The members are akin to shareholders of a company. They have ultimate control over the academy trust, with the ability to appoint some of the trustees and the right to amend the trust’s articles of association. Members are responsible for determining the governance of the Trust. They approve our Articles of Association. The Articles of Association, as agreed with the Department for Education, set out the details for our internal management, decision making and running of the Trust. The members also appoint trustees in accordance with the Articles.

Pendle Education Trust aims to have five Members (and a minimum of three) in line with the DfE expressed preference; Members are not permitted to be employees of Pendle Education Trust and there is clear separation between this and other layers of governance.

Pendle Education Trust is a charitable company and so Trustees are both charity Trustees (within the terms of section 177(1) of the Charities Act 2011) and Company Directors (within the terms of the Companies Act 2006).

Trustees are bound by both charity and company law so the terms ‘trustees’ and ‘directors’ are often used interchangeably. Pendle Education Trust uses the term ‘Trustee’ as it serves to highlight the overarching charitable purpose of the organisation, distinguishing it from other directorships that may be held in the private sector.

The Trust appoint the Trustees for their knowledge, skills and/or experience to ensure an appropriate balance on our Board.

The academy trust is the legal entity with the board having collective accountability and responsibility for the academy trust and assuring itself that there is compliance with regulatory, contractual, and statutory requirements. They do this by providing:

• Strategic leadership of the academy trust: the board defines the trust vision for high quality and inclusive education in line with its charitable objects. It establishes and fosters the trust’s culture and sets and champions the trust strategy including determining what, if any, governance functions are delegated to the local tier
• Accountability and assurance: the board has robust effective oversight of the operations and performance of the academy trust, including the provision of education, pupil welfare, overseeing and ensuring appropriate use of funding and effective financial performance and keeping their estate safe and well maintained
• Engagement: the board has strategic oversight of relationships with stakeholders. The board involves parents, schools and communities so that decision-making is supported by meaningful engagement.

Trustees develop the overall strategy and vision for the Trust and ensure it is consistently delivered within our academies and operations. Trustees meet as a Trust Board and also as representatives on the Quality and Standards Committee; A Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration and Executive Performance Committee.

The Board of Trustees as the legal entity are accountable in law for all major decisions about all academies within Pendle Education Trust. This does not mean the Board will make every decision within the Trust, they will delegate some governance and decision-making responsibilities to:

• The Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Team
• Principals
• Trust level sub-committees
• Academy Councils

The Board of Trustees have approved a written scheme of financial delegation along with a written scheme of delegation setting out what has been delegated to its three committees and Academy Councils. The Board has also approved terms of reference for each of these groups and a handbook for Academy Council members.

Information pathways between the Trust Board, its committees and the Chief Executive and the Executive Team have been created so that Academy Councils can share with them any concerns or celebrations they may have.

The Trust has the right to review and adapt its governance structure at any times, this includes reducing or removing delegation where appropriate.

This committee is responsible for supporting, challenging, and scrutinizing the Trust’s educational strategy including Safeguarding to ensure that excellent educational outcomes and performance are achieved across all academies and for all children thus ensuring that the Trust works to achieve its stated four core aims.

The committee meets three times a year and reports to the Trust Board. It is comprised of trustees with current educational expertise from across the phases, the Chief Executive and the Executive Principals. The committee also has an educational expert advisor.

The committee considers annual data reports on Safeguarding, SEN, and Pupil Premium across the Trust’s academies and has a designated trustee responsible for this purpose.

This committee is responsible for supporting challenging, and scrutinising matters relating to the adequacy of Pendle Education Trust’s financial and non-financial controls and risks, as well as matters relating to the management of the Trust’s finances, ensuring the Trust works to achieve financial probity.

The committee meets three times a year and reports to the Trust Board. It is comprised of trustees with relevant experience, along with the Chief Executive and the Chief Financial Officer in attendance. The committee also has internal and external auditors in attendance as appropriate.

This committee has delegated authority from the Board to oversee Executive Team performance management and pay and reports annually to the Board on the process and outcomes. The Committee has an independent advisor at the end of the performance management cycle to advise the committee on the annual review and target-setting for the Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Team.

Each academy has an Academy Council made up of individuals comprising of staff, parents, local business and community members or those with an interest in the success of a particular academy.

Within Pendle Education Trust, Academy Councils do not hold legal responsibilities or accountabilities; these are held by the Trust Board and often delegated to the Executive team. However, the Academy Councils play an effective role in both challenge and support, acting as a strong consultative body, with the shared aim of achieving the Trust’s vision for our children.

Academy Council members have three key roles in terms of the development and success of their academies:

• To advise and act as a critical friend to the Principal of the Academy and to advise Trust Board about local issues they need to consider that affect the Academy.
• To represent the interests of the community in the running of the Academy and to represent the academy in its community.
• To provide support to the Principal in undertaking some procedures such as complaints and exclusion procedures.
• To support its work, the Principal will ensure the Academy Council is provided with a range of key information and reports that ensure that Academy Council members have an accurate picture of the standards of education their academy provides and will listen and respond to views expressed by members of the Academy Council to further improve the achievement of learners within the academy.

The Academy Council have the opportunity to report the achievements or key matters for concern to the Trust Board.

The Academy Councils meet four times a year. They are comprised of two staff members from the academy, two parents and between two and four community representatives and the Principal of the academy. There may be exceptional occasions when the Trust will appoint a Central Team advisor, a Trustee or a member of another Academy Council to act as a panel member.

If an academy is in difficulty and is graded as ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted an Academy Improvement Council will be established to support the rapid improvement journey required.

When the academy is no longer in an Ofsted category the academy will revert to the Academy Council structure detailed above.

The Academy Improvement Council has the same remit as above but will meet six times a year (half-termly) as a minimum and receive reports in line with the Ofsted Action Plan agreed by the academy and Ofsted.

The Council is comprised of two staff members from the academy, two parents, a Chair from the Education profession, four community representatives at least two of whom have educational experience, the Principal of the academy, the Executive Principal and the Chief Executive. An adviser to the council will attend all meetings and members of the core Trust team will attend where appropriate.

The Executive Team comprises the Chief Executive Officer, Director of Education and Chief Financial Officer.  

Trustees expect the team to work cohesively to support the achievement of outstanding educational outcomes, to provide an excellent service to the Trust’s academies, to ensure best value for money and to impact on the delivery of Pendle Education Trust’s vision and values.  Specific elements are delegated to each of the roles within the team: 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

• The Trustees have delegated the day-to-day management of Pendle Education Trust to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), line managing them in line with the Executive Performance Policy  
• The CEO is responsible for the strategic leadership of the Trust, the line management of the Central Executive Team and Core managers and reports to the Trust Board and to its committees.
• The CEO is responsible for the over-arching leadership and professional management of the Human Resources, Estates, Health and Safety, Governance and GDPR of Pendle Education Trust. This includes ensuring the preparation of reports to the Resources Committee.  
• The CEO of Pendle Education Trust is also its Accounting Officer. The CEO is therefore not only responsible for the success of the Trust as a whole, for the effective management of risk, and for its efficient and compliant management overall, but is also personally responsible to Parliament for regularity, propriety, and value for money, and assuring the Trust Board about compliance with the Funding Agreement and the Academy Trust Handbook. 

Director of Education (DoE)

• The Director of Education report directly to and are line managed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• The DoE is specifically responsible for preparing reports to the Quality and Standards Committee. They also report to the Trust Board where appropriate.
• The CEO has delegated responsibility for the educational performance of the Trust, for supporting the delivery of future growth and other strategic developments, for the creation of a team-orientated culture of best practice and continual improvement and for the development of partnerships outside the Trust to the DoE.
• The DoE is responsible for the line management of Pendle Education Trust’s secondary principals, Primary Director of Education, and Executive Director for CPD in addition to nurturing its leaders and leadership talent. 

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

• The Chief Financial Officer reports directly to and is line managed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• The CFO is specifically responsible for preparing reports to the Finance and Resources and Audit and Risk Committee. They also report to the Trust Board where appropriate.
• The CEO as Accounting Officer for the organisation bears the ultimate responsibility for the proper financial conduct of the organisation but has delegated responsibility for financial management, for the leadership and management of the Central Finance team and the provision of advice on strategic financial management to the CFO.
• The CFO is accountable for the accuracy and resilience of Pendle Education Trust’s (and its component academies’) accounting practice, systems and data and has direct responsibility for providing the required levels of competence and ownership of the financial operation of Pendle Education Trust in its entirety. 

Principal

• The Chief Executive delegates the day-to-day management of the Trust’s individual academies to the relevant individual Principals, and they are line managed in accordance with the Trust’s appraisal and performance management policies by the DoE or the Director of Education.
• Principals are accountable for the provision of professional vision and leadership for their academy, for securing its success and improvement and for ensuring the delivery of high-quality education for all its pupils along with improved standards of learning and achievement.
• Principals share information about how the trust is managing the school with the Academy Councils so that council members build an understanding about how the academy operates and are enabled to monitor and scrutinise how key policies and improvement plans are working in practice.
• Principals are expected to lead their academy successfully to meet the Trust’s vision.