Academies: Staff

(asked on 19th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason the Education and Skills Funding Agency has changed its policy on membership of academy trusts, meaning that employees of a school can no longer act as members of its academy trust.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 2nd March 2021

Members play a limited but critical role in safeguarding the governance of academy trusts. They have the power to appoint and remove trustees, they can also direct trustees to take specific actions in some circumstances. As trustees are in turn ultimately responsible for the appointment and removal of employees, an employee also being a member risks undermining clear lines of accountability within the trust.

Given the importance of this clear accountability, the Academies Financial Handbook 2020 included a requirement that all trusts move to having no members employed by the trust by March 2021.

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