Our summary of our approach
The DfE publish Statutory Policies for Schools and Academy Trusts with details of the policies and documents that schools must have. In DCAT we must ensure that the Trust and our schools have in place these statutory policies. We take the following approach:
- Trust Policies – these are policies which the Trust Board approve and all schools within the Trust must follow these. There is no formal adoption by the school as the policy has been set by the Trust Board and may have involved consultation with 3rd parties, such as the employment unions. DCAT will advise via the N2K of the approval of these policies. The Trust policies can be found at the bottom of this page
- Trust Policies requiring personalisation – These policies are where the Trust sets the direction, but the policy requires a degree of personalisation around practice and procedures within the individual schools. In some cases, the Trust will direct schools to adopt the relevant Local Authority policy as the school is required to follow these processes and procedures, for example Safeguarding and Child Protection. The Trust will advise the schools that the policy has been reviewed and request the personalisation is undertaken by the school leadership. The Local Governing Board (LGB) may then monitor the policy.
- School Policies – these are policies which are based on individual schools practice. These will be written by school leadership and approved by the LGB. The LGB will also be responsible for monitoring the impact of the policies and setting the review timeframe.