Our Governance Structure

St Benet’s MAT is a Multi Academy Trust and therefore the responsibility for governance rests with the Members and the Trust Board.

The Members are responsible for appointing Trustees and they hold the Trust Board to account for the effective governance of the Trust. The Trustees have a broad range of skills and experience from both the education and business worlds.

The Board has three sub-committees whose role is to scrutinise the work of the Trust and hold St Benet’s MAT officers to account in accordance with the Articles of Association and Scheme of Delegation:

• Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
• Standards and Performance Committee

All sub-committees report back to Trustees at each Board Meeting.

In addition, two St Benet’s Trustees represent the Trust on the Joint Policy Development Committee which develops and reviews policies for St Benet’s MAT, DNEAT (Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust) and DoNESC (Diocese of Norwich Education Services Company).

The principal responsibility of the Academy Review Meeting (ARM) is to hold leaders, including governors, to account for academy improvement. For our academies there are three scheduled meetings each year, these are to be held during the early part of each term.

At each ARM, the academy’s senior leaders will report progress against identified priorities within the approved Academy Improvement and Development Plan. Their view of progress will be validated by the Trust Officer chairing the meeting and reports from other professionals working with each academy. The ARM is a mechanism for ensuring that rapid improvements are made.  Its purpose is:

• To hold the Headteacher to account for academy improvement.
• To hold the LGC to account for those responsibilities delegated to it.

Local governance at academy level is conducted via a Local Governance Committee (LGC) which is made up of Trust Appointed Governors, Parent Governors, a Staff Governor and the Headteacher.  Responsibilities from the Trust Board are delegated via a Scheme of Delegation which is reviewed on an annual basis.  The LGC is expected to meet in full on a termly basis and carry out monitoring activities throughout the year.  The Chairs of Governors meet on a regular basis with the Trust via the Academy Review Meetings and an annual Chair’s Committee.

The Trust provides guidance and support to the LGCs through the provision of draft agendas, supporting documents, quality assurance visits and in-house training for governors.

The Trust’s Accounting Officer is Sam Nixon (CEO).