Terms of Reference for Committees

The committee has responsibility delegated by the Governing Body to:

Finance

• Review an annual budget, ensuring resources are allocated in line with the school’s strategic priorities and curriculum plans
• Approve the annual balanced budget
• Review and approve a realistic three-year financial plan, taking into account the school’s vision, known risks and opportunities
• Receive the school’s management accounts in order to monitor the school’s cash position and income and expenditure against the approved budget
• Review pupil number estimates (that underpin revenue projections) at each meeting
• Report back to each meeting of the Governing Body, alerting them to potential problems and significant variations to the approved budget at the earliest opportunity
• To oversee all capital projects and bids with updates at each meeting
• To receive a report annually on how to ensure the school receives its full entitlement to funding using census data and General Annual Grant Allocation statement
• Review and approve the reserve funds
• Ensure that the Governing Body’s approach to pay and benefits is transparent, proportionate and justifiable
• Develop a framework for the pay of the Headteacher and the Leadership Team
• Comply with statutory requirements to publish staff rates of pay and benefits.
• Ensure that sufficient funds are allocated for staff pay increments
• Monitor spending of pupil premium; ensure that funding is spent effectively with the Curriculum and Pupil Progress ensuring it is having the intended impact on pupil outcomes
• Review and approve any adjustments to the approved budget (subject to the scheme of delegation)
• Approve expenditure and virements of sums over £15,000 – sums below this amount are delegated to the Headteacher
• Undertake detailed scrutiny and recommend approval of the school resource management self-assessment checklist annually
• Ensure that the school’s financial procedures are complied with
• Review and act upon any issues identified by appropriate benchmarking against similar trusts, internal or external scrutiny when reported at the summer meeting
• Ensure that the school follows basic procurement rules and achieves best value for money when acquiring goods and services (SB)

Personnel

• Review the staffing structure of the school, ensuring that it meets the requirements of the School Development Plan, the curriculum, and is affordable
• Review staff work-life balance, working conditions and wellbeing, including monitoring staff absence rates
• Oversee the operation of the appraisal policy, including making arrangements for the Headteacher’s performance management
• Review pay decision data to ensure that pay increments are awarded fairly and act as the Pay Committee
• Ensure that staffing procedures (including recruitment procedures) comply with equality legislation and safer recruitment practice
• Monitor the provision of staff training and CPD to include Safeguarding and Cyber Security training, ensuring sufficient budget is allocated and guidelines are followed

Premises and Health & Safety

• Ensure that safeguarding procedures and training is effective and complies with the law at all times, having regard to statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’
• Review the school’s Accessibility Plan
• Receive an annual Health and Safety Audit report and monitor any actions arising
• Receive regular reports on accident statistics and near misses
• Ensure that a process is in place to approve educational visits, ensuring that health and safety planning and risk assessments have been undertaken for them (JBV)
• Ensure that inspections of the school’s premises and equipment take place (annually and at appropriate intervals) and a report is received identifying any issues
• Monitor the health and safety training that staff and governors undertake
• Review, adopt and monitor all policies delegated by the board

Audit & Risk

• Oversee and approve the school’s programme of internal scrutiny
• Support development and review of the school’s risk management policy, setting out the framework the school has adopted for risk management.
• Ensure that risks are being addressed appropriately through internal scrutiny
• Evaluate the adequacy of the school’s internal control framework, including financial and non-financial controls and management of risks and report this to the Governing Body
• Assess whether procedures are designed effectively and efficiently, and check whether agreed procedures have been followed
• Review the external auditor’s plan each year
• Review the annual report and accounts
• Review the auditor’s findings and actions taken by the school’s managers in response to those findings
• Review findings from other assurance activities by third parties including ESFA financial management and governance reviews, funding audits and investigations
• Assess the effectiveness and resources of the external auditor – refer to section 4.17 of ATH
• Produce an annual report of the committee’s conclusions on the above assessment to advise the board of trustees and members, including recommendations on the reappointment or dismissal or retendering of the external auditor, and their remuneration
• To seek assurance that the risks identified are those which may occur, for example, operational risk, financial risk, compliance risk, regulatory and legal risk, major accident
• Review the ratings and responses on the risk register to inform contingency and business continuity planning and the programme of work, ensuring risks and control measures are adequately identified and modified as appropriate (standing item)
• Provide reports for each Full Governing Body meeting, highlighting emerging risks or significant anomalies at the earliest opportunity
• Agree a programme of work annually to deliver internal scrutiny that provides coverage across the year
• Agree who will perform the work
• Consider reports at each meeting from those carrying out the programme of internal scrutiny
• Consider progress in addressing recommendations
• Recommend to members the appointment of an external auditor (in accordance with the trust’s articles of association)
• Receive the external auditors’ annual plan, annual report, and accounts and recommend appropriate actions to the Governing Body in response to the findings
• To review the Risk Protection Arrangement which supplies the school’s insurance cover in compliance with its legal obligations
• To conduct the annual review of the FPPA Committee structure and terms of reference and to make recommendations to the Governing Board
• Review, adopt and monitor all policies delegated by the board

The committee will advise, monitor, evaluate and report on:

Curriculum

• Ensuring that the school’s curriculum offer matches the ethos of the school and meets the needs of all students
• How curriculum principles are being implemented and their impact on all students
• Curriculum and quality of education issues
• Curriculum enrichment
• Review the curriculum development elements of the School Development Plan
• Advising the FPPA Committee on resources required to deliver the curriculum effectively
• Other curriculum issues such as spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning

Student Achievement

• Student achievement and standards, including specific groups: those with SEND, disadvantaged, looked after children and pupils with English as an additional language
• The quality of teaching and learning, including performance and future performance trends and risks
• Teaching capacity including the impact of CPD on student achievement and standard

Wider Outcomes

• Ensuring all students are given the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to manage their lives now and in the future
• Improving students’ health, wellbeing and physical literacy
• Promoting British values and providing students with a global outlook
• Providing students with effective careers education
• Issues related to student discipline such as levels of exclusion
• Current and emerging patterns, trends and risks relating to attendance and behaviour
• Current and emerging patterns, trends and risks relating to student wellbeing

To conduct the annual review of the CPP Committee structure and terms of reference and make recommendations to the Governing Board

Review, adopt and monitor all policies delegated by the board