How Does E-ACT Head Office support academies? Head Office provides support to academies in the following key areas: Education Support received from the sponsor in all elements of the school improvement cycle, including: •
Education advisers – The education advisers support the academies in the following ways: An EA is dedicated to each E-ACT academy, with a guaranteed minimum visit of once per every half term Attendance at LGB meetings, and a recent re-format of the EA reports and scorecards, more focussed around the LGB audience Offer and delivery of training on a range of issues, including Raise online, the use of data, and the conduct of governor learning walks Participate in the External Review assessments Play a leading role in embedding the school improvement cycle (as listed below) at academy level
•
Data analysis (termly analysis and benchmarking of performance data across the group). The E-ACT data strategy and data standard was launched in the autumn 2013 term.
•
Self-evaluation (Education Adviser contribution and work carried out with the Local Governance Steering Group to develop self-evaluation tools);
•
External reviews - provide an independent benchmark of the academy and also confirms, prioritises and clarifies areas for improvement, as well as providing opportunities to support and enable peer observation with required professional development and training;
•
Academy Improvement Planning – our team of Education Advisers work with academy leadership teams to ensure the plans in place bring about improvements at pace and are benchmarked against the E-ACT frameworks of excellence.
•
Brokering in effective support - Where there are common areas for improvement we have commissioned cross chain solutions such as the National Maths Partnership and the Ruth Miskin literacy program.
•
Networking and collaboration - We are investing in the capacity in academies to develop local and regional clusters with underpinning systems to support and facilitate disciplined collaboration. We are currently in the process of establishing an assessment working party to support the implementation of a new assessment protocol across the chain.
HR • • • • • •
Support Principals, Senior Leaders and Governors in managing people issues, i.e. disciplinary, grievance, sickness management and capability. Provide advice on statutory employment legislation and support staff/teachers’ terms and conditions. Policy reviews and advice Restructuring and reorganisations – including redundancy Managing Talent New HR Programme in place which is designed to upskill 10-12 academy HR Managers, to provide HR support at a local level
Finance • • • • •
Guidance on budget setting and completing monthly returns to Head Office Dedicated finance officer linked to academies, with a minimum visit to each academy once per term Finance helpdesk service for any operational day to day queries Annual training programme to advise Principals, Senior Leadership Teams and Governors on day to day financial regulations as well as broader government policy and guidelines Developing a Value for Money programme to support ‘non-core’ aggregated purchasing to create savings which can be invested in academies
Internal Assurance • • •
3 year internal audit plan across the whole Group This includes audits at both academy and Head Office level to check compliance against policies and procedures and to check that controls are fully in place Outcome of the internal audits fed back to Principals, LGBs and the Audit & Risk Committee (to report to the main E-ACT Board)
Governance •
As a single legal entity the Board of Trustees are ultimately accountable for all E-ACT academies, however E-ACT has a clear Scheme of Delegated authority and financial authority, which makes clear the distinction in roles and responsibilities between: the Board of Trustees, the Board’s Committees, the CEO (and delegated management); the Local Governing Bodies, the sub-committees of the Local Governing Bodies, and the Academy Principal. Inspectors will want to see from minutes of meetings that the scheme of delegation has been discussed and shared.
•
E-ACT management report to the Board and its Committees (Finance, Audit & Risk, Nominations & Governance, and Remuneration) on the performance of all E-ACT academies to ensure accountability, sharing of best practice and appropriate use of resource across the group. This includes: budget monitoring of academy budgets through ‘Operational Scorecards’ across the group (Finance Committee); performance of the Local Governing Bodies and appointment/appraisal of the Chairs of LGBs (Nominations & Governance Committee);
financial controls overview and findings from internal audit programmes across academies (Audit & Risk Committee); and performance overview of the Principals’ appraisals and salary progression (Remuneration Committee). •
The Board of Trustees scrutinise, challenge and support management on interventions and progress against educational outcomes through benchmarking attainment and levels of progress across the group, as well as receiving externally commissioned reports eg. External Review summaries.
•
The Governance Team provide support to the academies on a day to day basis in terms of governor recruitment and formal appointment helping to source training where appropriate assisting with clarification regarding delegations of duties and governance matters currently reviewing clerking functions across the E-ACT group currently reviewing training across the E-ACT group, with a view to guarantee all LGBs a minimum of two training sessions per year. Recently developed an online scheme of delegation for ease of governor access (available at www.e-act.org.uk)
• • • • •
Academy technical escalation and assistance (via the dedicated help desk service) Academy support for Head Office based systems Academy procurement of technical solutions and academy IT strategy Microsoft licensing and adobe licensing ICT contract and supplier management
IT
Legal •
Co-ordinate support for all legal advice across the group, including employment, education, charity and company law.
Procurement • • •
Helpdesk for any procurement queries and advice in relation to procurement rules and guidance Advice on contract management issues Training programme for procurement rules and guidance (in line with training brochure circulated on 14 January).
Marketing and Communications •
Media work: Head Office provide each academy with proactive and reactive media support. This can include, but is not limited to, liaising with national and regional journalists, writing copy for statements and press releases, sourcing photography and briefing journalists.
•
Crisis Communication work: Head Office offer support and expertise to an academy involved in any serious incident, working closely with the academy to ensure both internal and external communications are appropriately handled and
signed off by the relevant stakeholders. This can include, but is not limited to, drafting communication plans, reactive/ proactive statements, press releases, website copy and letters to stakeholders. Head Office will also liaise with any with national and regional journalists, if necessary and follow up with a lessons learnt report. •
Procurement and tenders: Head Office offer assistance in the procuring of marketing and communication agencies and/or consultants – including writing of tender, attendance at pitch and finalising contracts.
•
Marketing collateral: Head Office can provide an academy with support around the design and content of all marketing collating, providing information from E-ACT Head Office and recommendations on content.