Later this month school staff from across the country will come together to celebrate the MAT Excellence Awards - meet the shortlist for this year’s top governance professional award.
The awards span 12 categories, highlighting the work of school trusts in areas including inclusivity, the environment, and wellbeing.
The Confederation of School Trusts is sponsoring the Governance Professional Of The Year category, with our chief executive Leora Cruddas CBE also serving as a lead judge of the awards.
The winners will be announced by comedian Shappi Khorsandi at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel in London on 29 June.
Here we take a closer look at the three shortlisted nominees for the Governance Professional of the Year category.
Melanie
Humphreys, Executive Administrator, The Mast Academy Trust
Mel has been part of the team at The Mast Academy Trust, a four-school trust based in West Yorkshire, for around three and a half years.
In that time she has professionalised governance at the trust, empowering governors, trustees, and members.
When the trust reviewed its ways of working, Mel ensured its scheme of delegation reflected its updated principles, setting accurate new terms of reference for all governance groups.
She also created an ‘easy to use’ online version of the scheme of delegation that can be filtered by key areas to find levels of accountability, responsibility and the right to be consulted or informed.
Mel ensures this is a living document, with termly reviews of the scheme by each group alongside policy management to reflect changes to legislation and regulation.
Chief executive Natasha Greenough said: "For me, ultimately, I know that governance is in very safe hands. Mel is one of those rare people who possess all the qualities of a great leader. She is organised and systematic; stays alert to updates and changes and supports everyone to reflect, develop and strengthen."
Heledd Walker, Head of Governance and Compliance, Activate Learning Education Trust
Diligent, organised, calm – those are the three words used by Activate Learning’s chief executive Joanne Harper to describe Heledd.
Based in Oxford, the trust runs six schools – including four University Technical Colleges – and Heledd is "pivotal” to the running of the trust.
"She holds everyone to account to ensure that our trust is compliant, our trustees are informed and our local governing committees are governed correctly,” says Joanne.
With nine year’s experience at the trust, Heledd has worked hard with governors and trustees to ensure that they understand their roles.
This includes training sessions for all to attend, resources and documentation including a Governance Handbook, and a jargon buster to help them navigate around the often confusing and arcane jargon used in education.
Rebecca Rafferty, Governance Support Officer, CLIC Trust
The Changing Lives in Collaboration (CLIC) Trust is made up of four primary schools in the north-west of England. In just two years, Beccy Rafferty has made a significant difference to the trust, winning praise from governors, trustees, and an external review.
Chief executive Jo Ashcroft said: "Beccy is so driven and committed to improving the quality of governance and to supporting and enabling every governor to undertake their role to the highest possible standard.”
Beccy’s work has included optimising the flow of information and communication between different levels of governance through careful timetabling and sharing quick-read meeting summaries, creating a rigorous training and development programme for governors, planning succession and recruitment for governance volunteers, and organising a governors’ conference.
But her commitment outside her role is also highly valued, says Jo: "In the last year alone, Beccy has: been trained by Debate Mate, enabling her to support our pupils in debating competitions; took part in the Commonwealth Games themed cycle baton relay event around Manchester with our staff and pupils; and has even shared a favourite book and presented awards at school reading assemblies.”
The event is organised by Optimus Education, a leading provider of professional development support and school improvement services for schools, academies, and other educational institutions. Optimus Education is part of Shaw Trust, the UK’s largest not-for-profit social enterprise in the employment sector.
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