GOVERNANCE

In contrast to many schools, Governance over Holy Cross Church of England Primary School (Holy Cross) is not undertaken through the operation of a Local Governing Body. Instead, Governance over Holy Cross is achieved through independent direct oversight undertaken by the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust (DEMAT) across the academy. This is supplemented by a Parent and Community Forum for the academy providing a feedback mechanism for the community to feedback to the school and to DEMAT on a regular basis.

Direct oversight of Holy Cross was introduced following a lack of success by DEMAT and the academy in being able to put in place a replacement Local Governing Body following the establishment of the academy following the merger of two predecessor schools. This decision is reviewed annually.

Governance and reporting

An overview of how the framework works for Holy Cross is set out below.

At academy level

The framework provides independent oversight over Holy Cross through the establishment of termly meetings with the Head Teacher and the following DEMAT Central Functions:

1.       The DEMAT School Performance Director

2.       The DEMAT Director of Education or their designate

3.       Other representatives of the DEMAT Education team, as appropriate

4.       The DEMAT Head of Governance

5.       Other representatives of the DEMAT Central team covering the Finance, HR and Premises functions, as appropriate

The meetings are broadly in line with the agenda of normal LGB meetings and include the Headteacher tabling a Headteacher report for discussion and challenge. They also consider the outcomes of third party audits of the academies including of Health and Safety and Safeguarding.

Local policies applied at the academies are approved by the DEMAT Head of Governance. Central DEMAT Policies to be applied by the academies are approved by the DEMAT Trustee Board.

The framework also require Holy Cross to run a Parent and Community Forum to ensure that a forum for feedback is provided for the academy. 

At a Trust level

Oversight of Holy Cross is carried out for Education and for non-Education areas of the academies’ activities.

On the Education side, a system of support, challenge and monitoring of Holy Cross is delegated through Trustees and the CEO to the DEMAT School Performance Director. The SPD conducts regular visits to the academy and meetings with the headteacher and other staff. Principally, this is to support the academy in its improvement journey through several mechanisms, including but not exclusively:

 Support and challenge for the headteacher in development of the Academy Development Plan (APD)

·       Support and challenge for the headteacher and leaders in the self-evaluation process

·       Monitoring the academy (alongside leaders) for progress against agreed development actions

·       Support for the headteacher and wider team in establishing a programme of CPD

·       Support and challenge for subject leaders

·       Support and challenge for school leaders around curriculum choices and development

On the non-Education side, Holy Cross falls under the oversight of the DEMAT central functions, being:

1.       Premises, incorporating Health and Safety and IT;

2.       HR

3.       Finance

4.       Governance, incorporating Data Protection

On an ongoing basis, all issues arising in any of these areas are processed and reported in summary on a weekly risk dashboard.

On a monthly basis, all issues/key risk identified are reported to the DEMAT Executive Team at a monthly meeting attended by the Heads of these section. The Governance report to the DEMAT Executive includes a specific section on Model B DEMAT academies.

On a quarterly basis or as directed by the DEMAT Trust Board, these reports are summarized and presented to the DEMAT Trust Board Committees as appropriate (DEMAT Standards & Ethos, Finance & Estates, Personnel and Audit and Risk).

On an annual basis, the DEMAT Head of Governance carries out a review of the effectiveness of the Model B framework across DEMAT.

A record of all Governance documents held and created for Holy Cross are held on secure internal DEMAT database.