This document should be read alongside the Department for Education’s guidance for maintained schools applying to join a school. It provides an overview of good practice on public engagement and consultation at each step of the process.

This guidance offers a process or framework for auditing organisational culture. It is designed to meet the requirement in the Competency Framework for Governance in relation to the responsibility of the trust board to determine, embed and monitor the culture, values and ethos of an organisation. It will help trust boards to answer the question: how do you know?