Governance Professional – Volunteer retention and communications lead

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 

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).  You will also support the governance team by leading on ACC retention and communications, as well as working flexibly with other governance team members to support each other. Your role will be hybrid, mostly working from home alongside our established Governance team in delivering excellent clerking support to all our schools but also travelling to schools in person for key governance meetings as needed (travelling expenses covered). Please note that some of these meetings will be outside of normal working hours (Monday to Friday).

Supporting ACCs

• Fulfilling other reasonable duties as directed by Anthem National Team, ACC Chair or Headteacher.
• Understanding and supporting fully Anthems Governance Strategy and supporting ACCs in their roles, using the wider Governance Team for guidance.
• 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. 
• Supporting with ACC recruitment and onboarding of new ACC members, including required induction, training and compliance. Supporting ACC Chairs with succession planning and ensuring all Champion roles are filled.
• Arranging and attending termly ACC meetings. This will include arranging the relevant logistics and IT, as well as coordinating and disseminating all Champion Reports and other relevant documentation. Capturing and recording all rag ratings and actions on our ACC Dashboard and Support & Challenge Log.  Working with ACC Chairs to follow up on actions between meetings and collaborating with other schools and the National team.

Supporting Governor Disciplinary Committees (GDCs)

• Organising Governors Disciplinary Committees (GDC) to review suspensions and exclusions as required, including sending out all required information to all parties in line with statutory guidance and Trust guidance.
• Attending GDCs in person ideally 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

Volunteer retention and communications

• Creating and then leading on a new induction programme for ACC members to help properly welcome new ACCms to the school and Trust, ensuring they are set up with all documentation, knowledge and contacts to fully contribute and support our schools and our students.
• Creating then overseeing a new annual communications plan for all our volunteers across the governance community.  Support with content development to ensure key information is properly distributed and ACCs kept engaged, motivated and supported at both school and national level.
• Co-ordinating our Champion Forums.
• Working with national team colleagues to organise and support an ongoing training programme for our valued governance volunteers, adapting this to the needs of our stakeholders and continuously looking for ways to improve our offer.
• Actively support ACC recruitment drives for all schools.

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.

Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy before the expected close date should a successful candidate be appointed.

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,

The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment.