and active leaders across every type of school and trust in the country.”

Aside from external reviews of governance, the team is very busy delivering a number of other popular services. These include:

Executive appraisal support
Our support for your executive’s annual appraisal provides support at each step in the process, with a recommended expert to guide you on setting and monitoring performance targets and reviewing the executive's overall performance. Our new 360-degree service gives boards a view of how others perceive the executive in their role. Find out more.

Investigations
Unfortunately, there can be occasions when a board need an independent person to investigate an issue, such as a serious parental complaint, a grievance against the board or headteacher, or an allegation of misconduct against the board or headteacher. Our consultants are experienced in leading these types of investigations. Find out more.��

Independent review panels (IRP)
Any parent can request for an independent review of an exclusion decision. Whilst these are becoming more common, most governors and trustees do not have the necessary training and expertise to sit on these panels. Our consultancy team can provide panel members, a panel chair and recommend IRP trained governance professionals to run an IRP for you. Find out more.��

This year, we are talking about our consultants more than ever. We will be giving the spotlight to many of our long-standing consultants whose experience and knowledge is second to none. We will be providing case studies and sharing what we know about how to get governance right in both trusts and maintained schools.

One aspect of my role that gives me real insight into what we are seeing in governance is quality assuring every external review of governance report we produce. When providing the gold standard in reviews of governance we look at every aspect of governance and see many of the same themes. Common areas for improvement include:

collaboration between leaders and those governing on strategic direction
clear, measurable strategic targets that the board can hold leaders accountable for delivering
strategic stakeholder engagement by the board
focus on strategic oversight of staffing matters, where appropriate (including talent management, wellbeing, recruitment and retention)
focus on development and succession planning in the governance team

Over the coming months, we will be sharing through various channels our insights into what makes great governance, and how to do it.��

See our website to learn more about ��Ƶ��app’s consultancy team and the services we offer or contact us directly here.

We look forward to working with you.