Academy trust governance

• Taking the next step: joining or forming a MAT
• What MAT boards and CEOs should expect from each other
• Governing board self-evaluation questions
• Chief executive officer job description
• MAT mergers: a guide for trustees and trust leaders
• Budget setting in an academy trust
• Reviewing central leadership team structures: a guide for MAT trustees
• Understanding the role of the local tier
• Management accounts: a guide for academy trust trustees
• Academy trusts: the role of members
• Model role description for governance professional and academy committee clerk
• Considerations for setting executive pay
• Process for changing articles of association
• Schemes of delegation in academy trusts
• Trustee role description

We have designed our MAT membership package to provide support to trust boards and their academies. As a trust, you will benefit from a range of resources and guidance to assist you in ensuring good governance across your MAT.

Just some of the benefits your trust board will receive include access to our GOLDline advice service, copies of Governing Matters magazine to the home of every trustee, full access to our online knowledge centre and a complimentary copy of both The Chair’s Handbook and Welcome to a Multi Academy Trust to name a few. 

For more information, head to our NGA MAT membership page.

Welcome to a Multi Academy Trust

The fourth edition of our Welcome to a Multi Academy Trust is a key guide for all MATs and has everything trust board members need to know about their role and responsibility.

The Chair's Handbook

 Whether you’re a chair or prospective chair, this guide is essential reading. Also suitable for vice chairs and committee chairs, you’ll find in this guide everything you need to improve your knowledge about the role.

• Consultancy and external reviews of governance
• Bespoke training
• Learn more about Learning Link - NGA's flexible online learning platform
• Trial Learning Link for free

Contributors include NGA staff, policy makers, government ministers, governors and others involved in education. Each issue includes the latest news from the organisation, changes in policy and advice on running schools and managing school leaders.

• Celebrating the local tier
• MATs - who are you?
• Moving MATs forward
• MAT chat: governance professionals
• Local governance for local contexts
• MAT mergers: anatomy of a merger
• Diagnosis merger: key considerations for MAT mergers
• Answering to your communities

GOLDline provides governing boards, clerks, headteachers and executive leaders with independent and timely advice. Available throughout the year including school holidays, GOLDline is staffed by our advisers from 9am to 5pm during the working week and is easily accessible online or by phone. Our expert team of advisers will respond to any question relating to the role and duties of governing boards and provide the advice that is needed to deliver effective governance in a range of settings and circumstances.

For more information, please head to our dedicated GOLDline advice page.

NGA is committed to ensuring that our outputs are supported by robust evidence and insight and we are committed to leading research projects which explore the impact of policy changes, or emerging themes in contemporary education, from a school governance perspective.

• NGA Insights: Central leadership teams in MATs
• NGA Insights: Governance in MATs
• MAT case studies (2018 - 2019) 
• MATs moving forward: the power of governance
• The time it takes to chair a multi academy trust (2020)
• MAT governance: the future is local (2022) 

Take a look at a selection of our MAT focused blogs and articles: 

• Local governance - setting the standard
• Shared values, strong relationships: an experience of a MAT merger
• Temperature check on MATs moving forward
• MAT executive pay: a gradual change of attitude? 
• What are the implications of the changing role of school leaders in MATs? 
• Is the role of trust members in MATs currently concentrating power in the hands of a small number of individuals? 
• Three important issues from our time spent chairing MATs research
• Learning the lessons of multi academy trust governance 

• NGA's MAT Governance Network gives those involved with the governance of multi academy trusts (MATs) the opportunity to share their experiences and practice with others.
• NGA Governance Leadership Forums 
  These forums are available to NGA members and are networking events for those governing and leading schools in similar situations to share their experiences, future plans and provide a platform to discuss the issues they face.
• Take a look at our upcoming webinars and podcasts.