As trustees, we acknowledge we have overall responsibility for ensuring that Eaglesfield Paddle CE Primary Academy has an effective and appropriate system of control, financial and otherwise. However such a system is designed to manage rather than eliminate the risk of failure to achieve business objectives, and can provide only reasonable and not absolute assurance against material misstatement or loss.
As trustees, we have reviewed and taken account of the guidance in DfE’s Governance Handbook and competency framework for governance.
The Board of Trustees has delegated the day-to-day responsibility to the Head Teacher, as Accounting Officer, for ensuring financial controls conform with the requirements of both propriety and good financial management and in accordance with the requirements and responsibilities assigned to it in the funding agreement between Eaglesfield Paddle CE Primary Academy and the Secretary of State for Education. They are also responsible for reporting to the Board of Trustees any material weaknesses or breakdowns in internal control.
Governance
The information on governance included below supplements that described in the Report of the Trustees and in the Trustees Responsibility Statement. At the Academy AGM, following an evaluation and review of the structure of the board, Members agreed that the number of Foundation Governors should be reduced from ten to eight governors as it was felt that the current structure was excessive and appointment of Foundation Governors was becoming more challenging.
As a result of the restrictions put in place to manage the pandemic, the board of trustees conducted all their meetings virtually and met formally six times during the year. It was apparent that virtual meetings were both effective and efficient, and this ensure that trustee attendance was high across the year. Attendance during the year at meetings of the board of trustees was as follows:
Trustee | Notes | Meetings Attended | Possible Meetings |
AM Steel | Chair of Trustees | 6 | 6 |
S Tucker | Vice Chair of Trustees | 5 | 6 |
N Vatter |
| 6 | 6 |
C Fleming |
| 5 | 6 |
L McNeil |
| 6 | 6 |
F Boyles | End of office Nov 2020 | 1 | 1 |
P Sharman |
| 6 | 6 |
R Way | Appointed Nov 2020 | 5 | 5 |
L Elliot |
| 6 | 6 |
H Gillam |
| 6 | 6 |
C Tiffen |
| 6 | 6 |
E Strong |
| 5 | 6 |
S Carruthers |
| 3 | 6 |
D Watson |
| 6 | 6 |
Revd A Thompson |
| 2 | 6 |
The main challenges to governance were the inability to visit school to undertake face-to-face reviews, however in the face of the global pandemic, the role of trustees was weighted more heavily towards supporting the school’s leadership team in ensuring a consistent delivery of teaching and learning throughout the year. Challenge was still undertaken during full board and subcommittee meetings.
The Senior Leadership Team and Trustees delivered a very proactive approach in regards to the challenges presented by the continuing COVID 19 pandemic. During school closures in spring 2021 the school continued to operate for Key Worker children and children who had been identified as vulnerable. Throughout the year the school operated in ‘key stage and class bubbles’ to reduce the spread of the virus, this ensured that the academy was able to provide teaching and learning to all children, and to support their families. Home schooling via remote learning was maintained for those children who had to isolate this ensured continuity of education for our children. Regular virtual and telephone contact was maintained to ensure that children were safeguarded and our families were supported through this challenging time.
Risk assessments were put in place in order to facilitate the safe operation of the school, and a high level of hand and respiratory hygiene was implemented throughout school. In addition, other organisational and operational measures were carried out to keep our children, staff and families safe, this included additional cleaning routines and an investment into increasing staffing in this area.
It remained a key priority for the academy to keep education for our children at consistent level and of high quality, therefore, online learning was used across the school during periods of isolation and continues to remain in place for any future periods of school closure, or pupil isolation going forward.
Mental health was a key consideration during this time, and lesson time was allocated each day for mental well-being activities. In addition, well-being support was also offered to all members of the school staff and a culture of support, encouragement and consideration was adopted to help the wider Paddle Family through this unprecedented time.
Trustees continued to receive the same volume of high quality comprehensive reports, data and information from the School Business Manager, Leadership Team and Curriculum Leaders as prior to the pandemic. In particular, the appointment of a new Internal Scrutineer, Mt Stephen Lester, MBE, who undertook three reviews and provided comprehensive detailed reports on the academy reassured governors that practices, procedures and policies in place were robust and effective. The Internal Scrutineer also undertook an external review of governance and the governance scheme of delegation and this document will be updated to give more clarity and transparency and published during the next academic year.
The Finance Committee is a sub-committee of the main governing body. Its purpose is to assist the decision making of the governing body, by enabling more detailed consideration to be given to the best means of fulfilling the governing body's responsibility to ensure sound management of the Academy's finances and resources, including proper planning, monitoring and probity. The School Business Manager, in her role as Chief Financial Officer, attended all meetings of the Finance Committee and provided comprehensive reports on all areas of financial management to the committee.
Within this committee a governor was appointed to lead the review of Benchmarking utilising the various DfE and ESFA benchmarking tools. The committee received and interrogated budget monitoring reports each period. The committee met formally seven times during the year Attendance, at the meetings in the year was as follows:
Trustee | Notes | Meetings Attended | Possible Meetings |
P Sharman | Chair of Finance Committee | 7 | 7 |
AM Steel |
| 7 | 7 |
S Tucker |
| 6 | 7 |
C Fleming |
| 7 | 7 |
F Boyles | End of office Nov 2020 | 1 | 1 |
R Way | Appointed Nov 2020 | 6 | 6 |
H Gillam |
| 6 | 7 |
D Watson |
| 7 | 7 |
C Raven | Chief Financial Officer | 7 | 7 |
Review of Value for Money
As Accounting Officer the Headteacher 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:
The Purpose of the System of Internal Control
The system of internal control is designed to manage risk to a reasonable level rather than to eliminate all risk of failure to achieve policies, aims and objectives. It can, therefore, only provide reasonable and not absolute assurance of effectiveness. The system of internal control is based on an ongoing process designed to identify and prioritise the risks to the achievement of the Academy Trust’s policies, aims and objectives, to evaluate the likelihood of those risks being realised and the impact should they be realised, and to manage them efficiently, effectively and economically. The system of internal control has been in place in Eaglesfield Paddle CE Primary Academy for the year ended 31st August 2021 and up to the date of approval of the annual report and financial statements.
Capacity to Handle Risk
The Board of Trustees has reviewed the key risks to which the Academy Trust is exposed together with the operating, financial and compliance controls that have been implemented to mitigate those risks. The Board of Trustees is of the view that there is a formal on-going process for identifying, evaluating and managing the Academy Trust's significant risks that has been in place for the year ended 31st August 2021 and up to the date of approval of the annual report and financial statements. This process is regularly reviewed by the Board of Trustees.
There are two governors who co-ordinate risk management activities on behalf of the school and they report to the Board of Trustees as a standing item at each meeting of the Trustees. These Governors hold a wealth of experience in managing risk within the nuclear industry and are, therefore, very well placed to undertake their authority and duties. They have reviewed their remit against the Academies Financial Handbook and have learnt and taken guidance from best practice across education and other industry standards.
The Risk and Control Framework
The Academy Trust’s system of internal control is based on a framework of regular management information and administrative procedures including the segregation of duties and a system of delegation and accountability. In particular, it includes:
The Board of Trustees has decided to buy-in an internal audit service from SKL Education Consultancy.
The scrutineer’s role includes giving advice on financial and other matters and performing a range of checks on the Academy Trust’s financial and other systems.
On a termly basis, the reviewer reports to the Board of Trustees, on the operation of the systems of control and on the discharge of the Board of Trustees’ financial responsibilities and has prepared an annual summary report to the committee outlining the areas reviewed, key findings, recommendations and conclusions to help the committee consider actions and assess year on year progress.
Review of Effectiveness
As Accounting Officer, the Head Teacher has responsibility for reviewing the effectiveness of the system of internal control. During the year in question the review has been informed by:
All actions identified have been dealt with accordingly and none are outstanding.
The Accounting Officer, the Head Teacher has been advised of the implications of the result of their review of the system of internal control by the Finance Committee and a plan to address weaknesses and ensure continuous improvement of the system is in place.