Academy trust encouraged to increase the degree of separation between trustees and members

A chain of free schools has been “made aware” by the government of official guidance stating that there should be separation between its two main layers of governance, Education Uncovered has been told.

The East London-based Bellevue Place Education Trust (BPET) revealed this to this website after I pointed out that its latest accounts state that three of its controlling “members” – including the chair of its board, Claire Delaney - are also trustees of the organisation.

Members approve a trust’s constitution and have hire-and-fire rights over trustees. In its “Academies Financial Handbook” for 2017-18, the year of those accounts, the DfE stated: “The Department’s view is that the most robust governance structures will have a significant degree of separation between the individuals who are members and those who are trustees.

“If members also sit on the board of trustees this may reduce the objectivity with which the members can exercise their powers. The Department’s recommendation is for a majority of members to be independent of the board of trustees.”

Good governance practice would generally seek to avoid the over-concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals. This is certainly a common factor in many seeming scandals in the education sector which have come my way over the years, although there is no suggestion of one in this case.