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A board of trustees is the cornerstone of a trust, making the big decisions that will shape the lives of countless staff, pupils and their families. With that responsibility comes a need for effective, efficient functioning. But this is a delicate mix, requiring the right membership, focus and understanding of long-term goals.

So, what makes an effective board? And how can trustees ensure that they are part of a smooth-running governance machine? We spoke to those in the know to find out.

The expert view:

Lou Day is governance manager at Olympus Academy Trust and explains that having an appropriate level of diversity in a board of trustees is essential for effective functioning. That applies to elements such as protected characteristics - to ensure that the board “reflects the community” it is functioning within, she explains - as well as diversity of skill.

“We do an annual skills audit every year, so we know where the gaps are,” she explains. This enables the board to get the right people in the right roles, as with their chair of finance who is a senior manager in the banking sector, and the chair of audit who is an auditor in his day job. This also means being able to see where skills are lacking.

“Last year we identified a lack of people with HR experience, so we actually went out and actively recruited through an agency,” she explains. “It felt a little bit awkward spending public money on recruitment, but it was to ensure benefit for the trust. And we recruited two really strong HR specialists, and so they’re really providing that challenge to our head of HR, which is really crucial.”

Samira Sadeghi, director of trust governance at the Confederation of School Trusts, highlights the importance of creating an atmosphere of “psychological safety” to enable trustees to offer this level of challenge and unselfconscious input.

“You can have the most diverse board in the world, but if people don’t feel safe to actually say stupid things, ask stupid questions and make mistakes, it won’t be effective,” she explains. “You need openness and transparency and willingness to be honest, but you need that sense of safety to do that.”

Likewise, she continues, it’s important to ensure that everyone is able to be heard, rather than getting into a situation where “you end up with a smaller group, a subset of the board, that’s actually making all the decisions”.

“I’ve seen that before, and it is a huge sign that’s not working because boards have collective responsibility,” she says.

Decision making ultimately needs to come down to one simple question, says Day: how does that impact the child?

“We ask: ‘What is the child’s experience in that situation?’ and the question just brings everyone back around to what’s important,” she says.

As for the practicalities of effectively running a board, Day says that her role as the governance professional enables this to happen through “keeping everyone together”.

“I’m paid to keep everyone going and communicate and communicate and communicate,” she says. “It’s holding all that together, working with the CEO and being the annoying fly buzzing around his head, and the same with the head of business for finance and the head of HR. We’ve got good relationships.

“But I would say no board is fully effective. They should always be looking at themselves and self-evaluating, it’s an ever-changing picture.”

Sadeghi agrees, highlighting the importance of the human element of the process.

“It’s all about people,” she says. “People putting aside their egos, working together, collectively, communicating well, having good relationships, and always having children at the heart of the whole thing, focusing on what matters the most. Ultimately, that’s what makes us effective.”

The view from the ground:

Dave Baker, chief executive officer of Olympus Academy Trust, says the relationship both with and between the CEO and chair of the board is key in ensuring effectiveness, and should be carefully examined by trustees.

“Trustees need to engage with the CEO and make sure they get to know the CEO and the chair, but they need to look at that relationship between the two and see how that functions,” he says. “They should look at whether it’s a bit too cushy, or whether it’s appropriately challenging.”

Baker meets with the chair of the trustee board every week, he explains, and “talks to her regularly”.

The Olympus Trust chair is Sarah Williams, who reiterates that such effective relationships are crucial for good board functioning.

“I can’t stress that enough,” she says. “You have to get to know people. I always have an open invitation with my trustees at the start of every year, I prompt them to put some time in with me if they fancy a one-to-one, so we can talk, so I can see where they’re at, that sort of thing.

“We text a lot, we email a lot, we gossip a lot. It’s all those sorts of things that keep relationships going and feed into that culture of being comfortable, having that safe environment where you can absolutely express yourself.”

Culture is critical, she continues, as well as ensuring everyone understands the “values and vision” that the board is working towards.

“Start with the values and then you can break it down with simple stuff like clear role profiles. What is it you need them to do? Be really explicit with that and make sure that you’ve got sufficient training in place. Make sure people have what they need in order to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.”

Having clear lines of responsibility is also vital, Baker continues, particularly around the role of the CEO and the executive team in governance.

“You need to be clear about where the lines are drawn and where it’s appropriate for the CEO’s responsibility to stop and the trustee’s responsibility to start, because sometimes there’s a bit of an overreliance on the CEO, rather than challenging and questioning and saying, ‘Actually, that sits with us rather than with you’. Then you can end up with a CEO almost controlling the governance and that shouldn’t be the case.”

Williams agrees and says this clear delineation of responsibility and terms of reference expands into all of the various groups and committees a trustee may be involved in.

“You need to make sure you know how your role fits in with those,” she says. “What is the remit of this committee? How does it function? How often does it meet? What are you going to look at? What are you not going to look at?”

“New trustees just need to be really wary of that to make sure the lines are drawn appropriately,” Baker concludes. “But if you get those things right, it can be a brilliant thing to be involved with.”