Governance Professional

**GOVERNANCE PROFESSIONAL**

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**Job Title: Governance Professional**

**Reports to: Chair of Trustees**

**Salary : Competitive**

**Start Date: September 2024**

**The Board of Trustees at Wembley Multi-Academy Trust is seeking to appoint a Governance Professional to deliver high-**

**quality services.**

We are seeking a Governance Professional who will be accountable to the Trust Board, working with the WMAT Governance Manager across the schools and the respective Local Advisory Boards and the North West London Teaching School Hub. They will be responsible for advising the Trustees on constitutional matters, duties and powers and will work within the broad current legislative framework.

This role is offered as a hybrid role with elements of working from home as well as on site Wembley Multi-Academy Trust. You will be required to attend regular scheduled meetings. The specific contractual arrangements regarding the working hours will be discussed and agreed with the successful applicants.

Role purpose

To oversee all aspects of governance effectiveness and compliance within the trust, ensure governance adheres to good practice and meets all statutory and regulatory requirements, and provide strategic leadership of services that support governance across the Trust.

This is achieved by:
¨ Supporting the efficient and effective operation of the Trust Board and its committees.

¨ Ensuring governance at all levels is carrying out its functions.

¨ Leading on development of the Trust’s governance framework and driving improvements to its systems, processes and structures.

¨ Managing and coordinating the delivery and ongoing improvement of governance support across the Trust.

**Strategic leadership across schools**

Leading governance services

¨ Ability to manage senior relationships at BoT, BoT Committees and executive level, adding more value to the wider corporate picture, and experience of working closely with a range of stakeholders.

¨ Work with executives, strategic and operational leads to ensure support for governance is compliant, effective and contributes towards strategic priorities being met.

¨ Act as the lead adviser on issues relating to the governance of schools and or the Trust.

¨ Develop and implementing the MAT’s strategy for effective governance support services.

¨ Design and monitor the governance support structure.

¨ Assess capacity and developing the structure in line with organisational growth.

¨ Ensure effective communications are maintained with governing boards, governance professionals and stakeholders, such as the DfE.

¨ Support the Board and its members in evaluating their effectiveness and training and development.

Lead adviser for issues relating to governance of MAT

As well as acting as the main point of contact for queries relating to governance within the trust, lead governance professionals proactively update those governing by providing advice and guidance on:
¨ Complex, technical issues that relate to governing structures, procedures and the legal framework that underpins them.

¨ Independent, high quality guidance on statutory, constitutional, operational procedural and ethical issues as they

affect the Board, its committees and its subsidiaries.

¨ All governance activities, statutory and regulatory compliance and external governance relations.

¨ Quality assuring governance advice given by others ensuring that it is informed by an intelligent assessment of risk.

¨ Risk informed assessments of options for support and interventions to strengthen governance.

¨ High level issue resolution.

¨ Highlighting evidenced based best practice, policy and thought leadership in school governance.

Developing governance

In many cases, lead governance professionals clerk meetings of the Trust Board and its committees, ensuring these enable the successful delivery of strategic objectives. As such, they have a key role in:
¨ Keeping the Board focused on its core strategic priorities, their strategic leadership responsibilities and their duty to maintain the highest professional standards of conduct and ethics

¨ Setting the cycle of Trust Board and committee meetings and preparing focused agendas.

¨ Ensuring all meetings are inclusive and well structured.

¨ Satisfying all aspects of meeting compliance as stipulated in the Trust’s Articles of Association and the Academy Trust Handbook, and in accordance with arrangements agreed by the Board.

¨ Developing governing structures, particularly in relation to committee structures and the Scheme of Delegation, and routines across schools and monitoring effectiveness.

¨ Ensuring governing structures are developed in parallel with organisational growth strategies.

¨ Developing, reviewing and maintaining governance documents, such as Articles of Association, Schemes of Delegation, Terms of Reference, Role Descriptions and Code of Conduct.

¨ Developing record management and