AET firmly believes in a holistic model of governance that allows for strategic Board decision making, focused and effective executive and regional leadership and local engagement and input from stakeholders. Clarity on decision making and coordinated information flows between the tiers of governance are crucial to ensuring that all stakeholders work together to support meaningful improvement across the network. Each tier of governance contributes to helping establish our schools’ values and ethos, providing continuity of care to the school and linking them with their communities.

Here we set out the limits and extent of each party’s authority to act and clarifies where responsibility and accountability sit for key functional areas:  

• Members: The role of Members is to hold the Trustees to account, assure themselves that the governance of the Trust is effective and that Trustees are acting in accordance with the Trust’s charitable object(s). Members should be ‘eyes on, hands off’ and should not be involved in the day-to-day business of the Trust. However, Members have key powers, including the appointment of Trustees and amending the Memorandum & Articles of Association. 

• Board of Trustees: As a multi-academy trust (MAT), Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) holds all academies as one legal entity. AET has a Master Funding Agreement with the Department for Education and there are Supplemental Funding Agreements for each individual academy. The Board of Trustees is the legally responsible and accountable body for every academy. The Board holds and fulfils all statutory responsibilities by approving and monitoring the implementation and impact of network-wide educational and financial plans, including the budget. The board holds legal liability for areas that would normally be the responsibility of an academy governing body, such as the Single Central Register and policies, with support from the central team. While the Board may delegate many of its functions (for example to the Leadership Team or a Board Committee), the MAT remains accountable for these functions. 

• Executive Team: The Executive Team encompasses the Leadership Team and central team staff responsible for working with academies to deliver educational and operational outcomes. The Board delegates the provision of all support systems for academies to the Executive Team. 

• Regional Leadership: The Board delegates management of the academies, strategic planning and line management of Principals through the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of Education to the Regional Education Directors (REDs). Regional Finance and HR Hubs are responsible for management of financial and HR matters. 

• Principals: Principals are responsible for delivering all educational and operational outcomes in their individual academy. 

• Academy Councils (ACs): Academy Councils are local advisory bodies with primary responsibility for localised challenge and support but with no legal liability or final approval of policies or core documents. They also lead on local stakeholder engagement (staff, parents, community). 

Disclaimer: This document is concerned with core activities that are carried out within each functional area of operational and strategic delivery and how they are coordinated between the various decision makers. It does not lay out every legal responsibility of a MAT or activity within the remit of individual stakeholders. Nor does this document dictate when responsibilities may be further delegated within sets of stakeholders – for example by a Principal to other staff within the school, or the Chief Executive Officer to other staff within the central team. Some regions operate with an Executive Head/Head of School model; where this is the case, a separate document will set out how Principal responsibilities are discharged.

Exceptions: In certain circumstances, such as in times of crisis, the Executive Team may take a more active role and responsibilities may change or stakeholders may go above and beyond the level of support that is articulated here. This document is reviewed on an annual basis in order to ensure that delegated responsibilities can be aligned with organisational need.