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DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER ACADEMY TRUST > GOVERNANCE STATEMENT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2019
During the year, the Trust appointed a Compliance Manager who ensures the Trust and constituent academies have in place and abide by the required policies. The Trust, through the Compliance Manager, has continued to identify further Trust-wide policies that it will draft for Board approval, alongside the review of the operational academy policies to ensure they are consistent and current.
In conjunction with the risk register, the policies provide a framework for financial and risk management. Risk registers within individual academies, that mirror the structure of the corporate register, have been rolled out and feed into the Trust's overall risk register.
Audit and Resources Committee
The Audit and Resources Committee is a sub-committee of the main board of trustees, and the trustees met three times during 2018-19. Its purpose is to:
• maintainanoversightoftheacademytrust'sfinanceandgovernance;
• review risk management and internal control;
• review the value for money framework;
• consider multi-academy trust central staffing and other operational matters.
The trustees of the committee report its findings annually to the Board and the Accounting Officer as a critical element of the trust's annual reporting requirements.
The budgets are prepared on an annual basis by academies for approval by the Audit and Resources Committee. The Trust is minded to the requirements of the Academies Financial Handbook. Management accounts and cashflow forecasts are regularly produced with a narrative report on finance and operational issues for board meetings.
The Local Governing Bodies have delegated responsibilities on behalf of the Trust Board. They are responsible for the regular review of the financial and operating performance of the relevant academies and making recommendations to the Board as appropriate.
Attendance at meetings in the year was as follows: Trustees
Mrs K A Sims
Revd T J Ward (Resigned 12 May 2019)
Meetings attended
3 3
Out of possible
3 3
Review of value for money
As accounting officer the CEO has responsibility for ensuring that the academy trust delivers good value in the
use of public resources. The accounting officer understands that value for money refers to the educational and wider societal outcomes achieved in return for the taxpayer resources received.
The accounting officer considers how the academy trust's use of its resources has provided good value for money during each academic year, and reports to the board of trustees where value for money can be improved, including the use of benchmarking data where available. The accounting officer for the academy trust has delivered improved value for money during the year by:
• ensuringmorefundsarespentoneducationfocussedactivities;
• reviewing a number of central and academy procured contracts by engaging with a procurement
specialist;
• reviewing staffing structures within the academies to ensure efficiency and value for money.
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