The Priory Learning Trust
Governance
TPLT is a charitable company limited by guarantee, and is registered as such with Companies House. TPLT has charitable status and is classified as an “exempt charity”. Therefore, TPLT is required to comply with three different sets of legislative requirements – company law, charity law, and educational law.
There are three layers of governance in TPLT Members, Trustees and Community Councillors, with each tier having a distinctive role.
Governance Overview for Inspectors
The Articles of Association are the legal documents that set out the governance composition and procedures for the Trust.
Articles of Association January 2023
TPLT has a Master Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State for Education. This is the legal mechanism by which the government controls the activities of trust schools. A central clause of the Funding Agreement is the requirement to be compliant with the Academy Trust Handbook.
All authority in TPLT is ultimately derived from the Board of Trustees. The TPLT Scheme of Delegation sets out which authority the trustees choose to delegate and which are reserved to the Board itself. The Scheme of Delegation has been carefully constructed to ensure that the trust’s ultimate accountability for schools is balanced with each school’s strong understanding of its own local context. The ultimate test for where decisions are made is what is in the best interests of students, in line with our Shared Ambition to Provide a Great Education for Every Child.