Anthem – Who Are We?

Anthem is an education charity that runs a group of state-funded primary and secondary schools to give children a better future. Anthem started out in 2011 with just three schools, and now serves over 8,000 children and young people across the East Midlands, London and Thames Valley. Our vision is that by working together, we will create ambitious and successful schools in which every child thrives.

Our schools work in collaboration as one entity to improve and maintain high educational standards, experiences, and outcomes across the Trust. Anthem schools are diverse and serve many different communities. They are all united by a shared ambition for children and young people, which is underpinned by a commitment to integrity, collaboration, and excellence. These shared values provide a frame of reference for how we relate to one another, and for what is common between our schools and our people. They are bought to life through schools' own identities and approaches, creating thriving local schools that meet their communities needs. 

Our National Team

The National Team is a dynamic multi-disciplinary group of professionals who deliver a wide range of services to support Anthem’s core purpose of creating ambitious and successful schools in which every child thrives.

The National Team’s skills and expertise are the driving force of Anthem’s operational and administrative functions such as governance and compliance, HR, finance, IT and estates, thus ensuring excellence across our schools.

Job purpose

At Anthem we have reimagined governance and have an innovative next-gen governance strategy specifically designed to support every student, every lesson, all the time. The role involves working flexibly and proactively with other governance team members to support each other and our schools.

As a Governance Professional you will work across the Trust’s governance community as governance professional (clerk) to several of Anthem’s Community Councils (ACCs, formerly Local Governing Bodies - LGBs) based in the Thames Valley and Oxfordshire area. You will also take a lead within the team on supporting our trustees and members as clerk to our trustees and members and with governance compliance.

Your role will be mostly working from home with some travel to the Head Office for Trustee meetings and some travel to our schools in the Thames Valley and Oxfordshire area (travelling expenses covered). Please note that some termly ACC meetings are scheduled after school, outside of normal working hours to accommodate our governance volunteers. 

Your key responsibilities will include:

Supporting ACCs

• Arranging and attending termly ACC meetings. This will include supporting ACC Chairs with agenda setting and arranging the relevant logistics and IT, as well as coordinating and disseminating all Collaborative Review Day (CRD) reports, Champion Reports and other relevant documentation. This will also include capturing and recording all Champion rag ratings and actions on our ACC Dashboard and Support & Challenge Log. You will need to work with ACC Chairs to follow up on actions between meetings and collaborating with other schools and the National Team.
• Building positive relationships with your ACC Chairs, ACC members and Headteachers for effective governance and to support our students.
• Supporting our Timi Champions (our student representatives on all ACCs) and Timi Champion Supporters to be able to contribute to the ACC fully and helping ensure their voices are heard across the Trust.
• Overseeing ACC recruitment and onboarding of new ACC members for your schools, including required induction, training and compliance. Supporting your ACC Chairs with succession planning and ensuring all Champion roles are filled.
• Working as part of the Governance team to support in creating and updating Anthem local governance templates, systems and processes for use across Anthem where identified.
• Understanding and supporting fully Anthems Governance Strategy and supporting ACCms in their roles, using the wider Governance Team for support and guidance.
• Fulfilling other reasonable duties as directed by Anthem National Team, ACC Chair or Headteacher.

Supporting Governor Disciplinary Committees (GDCs)

• Organising Governors Disciplinary Committees (GDC) to review suspensions and exclusions as required for your schools (helping the team across other schools as required), including sending out all required information to all parties in line with statutory guidance and Trust guidance.
• Attending GDCs in person or virtually to take minutes. Supporting the Chair of the GDC to produce an outcome letter based on Trust templates and with the support of the Trust, circulating this to all parties without delay.
• Reviewing GDC packs and supporting schools to ensure these packs are robust.

Trustee lead and governance compliance 

• Coordinate the cycle of Member and Trustee (and their committees) meetings and sending calendar invitations. Preparing thoroughly for meetings, including organising and uploading all required papers and coordinating outstanding action points.
• Producing, collating, circulating and then uploading the agenda and papers onto GovernorHub for all member and Trustee meetings.
• Supporting Trustees/Members on procedural matters where necessary before and after meetings.
• Taking the minutes for Trustee and Member meetings and sharing the drafts with the chairs for amendment/approval. Ensuring all approved minutes are signed by the Chair and chairs of committees and the originals are kept on file.
• Overseeing Member and Trustees recruitment as required, advising on appointment procedures and terms of office timeframes, and maintain statutory registers.
• Recording any changes to appointments on GIAS and Companies House.
• Assisting the People Team with safer recruitment checks for all new Trustee and Member appointments.
• Ensuring the Members’ and Trustees’ statutory information register is published on the Anthem website. Ensure all necessary governance information is saved and filed clearly and published on the Anthem website as necessary
• Coordinating Trustees’ skills and diversity audit overview to support new appointments.
• Work with the People Team to establish and implement an ongoing training programme.
• Coordinate regular school visits for Trustees in line with the agreed cycle.
• Develop then oversee a Trust-wide induction process for new Trustees and Members and ensure they have access to GovernorHub and any other appropriate documents.
• Oversee the collation and publication of the annual register of business and pecuniary interests and attendance to meetings.
• Support the Director of Governance to ensure the Trust acts in line with the Articles of Association, Governance Framework and Scheme of Delegation and in line with (DfE) guidance, in particular the Governance Handbook. Support with all governance compliance as needed.

Continued professional development

• Keep up to date with current educational developments and legislation affecting school governance, circulating this as necessary. We have access to GovernorHub and the Key and are members of Trust Governance Professionals and Confederation of Schools Trust.
• Undertake regular Trust safeguarding, data protection, complaints and exclusions training, as well as other relevant training offered by the Trust.

 The role will also involve working closely and flexibly with the governance team to provide pro-active and efficient support to all stakeholders in line with the governance strategy, supporting with any further governance actions as needed to continuously improve our support, systems and processes.

These duties and responsibilities should be regarded as neither exhaustive nor exclusive as the post holder may be required to undertake other reasonably determined duties and responsibilities commensurate with the grading of the post.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and require all staff and volunteers to share and demonstrate this commitment. The successful candidate will have to meet the requirements of the person specification and will be subject to the relevant pre-employment checks which will, where applicable, include a health check, an enhanced DBS check, the Children’s Barred List check and satisfactory references.