All our Professional Communities are designed to be knowledge-building networks. The Professional Community is not a traditional leadership development programme, nor is it a network in the commonly used meaning of that phrase.
This Professional Community moves beyond the knowledge of the individual, to building knowledge within the sector, by providing a safe and supportive environment to explore the challenges of practice and support the wider system to become the best at getting better.
CST's Professional Communities focus on the concept of ‘practice challenges’ and engage through:
Half-termly virtual community meetings.
A one-day Professional Community conference.
Networking with colleagues across our sector.
Access to CST briefings and guidance.
Expert governance is a critical factor in building strong trusts. Operating as single legal entity is the most appropriate vehicle to drive school improvement and advance education for public benefit. It is this unique governance structure that creates a model of shared accountability, while hardwiring collaboration into the organisation.
Each half term, the themes of accountability and collaboration will be explored within the framework of CST’s model of nested leadership:
Trust Leadership: how we talk about ourselves, what we do and why we do it
Civic Leadership: how we work with other to advance education as a wider common good
System Leadership: how we need to act on, rather than just acting in the system
Please note that session content and contributors may be subject to change in response to the needs of the Professional Community.
As a member of the community, you will also gain exclusive access to our virtual platform. CST Hive is a peer learning platform that connects you with a community of information, resources and support, that you can access anytime and anywhere. On the platform you'll find an ever-growing collection of resources, containing information about key knowledge areas needed in our profession, as well as a space to connect, learn and interact with your peers from across the country.
Membership of the community is included for employees, trustees, and members of member trusts as a benefit of CST membership. Join using the button below with your MyCST membership details.
Join our Trustees and Governance Leaders Professional Community
It’s time to reimagine governance at our Trusts.
It is a mark of our maturity as a sector that we now have an Academy Trust Governance Code, a bespoke aspirational document that will give us a shared language and common understanding of what excellence looks like in trust governance. Over the course of this coming year, we will explore how to translate the Code into practice and how it ties in with the Assurance Framework. In each session, we will explore sections of the Code and Assurance Framework in conjunction, hearing from forwarding-thinking experts in each area on best practice on how to deliver for our trusts.
We want you to feel a sense of ownership around this community, so in the spirit of co-creation, we will ask you about your biggest challenges and opportunities within the context of some key questions:
· Why do we exist? What are we trying to achieve?
· Are we using risks and opportunities to drive resilience?
· Is everyone being heard?
· Who decides?
· How will we know it’s working?
We will also introduce you to our exciting new virtual platform for accessing sessions, resources and engaging directing with other community members
"The Objects in the Academy Trust’s Articles of Association set out the Academy Trust’s charitable Objects and how those must be fulfilled. The Board is clear about its aims and ensures that they are being delivered effectively and sustainably.” – Principle 1, Board Leadership: The Academy Trust Governance Code
The Board holds a collective responsibility to ensure that the charitable objects are being fulfilled through the Trust’s vision, and that this is delivered through the organisation’s strategy.
During this session, we will explore some common themes and challenges faced by Trust Boards in this process including:
● What does the Board need to consider to ensure that their trust’s vision also fulfils the charitable object of advancing education for public benefit?
● How can a Board ensure stakeholder voice is reflected in the Trust’s vision, ethos, and strategic direction?
● An effective strategy must take a long-term view to ensure the success and sustainability of the organisation. How does an effective Board balance this against the immediate needs and urgent emerging priorities of the Trust and its schools?
● While ‘owned’ by the Board, the strategy will be delivered by the executive team and monitored through the scheme of delegation. What mechanisms can the Board utilise to retain collective responsibility, without straying into operational discussions?
In her paper Building system resilience, Leora described the multiple factors putting pressure on our children, families and schools:
● The negative legacies of Covid-19;
● The impact of inflation – many more children and families in absolute poverty;
● Large increases in the number of children and young people experiencing mental ill health;
● The school workforce recruitment and retention crisis; and
● Decimation of the services around schools – to name but a few.
She described the need to build the resilience of our school system, alongside the resilience of our wider public services, our communities, and the resilience of children and families.
In an increasingly volatile environment, good risk management is the key to building resilience. In this session, we explore the relationship between risk management, prediction, adaptability and resilience and how understanding and effectively managing key risks (as well as capitalising on opportunities) can lead to more resilient Trusts.
The DfE has now published two new sector-specific governance guides called 'Academy trust governance guide' and 'Maintained schools governance guide' to replace the Governance Handbook. This is a welcome development. It affirmatively signals that trust governance is a fundamentally different proposition to governing a maintained school. Importantly, the trust governance guidance now aligns with the 'governance and leadership' strand of the Trust Quality Descriptions, the Academy Trust Handbook and incorporates the Academy Trust Governance Code.
The guide is now in an online format to make it more accessible and easily searchable. It does not introduce any policy changes, but you will see the following:
--Incorporation of a new list of academy-specific statutory policies
--Removal of the traditional 'three core functions' for boards; replaced with references to the purposes contained in the Academy Trust Handbook and the Trust Quality Descriptions
--A useful compliance annex summarising key responsibilities of trusts in all areas
This new guide will serve as the primary DfE source of governance information. The governance and clerking competency frameworks have been archived, as have the governance structures and roles guidance.
We will be discussing this new guidance in this professional community meeting.
Are the right people making decisions in your Trust? Are they evidence-led and informed by stakeholder voices and the reality on the ‘frontline’? How do we strike the right balance between alignment and agency?
In this session, we explore the concepts of localism and subsidiarity - that decisions should sit at the level that is most consistent with their effectiveness, made by those who best understand the local context. We explore how to develop standardisation and alignment while still allowing for agency and empowerment for our school leaders.
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Company no: 05303883
Charity no: 1107640
