Information for Parents
Insignis Academy Trust is a Multi Academy Trust. A Multi Academy Trust is a group of schools strategically led and managed by a Chief Executive Officer and their Central Team and Governed by a Board of Trustees who are in turn Governed by a groups of Members. In many Trusts the CEO is also a Trustee, however this is not best practice and at IAT the CEO is not a Trustee, but does attend Board Meetings.
Academies are state schools, but they are independent of Local Authority management. Multi Academy Trust are directly responsible to the Department of Education and their funding is provided directly to the Trust whereas maintained Local Authority (LA) schools receive their budgets from the Local Authority. Multi Academy Trusts are responsible for the public funds they receive in a different way. Unlike maintained schools, Multi Academy Trusts have to undergo an annual financial audit and also publish an Annual Financial Report completed by external auditors. You can see the IAT Reports here.
Multi Academy Trusts are responsible for the performance of each school in the Trust and for the School Improvement required for all schools to ensure the quality of education is as good as possible. For this reason, Multi Academy Trusts have their own School Improvement Teams. At IAT, this includes our Executive Headteachers, our Specialist Lead Practitioners and Lead Practitioners. We also ensure that schools work closely together to that they are able to share practices that work effectively amongst all our IAT schools.
As a Multi Academy Trust, IAT is responsible for all of the Estate of our schools. In general, we effectively own the school sites on a 125 year lease from the Local Authority. This means that all upgrades, maintenance and developments are organised, financed and delivered by the Trust. For example, if a school needs a new boiler, it is our responsibility to fund and install it. Our building stock is a mixture of brand new (TKS) and pretty old (PRS) and each site needs careful attention. Each year we apply for Government Condition Improvement Funding; we have been successful in the past, but this is becoming harder to secure. In the future, if we become a Trust of five schools or more, we will receive School Condition Allocation Funding, which will allow us to plan for major works more easily.
The one area that the Local Authority retain oversight of is Safeguarding. We have clear safeguarding structures at IAT and our HR department support schools when any issues are raised. However, we also maintain a positive relationship with the LA and as a result we are able to successfully address any safeguarding issues as they arise.
