Community First Academy Trust - Statutory Information

Statutory Information

Our Governance Structure ensures there are clear reporting lines of accountability to ensure probity, good governance and outstanding performance.

Trustees and Members of the Trust are appointed in accordance with the Trust Articles of Association.

Trustees focus on three core functions of governance:

Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the Trust;
Hold trust schools and its leaders to account for the educational performance of the schools and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and
Oversee the financial performance of the Trust and make sure its money is well spent.

Mr Jack Pugh - Chair

Mrs Jane Chambers - Vice Chair

The role of Member

Meetings of Members are called 'General Meetings' and the decisions they make are called 'resolutions'. CFAT Members meet at least once a year at the Trusts Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The Member’s responsibilities is to ensure the continued adherence of the Trustees to the founding principles of the Trust, namely to secure the best educational standards, personal and academic, for all pupils within the Trusts.

The role the Trustee

The role of Trustee is to oversee the strategic direction of the Trust and work with fellow Trustees to monitor the outcomes of pupils and the application of funds to ensure the continued viability of the Trust. It is also the Trustees role to provide constructive challenge so that they can demonstrate that they are effective and efficient managers of the Trust.

Trustees meet at least once a term to discuss key strategic and operational issues.

The Board of Trustees is supported by a Finance, Audit and Risk Committee that meets once per term and Local Academy Boards at each school/academy.

The Board of Directors - as of September 2019

Name	Role	Date of Appointment	Term of Office	Date of Resignation (if within 12 months)
Members
Mr Neil Bailey	Member	25th September 2017	4 Years
Mrs Elizabeth Greenside	Member	1st September 2018	4 Years
Mrs Brenda Szwandt	Member	25th September 2017	4 Years
Mrs Angela Holland	Member	1st May 2018	4 Years
Mrs Rose Crompton	Member	1st September 2018	4 Years
Trustees
Mr Jack Pugh	Trustee & Chair	25th September 2017	4 Years
Mrs Jane Chambers	Trustee & Vice Chair	1st March 2018	4 Years
Mrs Sue Darbyshire	CEO / Trustee	25th September 2017	4 Years
Cllr Carl Sweeney	Trustee	25th September 2017	4 Years
Mr Mark Rowlands	Trustee	25th September 2017	4 Years
Mr Simeon Woosey	Trustee	1st March 2018	4 Years	19.12.18
Mrs Ruth Rule-Mullen	Trustee	4th May 2018	4 Years
Mrs Lynne Hamnett	Trustee	1st September 2019	4 Years
Mr John McDonald Strategic Finance Manager	Co-opted on to the finance, risk and audit committee	1st September 2018	annual
Clerk
Ms Marie Collier Contact: info@cfat.org.uk	Trust Wide Clerk	1st September 2018	annual

Directors or Committees with Specific Roles

Name or Committee	Specific Role
Mr Jack Pugh	*Vulnerable Children (including Safeguarding & CLA)
Mrs Ruth Rule-Mullen	Special Educational Needs & Disability
Cllr Carl Sweeney	Pupil Premium and Looked after Children
Mr Mark Rowlands	Health & Safety
Finance audit and risk committee	Finance, audit & risk

Formal Meetings of Members and Trustees

All meetings of both Trust Members and Trustees take place at the Trust's registered office which is Rivington Ave, Platt Bridge, Wigan, WN2 5NG and generally start at 17:00hrs unless stated otherwise.

Minutes of meetings are available for inspection on request from the Trusts registered office.

Request for Copies

Anyone can by law request a copy of the accounts from the charity at any time. Our accounts are displayed online at the footer of this page for review. If you would like to request copies of anything else please contact our Clerk in the first instance by emailing info@cfat.org.uk

Contact
To contact any member of the Trusts Governing Board, please contact the Trust Clerk by emailing info@cfat.org.uk

Record of Attendance - Members and Trustees Meetings 2018-2019

P – present

A – apology received and accepted

N – apology received but not accepted

D – did not attend, no apology received

n/a - not required to be in attendance

Name	14.07.18 Meeting of Trustees	11.07.18 Meeting of Trustees	03.07.18 Meeting of Members	22.05.18 Meeting of Trustees	08.05.18 Extraordinary Meeting of Trustees	27.03.18 Meeting of Trustees	31.01.18 Extraordinary Meeting of Members & Trustees
Mr Jack Pugh	P	P	A	P	A	P	P
Mr Neil Bailey	n/a	n/a	P	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mrs Sue Darbyshire	P	P	n/a	P	P	P	P
Cllr Carl Sweeney	A	A	n/a	P	P	A	P
Mr Mark Rowlands	P	P	n/a	P	P	P	P
Mr Geoff Ashton	n/a	n/a	D	P	P	P	P
Mrs Brenda Szwandt	n/a	n/a	P	n/a	n/a	n/a	P
Mrs Karen Ardley	n/a	n/a	P	n/a	n/a	n/a	P
Mrs Jane Chambers	P	P	n/a	P	P	P	n/a
Mr Simeon Woosey	D	D	n/a	D	D	P	n/a
Mrs Ruth Rule-Mullen	P	P	n/a	P	A	P	n/a

Record of Attendance - Members and Trustees Meetings 2019-2020

P – present

A – apology received and accepted

N – apology received but not accepted

D – did not attend, no apology received

Meetings of Members

Name	AGM 19^th December 2018	Special Resolution Meeting 27th July 2019
Jack Pugh	P	P
Liz Greensides	P	P
Brenda Szwandt	P	P
Neil Bailey	A	A
Angela Holland	P	P

Meetings of the Board of Trustees

Name	18 Sept 2018 Standards	19th Dec 2018 Finance & Resources Agenda	22nd Jan 2019 Standards Agenda	2nd April 2019 Finance & Resources Agenda	21st May 2019 Standards Agenda	16th July 2019 Finance & Resources Agenda	Attendance - out of a possible 6 meetings
Jack Pugh (Chair)	P	A	A	P	P	P	4 out of a possible 6
Jane Chambers (Vice Chair)	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6
Sue Darbyshire	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6
Ruth Rule-Mullen	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6
Carl Sweeney	A	A	A	P	A	P	2 out of a possible 6
Simeon Woosey	D	D	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mark Rowlands	P	P	P	A	P	P	5 out of a possible 6

in attendance

Michelle Frost	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6
Craig Holden	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6
Marie Collier (Clerk)	P	P	P	P	P	P	6 out of a possible 6

Meetings of the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee

Name	7th November 2018	13th February 2019	22nd May 2019	Attendance - out of a possible 3 meetings
John McDonald	P	P	A	2 out of a possible 3
Jack Pugh	P	A	P	2 out of a possible 3
Ruth Rule-Mullen	P	P	P	3 out of a possible 3
Sue Darbyshire	P	A	P	2 out of a possible 3

in attendance

Michelle Frost	P	P	P	3 out of a possible 3
Craig Holden	P	P	P	3 out of a possible 3
Marie Collier (Clerk)	P	P	P	3 out of a possible 3

Member and Trustee Training

All Trustees and Local Academy Boards for all CFAT partner schools are invited for ongoing training. Recent training has included the following:

22nd March 2016 - RAISE online with Tauheedul Education Trust.

17th May 2016 - Using Fisher Family Trust Aspire

21st June 2016 - Performance Tables - Secondary with Tauheedul Education Trust.

13th September 2016 - Narrowing the Gap with Tauheedul Education Trust.

12th & 13th May 2017 – CFAT Annual Conference Review of Governance & Ofsted Framework Training

27th April 2018 - Members and Trustee Review of Governance Workshop

May 2018 - Mandatory trust-wide GDPR training for Members and Trustees

July 2018 – CFAT Annual Conference Review of Governance & Data Training

28th September 2018 - CFAT Trustees Business Planning Workshop

8th & 9th February 2019 - Confederation of School Trusts (CST) MAT Conference

Financial Statement

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Financial Statement to 2018

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Financial Statement to 2017

Financial Regulations Manual

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Financial Regulations Manual.

Management Letter

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Management Letter 2018

Value for Money Statement

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Value for Money Statement

Articles of Association

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Memorandum of Association

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Articles of Association

Scheme of Delegation

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Scheme of Delegation

Please click here to view the DfE's Governance Handbook

Funding Agreement

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Deed of Variation of Funding Agreement

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Supplemental Funding Agreement

General Data Protection Regulations

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust General Data Protection Regulations

Trade Union Facility Time

Please click here to view Community First Academy Trust Trade Union Facility Time