Governance Arrangements and Attendance

Tame River Educational Trust (TRET) Governance Arrangements to August 2024

Constitution

Tame River Educational Trust is constituted as a charitable company limited by guarantee and is registered with Companies House (Company Registration No. 6731528).

The Charitable Company’s Articles of Association is the primary governing document of the Academy Trust.

The Secretary of State enters into a Funding Agreement with the Academy Trust (rather than the sponsor) for the running of the Academy schools.

Academies were originally established as registered charities (registered and regulated by the Charity Commission).  However, on 1 August 2011 all academies became ‘exempt’ charities, with the Secretary of State as the Principal Regulator.  They were removed from the Charity Commission register on this date.

Members

The Members of the Tame River Educational Trust shall comprise:

• The Foundation / Sponsor body
• Up to 2 persons appointed by the Foundation / Sponsor body
• Persons (additional Members) appointed by a special resolution of the Members, provided that the total number of Members does not exceed five.

* The Corporate Member appointed Jackie Moores as its authorised representative at TRET Members’ meetings (14.02.23).  Jackie Moores currently serves as the Chair.

The liability of the Members of the Academy Trust is limited, as with any company limited by guarantee, by the amount undertaken by the Members – in this case £10.

Members have a general duty to exercise their powers to further the Academy Trust’s charitable object, which is ‘to advance for the public benefit education in the United Kingdom’.  While they must ensure they do not stray into undertaking the Academy Trustees’ role, they should assure themselves that the governance of the trust is effective, that Academy Trustees are acting in accordance with the Trust’s charitable object(s) and that they, the Members, use their powers to step in if governance is failing.  The Members powers include:

• appointing and removing Academy Trustees
• appointing and removing Members
• directing Academy Trustees
• amending the Academy Trust’s Articles of Association
• appointing and removing the external auditors.

Ensuring the continued appointment of a Trust Board able to provide the strategic direction, support and scrutiny required to achieve the Mission and Core Educational Purposes and the Trusts Object is a primary function of the Members therefore and maintaining an overview of Trustee performance, attendance and skills audit and succession planning shall be considered at least once each year.

Trustees

The Trustees (collectively the “Trust Board”) oversee the operation of the Trust.  They are the directors of the Trust (which is a company in legal terms), trustees of the charity and the statutory governing body of each of its schools.

To further the Objects of the Trust, the Trust Board is responsible for ensuring clarity of vision and ethos, setting the strategic direction, holding the executive to account for the educational performance of the Trust’s schools, and overseeing financial probity and compliance with health & safety, safeguarding and all other legislation and other guidance affecting its schools.

The Board will hold the Chief Executive to account for the conduct and performance of the trust, including the academic performance of the schools within the trust, and for its financial management.

Method of Recruitment and Appointment or Election of Trustees

The Trustees of the Academy Trust shall comprise not less than 3 persons, but shall not be subject to a maximum.  The Academy Trust shall have the following Trustees:

• up to 7 Trustees, appointed by the Members
• a minimum of 2 Parent Trustees in the event that no Local Governing Bodies are established or if no provision is made for at least 2 Parent Local Governors on each established Local Governing Body
• the Chief Executive Officer, if he/she so agrees, may be appointed a Trustee by the Members
• Any number of co-opted Trustees.  However, the Trustees may not co-opt an employee of the Academy Trust as a Co-opted Trustee if the number of Trustees who are employees of the Academy Trust would exceed one third of the total number of Trustees including the Chief Executive Officer

Each of the persons entitled to appoint Trustees above shall have the right, from time to time by written notice delivered to the office, to remove any member appointed by them and to appoint a replacement member to fill a vacancy whether resulting from such removal or otherwise.

The term of office for any Trustee shall be four years, save that this time limit shall not apply to any post which is held ex officio.  Subject to remaining eligible to be a particular type of Trustee, any Trustee may be re-appointed or re-elected at a General Meeting.

* Appointed under previous Articles

Governance Arrangements

The Board of Trustees has appointed the following principal committees:

• Audit, Talent, Finance and Estates Committee (Audit, Risk Management, Human Resources, Finance and Estates)
• Droylsden Academy, Local Governing Body

Meetings of the Trustees in 2023/24

The Board of Trustees formally met four times during 2023/24; attendance was as follows:

The Audit, Talent, Finance and Estates (ATFE) Committee met four times in 2023/24; attendance was as follows: