GFM Governance – An Overview
A Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. The MAT consists of the Members and the Trustees.
Members
The Members are the guardians of the constitution and hold the purpose of the Trust, changing the Articles of Association if necessary and ensuring the charitable objects are fulfilled. It is their responsibility to hold the Board to account for its conduct and performance. The Members can exercise powers to appoint and remove Trustees. The MAT will ordinarily have a minimum of four members.
Trustees
The Trustees, who sit on the Trust Board, have overall accountability and legal responsibility for the Trust. They hold the strategic ambitions of the Trust and as non-executive directors, are responsible for ensuring that the GFM meets its obligations as a company. As charity trustees they must ensure compliance with the Trust’s charitable objectives and charity law. Trustees, as governors, are responsible for the governance of the Trust and its schools.
Delegation
The Trust Board delegates authority and responsibility for a range of duties, in order to ensure effective leadership, management and governance of the Trust, as follows:
● the CEO – providing professional governance and is responsible for the leadership and management of the Executive Team
● the Executive Team – responsible for the implementation of the strategy designed to achieve the ambitions of the GFM, as well as the day-to-day running of the Trust
● the Board’s Finance and Resources Committee
● the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee
Scrutiny And Advisory Groups (SAAGs)
The Trust benefits from teams of non-executive ambassadors who work with Trust leaders in Scrutiny And Advisory Groups. These groups include parents, community members and staff of the Trust’s schools, as well as Trustees from the Trust Board. SAAG ambassadors ‘walk alongside’ trust leaders in the school improvement journey, providing support, challenge, scrutiny and advice. Trustees who sit on the Scrutiny And Advisory Groups, act as the link to the Trust Board.
Accountability
● The Board Committees and Scrutiny And Advisory Groups are accountable to the Board
● The Trust CEO is accountable to the Board
● The Executive Team are accountable to the CEO
● The Board is accountable to the MAT (i.e. the Company and its Members)
● The Trustees and the CEO are accountable to the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The Trustees through
the Trust’s funding agreement and the CEO as the Accounting Officer
