Governance
We have drawn heavily on our UCST experience to shape the appropriate governance structure for ULT. A central Board provides the strategic direction and overall financial scrutiny. At a local level, each academy has its own Local Governing Body with a chair appointed by the UCST Board. This two-tier approach corresponds well with the status of the academies as independent schools within the state system, that must report periodically to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) but that must remain clearly independent.
We also have a leading role to play in the programme in another, still more fundamental respect. We bring to our academies the same essential management approach and educational philosophy that we apply in our private sector schools.
This means that, within the limits set by the financing rules of the Academy Programme, we can work to save costs and improve efficiencies through an integration of our support services across the Group. The academies, no less than our independent schools, can take advantage of all the centralised purchasing and group-wide services that we have built up over the years at UCST and our shared best practice.
