Non-Executive Director X 2

SHARE Multi Academy Trust

SHARE Multi Academy Trust seeks to a new non-executive director and a member to its board. The trust was formed in 2011 and revised its structure in August 2018. It now comprises five primary schools and three secondary schools. The trust seeks the input of experienced individuals who are able to assist the creation of robust and sustainable financial and business approaches, to help the trust meet its objectives for children's development. Board meetings are held at Shelley College in Huddersfield.

About the trust

SHARE Multi Academy Trust encourages the sharing of expertise within its family of schools, whether it's on recruiting and retaining good staff or improving the quality of learning; all members of the trust contribute and share experience and best practice, helping to make each school within the trust a better place for staff and pupils. Through supporting and challenging each other, the trust has enriched each member school beyond expectations.

As mentioned above, the trust currently consists of three secondary and five primary schools.

Plans for the future

The key challenges for the board over the next 12-24 months are:

1. Maintaining a board with members who have the skills and knowledge to challenge leaders about key performance indicators. To evaluate the performance of leaders and governing bodies.
2. Measuring risks and mitigating effectively against them through use of a computerised risk management register and the operations of the Audit & Risk Committee.
3. To build robust and sustainable financial and business approaches to allow the trust to meet its objectives for children's development.

At some point in the future, the trust may seek to grow, with new schools helping to achieve its core goals and work in accordance with the trust’s values.

Trust ethos & values

SHARE Multi Academy Trust summarises its core values as "Valuing People, Supporting Personal Best".

The trust values the happiness of its pupils and members of staff and believes that schools should be safe, positive environments where every pupil is encourages to achieve their personal potential and helped to overcome obstacles. Those within SHARE MAT believe that helping people feel valued is key to the achievement of their personal best: the highest standard that they can be expected to achieve. Ambitious goals are therefore set, for every pupil, and the trust is committed to provide the assistance required in order for pupils to be successful.

Role summary Number of positions advertised: 2 Role 1 – Trustee/Non-Executive Director

Trustees – or non-executive directors - are both charity trustees and company directors of the academy trust. The core functions of their role are: ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; holding executive leaders to account for the educational and financial performance of a charitable company funded by the public purse.

The board of trustees manages the business of the academy trust and may exercise all the powers of the trust in compliance with its charitable objects, company and charity law.

Non-executive directors will be responsible for maintaining stability and the management of a dynamic structure. The role also includes contributing to financial planning for sustainability and potential growth, and holding the CEO/CFO to account.

In the interests of safeguarding, all trustee appointments would be subject to an enhanced disclosure and barring service check.

Person specification

Every trustee is expected to abide by the trust’s code of conduct and the seven principles of public life set out by Lord Nolan: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

The Competency Framework for Governance (DfE) 2017 details the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for effective governance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/583733/Competency_framework_for_governance_.pdf

The strategic expertise required for this role includes:

Essential (candidates may be accepted who possess one or more of the skills below)

 

• CFO/ Finance
• Risk
• HR
• CEO/General Management
• Corporate Governance

Desirable

 

• Legal/Compliance
• Non-executive/ Trustee

 

 

The trust seeks individuals with senior level professional experience in the private or charity sector; candidates should have leadership and management experience with a demonstrable record of driving positive change. The suitable individual will be capable of understanding financial and workforce data and also understand and accept legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship. Previous experience ideally should be with medium-large scale companies with multi-site operation.

Time commitment

Board meetings are held every half term (i.e. 6 per year) and for those on the audit and risk sub-committee they will have 3-4 additional meetings per year.  Meetings have tended to be on Tuesdays and are usually start at 6 pm but occasionally are held at 8.30 am. Meetings last up to 2 hours each.  The trust is currently updating its induction programme but all new trustees will be given the opportunity to understand the basic information and metrics elating to the academies within the trust. On average trustees should allocate 4-6 hours per month for trust business.

Role 2 – Member

A member is able to alter the trust’s Articles of Association and appoint (or remove) trustees/directors where necessary. They provide independent oversight to the work of the board of trustees in order to ensure suitable accountability for its decision making and strategy. At SHARE Multi Academy Trust the members are expected to be signatories for the academy trust, to attend one meeting per term, and to add to the already broad skillset within the existing team of members.

Person specification

Every board member is expected to abide by the trust’s code of conduct and the seven principles of public life set out by Lord Nolan: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

The Competency Framework for Governance (DfE) 2017 details the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for effective governance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/583733/Competency_framework_for_governance_.pdf

The strategic expertise required for this role includes:

Essential (due to multiple roles, candidates may be accepted who possess one or more of the skills below)

 

• CEO/General Management
• Corporate Governance

Desirable

 

• Non-executive/ Trustee

 

 

The trust seeks individuals with an extensive and demonstrable background in a senior leadership role, with strategic vision and knowledge of the role of a non-executive director.

A good communicator committed to attending Members’ meetings, the ideal candidate will be an individual with good business acumen, as well as experience of working at board level, preferably within a charity or non-profit environment. An interest in education and an awareness of current educational priorities would also be advantageous but is not essential.

Time commitment

The members meet once per term including the Annual General Meeting.  General Induction will be given to new Members to allow them to understand the nature of the trust and the nuances of their role in holding the board to account. As a matter of routine members may need to provide 10-15 hours over the whole year, in short blocks of time.

  Location of board meetings and trust website

Shelley College, Huddersfield Road, Shelley, Huddersfield, HD8 8NL

www.sharemat.org

  Governance structure

https://www.sharemat.org/page/?title=Trust+Governance&pid=8

Background on academy trusts

Academy schools, which are charities run independently of local authority control, now account for 74% of secondary schools and 31% of primaries – and their number is growing all the time.

Many of these schools are grouped together as multi-academy trusts (MATs). There are currently 832 multi academy trusts of 3+ schools. If the schools are to fulfil their potential, the trusts need non-executives (known in charity law as trustees) to bring a wide range of skills and experience to help guide strategy, ensure their ambitions can be soundly financed and keep their schools up to the mark delivering for their pupils.

“Boards must be ambitious for all children and young people and infused with a passion for education and a commitment to continuous school improvement that enables the best possible outcomes. Governance must be grounded in reality as defined by both high-quality objective data and a full understanding of the views and needs of pupils/students, staff, parents, carers and local communities. It should be driven by inquisitive, independent minds and through conversations focussed on the key strategic issues which are conducted with humility, good judgement, resilience and determination.” 
Source: Governance Handbook, Department for Education (2019)

Trusteeship is a voluntary, unpaid role for people who have the energy and skills to make a real contribution to shaping the future of our schools. You do not need to have any specialist knowledge of education. 

Applications

Academy Ambassadors is a non-profit programme which recruits senior business leaders and professionals as volunteer non-executive directors onto the boards of multi-academy trusts. If you are interested in applying for the role please send your CV and a short expression of interest detailing which role you are applying for to academyambassadors@newschoolsnetwork.org. Please note: candidates should live within reasonable travelling distance of the trust and/or have a link with the region. For more information, please call 0207 952 8556 or visit www.academyambassadors.org.

Key dates

We strongly recommend applying as early as you can to have the best possible chance of being considered as we may change the closing date if we have received sufficient applications. Applicants should be aware of the following key dates in the recruitment process