Dudley Association of Governing Bodies Christine Quinn Regional Schools Commissioner for the West Midlands Christine.Quinn@education.gov.uk April 2018
Damian Hinds - Secretary of State Nick Gibb – Minister for School Standards Anne Milton – Minister for Apprenticeship and Skills Sam Gyimah – Minister for Higher Education Lord Agnew – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the school system Nadhim Zahawi – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
How we work at National and Regional level National Schools Commissioner • Responsible for the delivery of the programme • Holds the RSC team to account • Oversight of the 12 largest national sponsors Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) • Monitor performance and intervene to ensure that underperforming academies improve • Decide on the creation of new academies and trusts, and support good schools to convert • Ensure the sponsor market meets local need • Advised by a Headteacher Board
Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) • Monitor performance and intervene to ensure that underperforming academies improve • Decide on the creation of new academies and trusts, and support good schools to convert • Ensure the sponsor market meets local need • Advised by a Headteacher Board
How academies fit within the wider school system • Academies are one type of institution in a diverse system of 24,000 schools (alongside community, foundation, selective, faith and independent schools). • Overall, around one third of state schools are now academies. 2018 2010 2001 c. 7,500 203 academies • ‘Sponsorship’ is a key mechanism for turning around failing academies First academy schools. Sponsors raise standards by injecting strong leadership and school improvement expertise. The majority are school-led MATs, but they could also be MATs established • Momentum continues with a steady stream of by FE colleges, universities, businesses and charities. new academies – with 369 new converter academies in the six months between July – December 17
The role of the RSC in working with partners in the current and changing context • Ensuring the support and resource gets to where it is most needed • Identifying where the capacity is to drive up the number of good and better schools • Supporting good effective governance as a lever to secure sustainable improvements and VFM
Academies and MATs in West Midlands Over 1000 Academies in West Midlands: 233 MATs • Roughly 700 Converter academies • 78% of the academies in the region are in MATs • Roughly 300 Sponsored academies 54 Free Schools
Multi Academy Trust governance expectations • Good and effective trust governance is key to a sustainable, school-led, academies system. Both skills and structures are important in effective MAT governance. Individuals need to have the knowledge, skills and behaviours, as well as the capacity and commitment to deliver effective governance. A strong board, allied to proper structures and an executive leader, helps to deliver the dual responsibility of strategic planning to deliver strong outcomes for children, and the culture of accountability that is necessary across the organisation
Effective governance is based on six key features • Strategic Leadership that sets and champions vision, ethos and strategy • Accountability that drives up educational standards and financial performance • People with the right skills, experience, qualities and capacity • Structures that reinforce clearly defined roles and responsibilities • Compliance with statutory and contractual requirements • Evaluation
Example MAT Governance Structure • Structures may vary depending on MAT schemes of delegation, the size of the trust, and the types of school in the trust. • The level of delegation to committees and local governing bodies is at the discretion of the trust. Trusts may choose to vary the powers they delegate to LGBs within the trust, or give them a purely advisory role. • A scheme of delegation must be published online by the trust. The ISBL and ESFA provide a library of model terms of reference and schemes of delegation. Trustees (WM RSC Preference for an odd number between 7 and 11) Appointed by members Both company directors & charity trustees Members (3-5) *strong preference for 5 The accountable body for the Trust Like company shareholders, members guard goverance Strategic responsibility for the running of - Signatories of, with power to amend the Articles of Association , the trust: which define how the trust will run - Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction - Appointment/and power to remove Trustees - Holding exec leaders to account for - Appoint the trust’s auditors and receive the trust’s annual educational performance of the MAT & its audited accounts pupils and performance management of staff - Power to wind up the Trust - Overseeing financial performance of the MAT
Trustees • The trustees should have expertise on all aspects of trust business , for example, HR, financial administration, legal work etc. Where this is not possible, the trust should have links in place with professional experts. • All trustees should have an understanding of the statutory and contractual requirements around financial accountability and good financial management. • All boards, however many schools they govern, need people with skills appropriate to the scale and nature of their role ; and no more people than they need to have all the necessary skills to be effective. Where this expertise is not currently present, the trust can recruit through Academy Ambassadors and/or Inspiring Governance, or develop their current trustees. • Where there is a gap in the required skills, the board should ensure that this is addressed through recruitment, induction or training.
Additional requirements • The trust must appoint a named individual who is both the senior executive leader and Accounting Officer (this may be the CEO). This position cannot rotate. There is no requirement that the CEO should be a trustee. • All trusts must have a named CFO and all trusts must approve a written scheme of delegation of financial powers (as per the Academies Financial Handbook). • We strongly advise that members/trustees should include at least one person not involved in any previous/other activities related to the trust , to provide a measure of external challenge (effectively a non- executive director).
What underpins the way that the school led system delivers improvement? • Secure Sustainable Improvement TAKES TIME but leaders need to prioritise and sequence the changes they need to make • Schools and Trusts need to see themselves as capacity givers and capacity takers over a period of time • Schools improve sequentially and in stages • School Improvement is the product of high quality leadership so understanding the stage of the improvement journey is important for getting the right leaders in place • School Improvement can be judged through the lens of results and OFSTED inspections but not exclusively . • STRATEGY+CAPACITY + PACE = Improvement
‘Secure Sustainable improvement TAKES TIME and leaders need to prioritise and sequence the changes they need to make’ • The school can only really improve in line with the time it takes to raise the quality of leadership and teaching • The four phases will overlap so there is no defined start and end date • Teams, year groups and departments will progress through the stages at different rates. • Maths might be in the improve phase at the same time that Science is in repair and PE is in sustain • Big implications in a primary school if EY and Year 6 were to be in need of repair at the same time • Seeing cross subject and cross team trajectories as part of the whole enables the strategic focus and resources to be targeted at the right areas
What are the key questions for governors in the Improve Phase? The questions posed in the Stabilise and Repair Phases will apply up to a point but some will no longer be needed. These are the focus questions for the Improve phase 1. Have we articulated the lessons learned so far and are we sharing them more widely? 2. Are we getting the balance right between quality assurance and operational improvement 3. How do we make sure we are not institutionally blind to the challenges we still face? 4. What are the areas that still need repair? 5. As a board of governors do we need to refresh our professional expertise and capacity? 6. What is our strategic plan to train and develop our team of governors as we move towards becoming a very good school?
What are the key questions for governors in the Sustain Phase? The questions that governors should be asking in the Sustain phase are about sustainability and wider system participation 1. What are the risks to us reaching a performance plateau and how do we avoid that? 2. What capacity do we have to support another school? 3. Can we be confident that the areas of expertise we believe we have really are that good 4. Are the strategies we have implemented scalable and replicable? 5. Have we allocated key areas for sustainable performance to members of the board. (Dis-Advantaged students, able students, collaborative practice)
Recommend
More recommend
