Future Academies still appears not to be compliant with DfE governance rules, despite its directors’ past history as government policymakers

11-school academy chain appears to have schools without elected parents, despite this being against both the DfE’s Academy Trust Handbook and its own articles of association, while also seeming to lack elected staff members on governing bodies, despite this being stipulated in its constitution.

Nearly 18 years after its foundation, an academy chain set up by the Conservative businessman and former minister Lord Nash and his wife appears still not to be operating in line with Department for Education governance rules.

Future Academies, based in Pimlico, central London, has no elected parents on its overarching board, while only three of its 11 schools have at least two such parents on its “local governing bodies”.

Under the government’s Academy Trust Handbook (ATH), which Future’s chairman Lord Nash once oversaw as academies minister, trusts are supposed to have either two elected parents on their boards, or two on each local committee or governing body.

The trust, another of whose directors is the former national schools commissioner Sir David Carter, also appears not to have governance arrangements in line with its own articles of association. These state that there should be an elected parent on each school’s “academy governing body,” as well as places for elected staff members.

Future Academies also appears to have few obvious links its local communities at board level, with its trustees, as listed on its website, currently comprising Lord and Lady Nash, two directors including Sir David who have been very senior in DfE policymaking, a former management consultant with McKinsey and co…and a current member of the royal family.