This masterclass equips you with a clear, strategic understanding of risk management and assurance, not as a compliance exercise, but as a leadership discipline that strengthens decision‑making, supports delivery, and builds confidence across your trust.
Across three focused sessions, you will explore the core principles of effective risk management, learn how to reset and elevate your trust’s approach, and gain practical tools to help you embed strategic risk thinking, define risk appetite, and secure meaningful assurance. Our expert speakers will share real examples from academy trusts, demonstrating how strategic and operational risks are identified, managed, and used to inform decisions at both school and trust level.
Who is it for?
- Chief executives
- Trust finance and operational leaders
- Governance professionals
- Chairs of audit & risk committees
What you will gain
By the end of the programme, you will have:
- An understanding of the principles and practices of modern risk management, and the role of the Audit & Risk Committee in providing assurance.
- Insight into the relationship between strategy and risk, and how a risk‑based approach strengthens decision‑making.
- Guidance on how to focus on strategic risk, evaluate controls, and gain assurance that mitigations are working.
- The tools and confidence to reset your trust’s risk management approach, including defining and applying risk appetite.
- Practical techniques and templates to support you in developing a robust risk assurance framework.
The masterclass immediately helped me improve my risk management documents and also provided me with the tools to develop risk management to ensure our trustees are provided with assurances that controls are effective.
Course overview
This three‑part series provides a structured pathway for developing a strategic, board‑ready risk assurance approach. You will learn how to identify and prioritise risk, map controls, evaluate assurance, and build a framework that supports your trust board in making informed, confident decisions. You will also benefit from specialist expertise, worked examples, and practical tools that you can immediately apply within your trust.
Session one: The fundamentals of risk management
Understanding why risk management is a requirement in academy trusts by identifying the principles of effective risk management, avoiding common risk management pitfalls and exploring worked examples of effective risk management in academies.
Session two: Taking a strategic approach
How strategic and operational risks are identified and managed by, establishing and applying your trust’s risk appetite, understanding and leveraging opportunity risk, how strategic risk insight improves decision‑making and resetting risk management to create a more strategic, value‑adding approach
Session three: Putting effective controls in place
Mapping controls and assurance within a Board Assurance Framework, using a worked example to show the interplay between risk identification, control design, evaluation, and assurance and applying your learning by sharing current practice, identifying gaps, and shaping future development plans
12:30 pm
26 Nov 2026 11:00 am to
12:30 pm
03 Dec 2026 11:00 am to
12:30 pm
- Member price: £280.00 +VAT
- Non-member price: £340.00 +VAT
