For an academy trust board, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are far more than nice-to-haves or tick-box exercises: they are fundamental characteristics that require “a clear, agreed and effective approach”, according to the Academy Trust Governance Code.

So how can boards ensure that they actively reflect the rich tapestry of the communities they serve and value all the voices within it? We spoke to board members of The Circle Trust, a 10-school MAT based in Wokingham, Berkshire, for their insights.

The expert view

Andrew Beckett, chair of trustees at the trust, says the organisation’s values specifically state that inclusion is “non-negotiable”, which has prompted some challenging reflections. A couple of years ago, for example, it was noted that the board was not as diverse as it could be, he explains, and trustees “were quite aware of this, and wanted to make sure we did something about it”.

“That led to a conscious decision to actually try and address that,” he says. “Rather than just thinking, ‘It’ll be OK,’ we thought we needed to be a bit more thoughtful about ensuring taht things were more balanced.”

While the focus has always been on ensuring that trustees are appointed because they can serve the trust well with their skill set, the board now actively seeks individuals who can help to ensure diversity of thought and experience while meeting the necessary skills requirements.

This more proactive approach to inclusivity also plays out in other ways, Beckett explains. The annual conference, which brings together individuals involved in governance at all levels, including trustees, members and senior leaders, often features “quite challenging” discussions that have “an emphasis on inclusion and struggle, and how schools have helped in overcoming that struggle”.

Rebecca Clarke, director of governance to the trust board, highlights the trust’s commitment to EDI as a key feature of board meetings. “It’s very easy to talk about values, but inclusivity underpins all of the decision making here, and you can see that thread through in the choices of the trust board,” she says. “It can be challenging but it’s a work in progress because it’s always evolving.”

Beckett gives the example of connecting with the trust’s recent influx of Hong Kong nationals. Wokingham has been a popular destination for families arriving under the British National (Overseas) visa scheme, resulting in around 240 pupils joining the trust’s schools.

“There’s been a conscious effort to try to engage with parents from that community, which is a bit culturally difficult because in the school system in Hong Kong and China, it’s very much a case of the parents giving the responsibility to the school to expect them to do their job,” he says.

“And so we’ve had to tease that out, starting with one individual from the community, bringing them on to that local advisory board to give us more insight into the community and to represent that community at a local level. We always want to reflect the balance of our community in terms of diversity at board level, as well as local level.”

The view from the ground

For Ginny Rhodes, CEO of The Circle Trust, commitment to inclusivity and diversity is “our cultural North Star, and always has been”.

“I always say our work on equality is a marathon, but it ought to be done at the pace of a sprint,” she says. “We’re an educational charity at heart, and we must do the very best for the people that we serve. If we’re going to improve education for the public benefit, it is better for the benefit of everyone that everyone is deeply involved.”

That commitment to inclusion means that the trust has had an EDI leader role since its inception in 2017, Rhodes says. The position is currently held by Kiran Sharma, who oversees EDI for the trust in addition to her role as deputy headteacher at St Crispin’s School.

“It all comes back to belonging and identity and making sure that everyone feels assimilated as part of the school,” Sharma says.

She also gives the example of the students from Hong Kong, and says the “overwhelming feedback” in a recent focus group was “around how they did feel welcome in our community”.

“We’ve drawn on the experience of some of our staff who are Cantonese speakers to try to bridge the barrier of language and understanding, and they’ve really appreciated that more personalised approach. We’ve also educated staff about the way the different education systems work, so we can try to align their experience a little bit better over here,” Sharma says.

A focus on developing understanding through education is another pillar of the trust, she adds, with the “training of every stakeholder within our trust and our community” a priority for governance.

“That commitment is embedded,” Sharma continues. “Historically, we were talking a lot about white privilege, but as we move on we’re thinking about our diverse communities and trying to create that sense of belonging.

“It’s about culture and community and ensuring that we have those across our trust and our principles are being upheld. It’s an easy statement to make but we want to make sure that we’re doing that in practice.”

And this means unflinching reviews of success around EDI practices, explains Rhodes, including calling in an external surveying company to get a true sense of the feeling among stakeholders, rather than the trust “marking its own homework”.

“I’ve always been cynical about leaders doing their own self-review because you can draw on lots of examples that make you feel terribly satisfied with what you’re doing,” she explains. “We wanted to make sure that we had understanding of our inclusive practice among staff and parents and students and when we got the data back, it was super encouraging, but it also made us quite vulnerable, because you can do all these things but it still might not work.”

The trust compared well against national averages, Rhodes continues, with, for example, 85 per cent of those coming from non-white backgrounds reporting that they felt included. But for Rhodes that was “kind of devastating to read”, she says, because even though it was 14 per cent above the average score, it felt too low.

“That means there are still a lot of people who don’t feel included,” she says, “and that gave us a real sense that there’s always work to be done. But that’s good because we have to feel the burn of that a little bit.”

Likewise, she continues, the trust’s anti-bias training proved eye-opening for her.

“I felt so confident because I care about this stuff, and I’ve never thought of myself as having any sort of bias,” she says. “And the first thing I learned is that you have to admit that we all have bias, actually, and we have to understand that.

“That was really powerful. And that’s so important for all leaders and board members because we’re making decisions all the time, so we need to make sure that we’re doing our duties correctly.”

Robust EDI practices, then, are not merely aspirational but foundational for effective academy trust governance. Taking a proactive approach and being dedicated to self-reflection and willing to confront areas for improvement means that all individuals within the trust can be supported towards feeling a true sense of belonging and identity.

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