Stradbroke Pyramid PartnershipUmbrella Trust Proposal

James HargraveChair of GovernorsStradbroke Primary School

v1.0 7 September 2011

Working Party

James Hargrave - Chair of Governors, Stradbroke Primary (Chair)

Elspeth Gibson - Governor, SBEC 

Sarah Sharratt - Governor, Fressingfield

Richard Pierce-Saunderson - Governor, SBEC

David Dee - Headteacher , Laxfield

Emma Henchoz - Chair of Governors, Wilby

Agenda

• Chains of Academies• Umbrella Trust Functions• Umbrella Trust Structure• Umbrella Trust Finances• Informal Collaboration

CHAINS OF ACADEMIES

Chains of Academies

• There are three main governance models suggested by the DfE for chains of academies• Multi-Academy Trust• Umbrella Trust• Informal collaboration

• There is a DfE model for multi-academy trusts

• Almost by definition “informal collaboration” doesn’t have a model

• DfE have suggested we develop our own model for Umbrella Trust

Multi-Academy Trust Board

Academy Governing

Body

School 1

Academy Governing

Body

School 2

Academy Governing

Body

School 3

Academy Governing

Body

School 4

Academy Governing

Body

School 5

Academy Governing

Body

School 6

Academy Governing

Body

School 7

Multi-Academy Trust

• Schools form a single multi-academy trust which has overall responsibility

• Master funding agreement with the multi-academy trust

• Supplemental funding agreements with each individual school

• Each school has own Governing Body• Each school has representation on the

Trust Board• Powers “delegated” to individual GBs by

the Trust Board• This is most like a “mini LA”

Umbrella Trust

Academy Governing

Body

School 1

Academy Governing

Body

School 2

Academy Governing

Body

School 3

Academy Governing

Body

School 4

Academy Governing

Body

School 5

Academy Governing

Body

School 6

Academy Governing

Body

School7

Umbrella Trust• A company formed by the schools that

form the chain of academies• Has a relationship with each school but

does not manage schools• Each school has its own academy trust,

and each individual academy trust in the chain (not the umbrella trust) will have its own funding agreement

• This model gives schools greater independence and is very flexible

• Where there are performance issues with a school the umbrella trust could appoint additional governors of that school

Informal Arrangements

Academy Governing

Body

School 1

Academy Governing

Body

School 2

Academy Governing

Body

School 3

Academy Governing

Body

School 4

Academy Governing

Body

School 5

Academy Governing

Body

School 6

Academy Governing

Body

School 7

Informal Collaboration

• Schools can form looser, less formal partnership links

• This gives the most flexibility but less structure

• Would need to inform Secretary of State of arrangements to support any weaker schools before he will agree

Stradbroke Situation

• Schools expressed a desire to retain significant autonomy and the group of Heads and Governors rejected Multi-Academy Trust

• The Diocese expressed significant concern about Multi-Academy Trust

• A working group was formed to look mainly at how an umbrella trust could function

• Informal collaboration was also considered by the group

UMBRELLA TRUST FUNCTIONS

Umbrella Trust Functions• Before we looked at Structure and Finance

we looked at what an Umbrella Trust might do, what its functions would be

• The Trust could start out with limited functions, eg employing a business manager, and expand its role over time

• It would make sense to do things at a trust level that need collaboration, mutual assistance or when there could be economies of scale

• Whilst a trust would not replace or be a “mini LA” it could perform some of the functions the LA does now

Umbrella Trust Functions• Take over employment of the Business

Manager who:• Deals with financial matters• Gets best value on procurement

• Employ other shared staff (eg IT, Admin)• Help by agreement with recruitment

especially for senior posts (like Heads)• Have an agreed role in school

improvement and help schools that are having problems

• Facilitate staff and governor training and development across the Pyramid

Umbrella Trust Functions• Facilitate the use of shared systems (such

as IT systems)• Have a role in co-ordinating school

transport• Represent the Pyramid to the LA and other

Academies and Chains (strengthening negotiation)

• Offer shared services to schools such as HR, Payroll and insurance negotiated by the Business Manager

• Bid for charitable and other funds

Business Manager• Now in post funded by informal agreement

between Heads• Umbrella trust subsequently taking over

the employment of the business manager would ensure fairness and certainty (and conversely less risk for any one  school).

• Business Manager could undertake some of the work for academy conversion by each school (funded from 25K DfE grant)

UMBRELLA TRUST STRUCTURE

Umbrella Trust• An Umbrella Trust would be a company

independent of any individual academy• Each individual academy would also have

its own Trust company and its own Governing Body

• The Umbrella Trust just like each academy trust has both members and directors

• In an academy directors are also known as governors, we propose calling them directors on the Umbrella Trust

Members of the Umbrella Trust• Members of a company can be either real

people such as you and I or “corporate persons”

• An example of a corporate person would be a company or any other body with “legal personality” such as say a Council

• Basically it’s any corporate body you can sue in its own right

• Having considered the options we are suggesting the Members of the Umbrella trust would be each Academy Company and the Diocesan Board of Finance

Umbrella Trust Board of Directors

Chair of Governors

School 1

Chair of Governors

School 2

Chair of Governors

School 3

Chair of Governors

School 4

Chair of Governors

School 5

Chair of Governors

School 6

Diocsan Board of

EdRep(s)

Umbrella Trust• Each school’s Chair of Governors would

be a Director of the Umbrella Trust• The Diocesan Board of Education would

appoint up to 2 Directors• This composition was influenced by the

need to ensure staff (ie Headteachers) represent less than a third of members

• In addition to the Board there would be a Headteachers’ Group and Committees (which Heads could be members of)

• The Board would appoint a Secretary• The Board would elect a Chairman and

Vice-Chairman

Umbrella Trust Board of Directors

PyramidHeadteachers’

Group- all Pyramid Heads and

Business Manager

Finance

Committee

(and any other needed

committees)

Can include Heads

Ad-hoc working groups

UMBRELLA TRUST FINANCES

Umbrella Trust Finances• Each Academy would have its own

Funding Agreement with the DfE• The Umbrella Trust would not have a

funding agreement with the DfE• The Umbrella Trust would have its own

bank account and would hold money• The Umbrella Trust could employ staff, it

would employ the Business Manager at least to start with

• There would be a Funding Agreement between each Academy and the Umbrella Trust that could be regularly reviewed

Umbrella Trust Financial benefits

• Holding money centrally helps overcome small carry-forwards

• Risk of staff employed across more than one academy can be transferred to the Umbrella Trust rather than a single academy

• Able to bid and raise money in its own right

• Enables cross school initiatives (such as teaching school) to have a central financial “pot”

INFORMAL COLLABORATION

Informal Collaboration

• Could still appoint a Business Manager although one school would need to employ them (and take the associated risks)

• Would cost less to set up• Could be more flexible and less formal• We have already begun to work in this way• Easy to change arrangements between

schools

• Might make it easier for some schools to be more or less committed to the partnership as they feel able to be

Informal Collaboration

• Both models could achieve all the aims and functions we have identified but the umbrella trust appears to offer:• greater simplicity (in that it will avoid the

need for heads to negotiate the detail of every shared resource or purchase, however routine); and 

• increased stability (in that it will establish a level of commitment and certainty, at least from one year to the next, that would be missing from an informal collaboration).