Governance
The purpose of governance is to provide confident and strong strategic leadership which leads to robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance. All governance boards have three core functions:
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
- Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff
- Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.
At Embrace Multi Academy Trust, governance is led by our board of trustees and delegated responsibilities are carried out by the local governing boards of each constituent academy. A chairs of governors’ strategic group meets at least once a term, which provides a communication link between trustees, the trust leader and local governors.
Members
(performance of board of trustees, fulfilment of charitable object, appointment and removal of trustees)
Board of Trustees and Trust Committees
(vision, finance, strategic planning, risk assessment and management)
Local Governing Boards
(ethos and values, teaching and learning, safeguarding, community links, parental links and Christian values in our Church of England academies)
Chairs of Governors’ Strategic Group
(communication link and information sharing)
Members
The role of members in a trust is minimal and one of oversight. Members are the guardians of the governance in a trust and are not involved in its day-to-day management. The members ensure that the board of trustees is performing well and that the charitable object of the trust, the provision of a broad and balanced curriculum to advance the education for children and young people, is being fulfilled. Members appoint some of the trustees and, in exceptional circumstances, can remove trustees who they have appointed.
Board of Trustees
The board of trustees is legally accountable for managing the business of the trust and has overall responsibility and accountability for all governance in the trust. It works with the trust leader and members of the shared service team to set the overall vision for the trust, plan trust strategy and assess and manage risks. The board of trustees is responsible and accountable for the performance of all the academies with Embrace and meets at least four times per year. Trustees are appointed to a four-year term of office and the chair of trustees is appointed on an annual basis. The chair of the Embrace board of trustees is Russell Andrews.
Local Governing Boards
Each academy has its own local governing board, which upholds the ethos and values of the school, monitors key performance indicators and upholds and holds the school to account for:
- teaching and learning
- safeguarding procedures
- links with parents/carers and the local community
- upholding its distinctive Christian values (for Church of England academies).
Some of our local governing boards have sub-committees, which focus on a particular area and report back at full local governing board meetings. Each local governing board’s chair is named in the linked information below.
Trust Committees
There are two committees of the board of trustees, each of which meet at least three times per year. The finance and audit committee is chaired by Denise Chadwick and the standards committee is chaired by Jane Toman.
Chairs of Governors’ Strategic Group
The chair of governors of each local governing board is a member of the chair of governors’ strategic group. The group meets with the trust leader at least four times per year, which enables effective communication and information sharing within the group and between the local governing boards and the board of trustees. The group is chaired by Kathryn Bullock.