Non-executive director X 2

Academy Transformation Trust (ATT)

Academy Transformation Trust (ATT) seeks to recruit two individuals with key knowledge and expertise in the fields of HR and estates/facilities management respectively to bring business and strategic experience to its Board of Trustees. With 22 schools across the West Midlands and the East of England, Academy Transformation Trust shapes the futures of over 12,000 children.

Meetings are held at multiple locations within the Midlands.

About the trust

Since its establishment in 2011, Academy Transformation Trust (ATT) has expanded to take on a total of 22 academies – ten primary, ten secondary, one ‘all-age’ and one further education provider. The trust’s dedicated staff of 1,300 are responsible for helping to transform the lives of over 12,000 young people.

ATT’s provision is overwhelmingly focused in areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage, evidenced by the large numbers of its young people eligible for ‘pupil premium’ funding. This is a key area in which the trust knows it can make the biggest difference.

The academies within the trust are grouped into two broad regions - the ‘West’ and the ‘East’. In the West, there are academies in Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, Sandwell, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire, while the East comprises academies in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Thurrock.

Each academy has a ‘local academy committee’ (LAC) and the trust is implementing a new, more regionalised approach to devolved governance for the start of September 2019. Information on the trusts’s proposed governance structure is in the section below.

ATT believes passionately in the need for academies to be both supported and challenged to deliver the best for every pupil as they work together to drive up educational standards, and the Board of Trustees is legally responsible for making sure that happens.

Plans for the Future

ATT’s trustees have agreed a Strategic Plan for the next three years with ten strategic aims which will ensure that ATT is positioned within the top 10% of MATs nationally in regard to school performance by August 2021.

To deliver this ambition, the Board of Trustees will need to have a keen focus on:

• school improvement, embedding the principles of challenge, support and intervention, insisting upon the highest educational standards, encouraging collaboration within and beyond the trust and developing a vision for educational excellence in a changing world;
• financial sustainability, ensuring that the trust’s academies offer the highest quality, as well as offering good value for money in funding terms, keeping a keen eye on financial probity and maintaining a healthy ‘bottom line’;
• people and communities, ensuring ATT’s academies are fit for the future by nurturing and developing the talents of staff and leaders and by enhancing their status as indispensable community assets;
• managed growth and expansion, enabling the trust’s academies to benefit from the economies of scale a large MAT can offer while ensuring that new academies have a good ‘fit’ with ATT, and the risks of expansion are well managed.

 

Trust ethos & values

‘Transforming education; Transforming performance; Transforming lives – putting children and young people at the heart of everything we do.’

ATT aims to ensure that all of the children in the trust, regardless of their background, fulfil their educational potential, doing so in a safe, supportive and ambitious environment, ensuring the maximizing of life chances for them all.

The trust’s values are built upon four key principles: transparency, innovation, collaboration and ambition.

ATT aims to:

• work inclusively within its communities, embracing the varied localities its serves while sharing a common vision and values;
• develop the very best leaders of the future, working to improve education and transform lives;
• adhere unwaveringly to the ‘Nolan Principles’ of public service, which are made clear in the trust’s commitment to ethical leadership.

Role Summary Number of Positions Advertised: 

2

Roles 1&2 – Trustee/Non-executive Director

Trustees are responsible for the strategic direction, broad policy framework and oversight of the trust and all its academies. Trustees take decisions that are in the best interests of the trust as a whole and are not representative of any one of the constituent academies. The trustees are also Directors of the trust, which is a company limited by guarantee and registered as such at Companies House. Trustees are required to take collective responsibility for all aspects of the board’s work – while specific skills areas are sought, it is expected that strategy development and accountability rests with all trustees.

Excellence in governance will be delivered by ensuring that the Board of Trustees collectively has the broadest range of experience and skills possible. ATT’s Board of Trustees is especially in need of additional knowledge and expertise in the fields of Human Resources and Estates Management.

  Person specification

The competencies required for this role include:

Essential

 

• HR OR
• Property/ Estates

Desirable

 

• CEO/ General Management
• Strategic
• Corporate Governance
• Non-executive/ Trustee

 

• HR role specification: An individual with a strong and demonstrable background in HR, who has the ability to think strategically, as well as evidence of prior working at senior leadership level, specifically at board level. An HR qualification is essential as the board seeks to secure a strong candidate capable of helping to deliver scrutiny and challenge to the senior leadership team, while also helping to shape the future of the trust’s approach to people development. Experience of corporate governance and a prior role as a non-executive director are desirable although not essential.

 

 

• Property/Estates role specification: An individual with a strong and demonstrable background in estates and facilities management, who has the ability to think strategically, as well as evidence of prior working at senior management level. A relevant qualification is essential as the board seeks to secure a strong candidate capable of helping to deliver scrutiny and challenge to the senior leadership team, while also helping to guide the future of the trust during a period of anticipated growth. Experience of corporate governance and a prior role as a non-executive director are desirable although not essential.

 

 

Knowledge of, and willingness to adhere to, the Nolan Principles of Public Life is essential.

  Time commitment

The board meets six times per year, as do the majority of its sub-committees. As it is likely that new trustees will sit on at least one sub-committee, the time commitment is likely to be in the region of 40-50 hours per year, spread over at least twelve days.

Many trustees choose also to involve themselves in the life of the trust in other ways, in addition to this commitment. Given the geographical spread of the academies, most trustee meetings take place in the Midlands area. Precise locations are determined throughout discussion among the trustees in advance of upcoming meetings.

  Location of Board Meetings and Trust Website

http://www.academytransformationtrust.co.uk/

Board meetings are held at various locations around the Midlands, through discussion and negotiation with other trustees.

Governance Structure

http://www.academytransformationtrust.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Scheme-of-Delegation-August-2017.pdf

Background on academy trusts

Academy schools, which are charities run independently of local authority control, now account for 71% of secondary schools and 26% 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 980 multi academy trusts of 2+ 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.

“Academy 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 (2017)

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, 31^st May, 2019