Academies in England’s biggest MAT will be made shareholders of its parent charity to “guarantee that they can always make their voice heard”.
United Learning Trust will hand local governing body (LGB) chairs “share certificates” giving them the right to speak and vote on binding resolutions at annual general meetings.
The share will represent legal membership of charitable foundation United Learning – which is actually a company limited by shares and acts as the trust’s parent organisation.
Trust CEO Sir Jon Coles (pictured) said the move would strengthen “the voice of local governance” among his 90 academies “in national decisionmaking”.
“I am sometimes asked by schools joining us, ‘how do we know that the group will always work in this way – even when there is a change in the board and the executive?’
“This is our answer: by making every school a shareholder in the group, we guarantee that they can always make their voice heard.”
Each LGB chair who has been in the position for at least two years “will be given a share certificate on behalf of their school” by ULT.
Should the chair leave, it would be passed on to their successor.
However United Learning’s board will continue to hold the majority of votes.
The trust said examples of resolutions could cover anything from thanking the board for its leadership, to disagreeing with executive pay recommendations and seeking a review.
The relationship between governance of schools and trusts has proved to be a tricky one.
National Governance Association guidance states that LGBs form “the bridge between the trust board and its schools”. But the “nature and extent of the responsibilities delegated to the local tier will vary depending on the role given to it” by trustees.
A Confederation of School Trusts report last year showed trusts tend to give local governing boards duties that “benefit from being ‘on the ground’ and having local expertise and knowledge”.
We are determined to retain a relationship-based, listening, responsive ethos
E-ACT went public with its decision to scrap its governing bodies in favour of “academy ambassadorial advisory bodies” in 2016.
The National Governance Association said many trusts had done a similar thing and applauded the honesty over the LGB role.
Meanwhile, Lift Schools rolled out “academy councils” in 2022, overhauling the previous LGBs. The change involved guaranteeing a spot for parents, with the chain noting it was “too easy for school trusts to become distant and disconnected from communities”.
Trusts walk local governing board ‘tightrope’
Academy consultant Lucia Glynn noted that LGB relations were a “tightrope” that trust chiefs must walk. “If you fall off it and the relationship is fractious, that’s where trusts go wrong.
“It’s a really big concern [among governors during conversions] that your school will be swallowed up into some machine and that it will lose its local character.”
United Learning said it was unlikely that others would be able to follow its model, unless they have a similar “very old parent charity” model.
Prior to the change, Coles, the ULT chair, and the board had held a formal meeting with all LGB chairs each year to review performance.
This will now “become the AGM”, the trust said, “adding a layer of legal formality and guaranteeing for the future that the group’s current ethos of building local views into all strategic decision-making will continue”.
“As a growing, national group, we are determined to retain a relationship-based, listening, responsive ethos and the things that have made us successful so far – irrespective of political, economic or other changes,” Coles added.
“Making sure that we will always have to account for ourselves as a board and executive, act transparently and listen to local voices will help to make sure this is always the case.”
NGA CEO Emma Balchin said it was “very encouraging to see the trust thinking seriously about how these challenges can be overcome, and we look forward to tracking their success”.
She added: “Maintaining cohesion and community voice is a particular challenge for MATs which span multiple geographical areas.”
She said other “innovative models” adopted by MATs include some “inviting any parents and individuals in the wider community to become members”, which act as “guardians of governance” in trusts.
