The Members are the guardians of the trust. Their role is one of oversight to ensure that the trust, as a charity, fulfils its charitable objectives, i.e. “to advance for the public benefit education in the United Kingdom”.
The Members appoint the Trustees/Directors, who then run the trust, in accordance with the Academy Trust Handbook, the Articles of Association and the Scheme of Delegation.
The Trust Board is responsible to the Secretary of State for the quality of education and the expenditure of public money. It appoints the Chief Executive Officer and is the employer of all the staff in the trust.
It delegates specific responsibilities to committees, including local governing bodies.
The Trust Board has established Local Governing Committees for each of the Academies for the most part made up of people drawn from the Academy’s community. Governors serving on Local Governing Committees are accountable to the Trust Board as well as to the communities they serve. Whilst not trustees under charity law, the Governors are under a duty to act in good faith and in the interests of the Academy and the Trust.
Details of the authorities delegated by the Trust Board to the local Governing Bodies are set out in the Scheme of Delegation (Section 4). In summary, it is the role of the governors to:
- Hold the headteacher and senior leadership of the Academy to account for the educational performance of the school and the quality of provision for pupils.
- Ensuring clarity of the Academy’s vision, ethos and strategic direction.
- Fulfil the statutory responsibilities in relation to SEN, Safeguarding, Disadvantage, Looked After Children, Behaviour, Careers (Secondary) in line with trust policies.
The Executive Team is the executive arm of the Trust Board focussing on operations and resources and supporting the educational performance of the Academies. It operates under the leadership and direction of the Chief Executive Officer.
Under delegated responsibility from the Trust Board, the Executive Team works directly with the staff in each Academy and the local governing bodies to ensure that the required outcomes are achieved in accordance with the direction and vision of the Trust Board.
The Executive Team comprises many officers of the Trust including the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Principal HR Officer, School Improvement Professional, Primary Specialist and a Finance, IT and Marketing Manager. The governance and compliance aspects are managed by the Trust’s Executive Assistant.
The principal responsibilities of the Executive Team are:
- to manage the conversion of schools to Academies
- to direct and support the operation of each Academy
- to provide operational and management support to the Headteachers and senior leadership teams within the Academies
- to benchmark Academies across the group developing collaboration, resource sharing and cross fertilisation
- to ensure insurance is maintained for all risk areas across the Trust
- to undertake strategic management of the whole Trust estate
- to take a lead on any capital bids and allocations
- to supervise and facilitate the production and audit of the Trusts company accounts
Each individual Academy is led by a Headteacher supported by a local Academy Senior Leadership Team, responsible for the day-to- day running of the Academy.
The Trust is the Admissions Authority for each of the schools within its Trust. It has resolved to establish an Admissions Committee. The scope of the committee’s business is:
- To monitor and review the Admissions Policy for each school to ensure compliance with the Admissions Code to meet statutory deadlines.
- To oversee consultations on admissions.
- To advise the Trust Board on necessary changes to policy.
The Trust Board has appointed an Audit, Risk and Finance Committee to provide independent oversight and scrutiny of the Trust financial systems, operational controls and risk management.
2023-24 Terms of Reference Audit, Risk and Finance Committee
The Pay and Personnel Committee is responsible for setting and reviewing the pay ranges of Trust Executive Staff, and approving pay progression following appraisal for the CEO and Headteachers. The Committee also recommends to the Trust Board the implementation of national pay awards for teaching and support staff throughout the Trust.
The role of the Cranmer Education Trust Standards Committee is to focus on standards across the educational institutions owned and operated by the Trust. The scope of the committee’s business is:
- To monitor and review the academic and pupil standards for individual academies and the Trust as a whole
- To report to the Trust Board on the Trust’s compliance with all statutory curriculum and reporting requirements, at Trust and School level, and in the light of the Trust’s Christian vision and values drawing on the reports of the CEO, reporting by local committees and deep dives for QA on an annual basis
- To report to the Trust Board on the progress of each designated Church of England school against the SIAMS framework
- To review the Trust’s improvement strategy and capacity, reporting to the Trust Board.
- To ensure that the non-Church of England designated academies have a vision that supports the overall vision and ethos of the Trust
