Stour Vale is a trust where children and young people are at the heart of all decision-making, ensuring that the needs of member schools and settings, the communities they serve and the wider education system drive and define trust strategy.
We have three tiers of governance. Our members are the guardians of the trust and its ethos; they hold our trustees to account for their ethical governance of the trust. Our trustees have collective accountability and strategic responsibility for the trust, ensuring that it delivers an excellent education to pupils while maintaining effective financial management and compliance with regulatory, contractual and statutory requirements. Our local governors have a number of delegated functions, providing meaningful impact on trust governance at the local level. We recognise the importance of strong local governance, and in line with our approach of secured autonomy, trustees delegate as many decisions as possible, as close to the point of impact as possible. Strong governance support is provided at every tier by governance professionals, regular communication and information-sharing, our well-developed induction programme, and bespoke training and networking events.
Our recent External Review of Governance found that: “The overall effectiveness of [Stour Vale’s] governance is high with appropriate governance scrutiny and assurance being applied.”
Our governance documents can be found in our Document Library.