GOVERNANCE
Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust is structured in accordance with its Articles of Association.
There are three levels of governance within the Trust: The Members, The Trust Board of Directors, and the governors who make up the Local Governing Committee for each academy in the Trust.
The Trust comprises five Members. The Members are accountable to the DfE and have ultimate responsibility for the Trust achieving its charitable objectives. They sign off the Articles of Association and have the power to appoint and remove the Directors. The Members include representatives from the Diocese of Newcastle and Hexham. The majority of the Members are independent of the Directors to provide challenge and scrutiny to the Board.
The ultimate responsibility for the running of our schools resides with the Directors of the Trust. They set the strategic direction for the Trust and are accountable to the Secretary of State for the performance of the schools within it. This is set out in a legal document known as the ‘funding agreement.’ As charity trustees, they must also ensure that they are complying with charity law requirements.
Directors are appointed on the basis of skills need.
The authority for running each school remains at Local Governing Committee level and is clearly defined by our scheme of delegation.
The Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust is governed by people in our local communities who have each made a significant impact on the lives of young people.
OUR LOCAL GOVERNING COMMITTEE
Our local governing committee comprises of 9 governors including foundation, parent and staff governors. Each governor appointed to the Local Governing Committee must meet the core competencies and adhere to the governor code of conduct (see below).
Parent governors are representative parents rather than representatives of parents. That is to say, the parent governor provides their impartial parental perspective to the work of the local governing committee, rather than bringing or representing individual parental ‘issues’.
Parent governors do not personally become involved in individual concerns as no governor has the authority to act individually on behalf of the school. Sometimes parent governors find they are approached by parents with individual concerns. In this case, it would not be appropriate to take the issue to the governing body and as governors they would encourage the parents to take the matter up with their child’s class teacher, Deputy Headteacher or the Headteacher. Effective parent governance links working alongside the other members of the Local Governing committee to ensure that the work of the governing body fulfils its duties to all children.