Governance - Wessex Multi Academy Trust

The Wessex Multi-Academy Trust has three layers of governance. This is to ensure robust leadership, full accountability and to meet the requirements of the Memorandum, Articles of Association and Funding Agreements, which are statutory documents entered into with the Secretary of State for Education. The three layers are: Members, Trustees and Local Governors. The governance roles are all unpaid, voluntary roles.

Members

The Members are accountable to the Department for Education and have ultimate responsibility for the Trust achieving its charitable objectives. They sign off the Articles of Association and have the power to appoint and/or remove Trustees. There are six Members of the MAT and they presently meet termly with the AGM taking place in January.

Trustees

The Trustees set the strategic direction for the MAT and are accountable to the Secretary of State for the performance of schools within it. As charity trustees, they must also ensure that they are complying with charity law requirements. The Trustees are appointed for their skills, knowledge or experience and fulfil five core governance functions:

Ensuring the clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Holding the Chief Executive Officer to account for the educational performance of the Trust schools and their pupils and the performance management of its staff
Overseeing the financial performance for the schools and making sure its money is well spent
Ensuring the voice of stakeholders is heard
Ensuring the Christian Distinctiveness of our Church of England Schools

The Scheme of Delegation details the powers delegated to the different bodies involved in the governance of the MAT and sets out who is responsible for making which decisions within the Trust. The Scheme of Delegation, Memorandum, Articles of Association, Master Funding Agreement and Supplemental Funding Agreements can be found in the Statutory Document section of the Key Information page. The MAT presently has seven Trustees that meet monthly during term time.

Local Governors

Each school has its own Local Governing Body (LGB) which is a committee of the Trust Board of Trustees. The LGB is made up of community representatives and elected parent and staff representatives, with the skills and experience that enable them to support the Trustees and Headteachers by adding local context and challenge. This is to ensure that each school offers the very best provision. The LGB have governance functions delegated to them by the Trust Board of Trustees for their particular school via the Scheme of Delegation and are accountable to the Trust Board of Trustees.

Members

                            
                        Kate Adie
Member

                        Kaye Chittenden
Member

                        Simon Conibear
Member

                        Genoveva Esteban
Member

                        Godfrey Lancashire
Member

                        Archdeacon Penny Sayer
Member

Trustees

                            
                        Martin Baker
Chair of Trustees

                        Lynne Cove
Trustee

                        Joanna Crankshaw
Trustee

                        Mike Foley
Chief Executive

                        Lucy Mignot
Trustee

                        Kieran Williams
Trustee

                        Mary Miles
Trustee