Non-Executive Director

St Stephen’s Church of England Multi-Academy Trust

St Stephen’s Church of England Multi Academy Trust (MAT) is a two school trust based in Heath Town, Wolverhampton. With aspirations to grow, the trust has a key focus on developing its leadership capacity and ensuring robust financial management. It seeks to appoint one trustee/ non-executive director with financial expertise. Board meetings are held at St Stephen's Church of England Primary School, Wolverhampton.

About the trust

A two-school multi-academy trust, St Stephen’s CofE MAT comprises around 460 students and 65 staff, having opened in June 2017. The trust was formed following a successful Federation between St Stephen’s Church of England Primary School and Parkfield Primary School, which included a desire to spread the benefits of collaborative working with schools that share the trust vision and are sympathetic to its Christian values. Currently both schools within the trust are based in Wolverhampton however the trust is ambitious to explore opportunities to work with other schools within a reasonable geographical area. The trust is keen to share its outstanding practice and improve the life chances and outcomes for the most disadvantaged children in the area.

Plans for the future

The key challenges for the trust over the next 12-24 months include:

1. Growth - growing the trust in a sustainable way in order to add capacity, enabling it to support other schools and meet the trust objectives.
2. Leadership - strengthening leadership at one of the academies and developing it's leadership capacity
3. Finance - managing the trust budget while:
4. maintaining and improving outcomes for children
5. maintaining and develop the sites

In the medium term, in line with the MAT Strategy and Business Development Plan, the board aims to maintain the high standards and strong performance in all of the trust schools, continue to strategically develop schools, providing support and build sustainability for longer term success and connect with other MATs, Alliances and Schools to share and discover good practice.

  Trust ethos & values

The trust is built on the underpinning promise that:

‘We will not make excuses, we will not make false promises, but we will insist that all children

have the same life chances and opportunities.’

The trust’s full mission statement is available at www.ststephensmat.co.uk-vision-and-values

  Role summary Number of positions advertised:

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

 

• CFO/ Finance

 

 

Desirable

 

• Change Management
• CEO/ General Management
• Growth Management
• Restructuring
• Corporate Governance
• Risk

A finance specialist with a proven record of guiding and delivering strategy in a senior role, the ideal candidate will hold a relevant qualification and have experience in corporate governance and/or past experience in a charity/non-profit context. Candidates are sought with demonstrable record in managing risk in a corporate environment.

Time commitment

Two hours /month minimum.

Location of board meetings and trust website

St Stephen's Church of England Primary School, 2 Woden Road, Wolverhampton, WV10 0BB

 

www.ststephensmat.co.uk

Governance structure

https://www.ststephensmat.co.uk/governance-structure

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 focused 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 –

Deadline for applications: Friday, 6^th December 2019