A multi-academy trust, or MAT for short, is intended to bring together multiple schools under a single leadership. The idea is that many processes for the network of schools will be much more streamlined, which can assist with funding and efficiency constraints. If your school is part of a MAT, then it is important to know that you will have different requirements from standard schools when building your MAT website.
Why Website Compliance is Different for MATs
A MAT is not an individual school. It is a network of schools, all run by the same leadership entity. This means that there are certain pieces of information that an individual school wouldn’t require on their website.
You have to remember that a MAT, in the eyes of the law, is a legal entity. The law stipulates that a MAT must have clear information about the governance of the MAT, transparent financial reporting, and links to certain MATs-related documents. The law also states that there is a legal requirement for any directors of the MAT to have their salary posted if they earn more than £100,000 in a year.
The idea is that the MAT is as transparent as possible, allowing parents and other parties to ensure that the MATs is operating for the benefit of the school, rather than lining the pockets of the directors.
Who Sets Website Compliance Requirements for MATs
Quite a few parties are getting involved with website compliance requirements for MATs. This includes:
- The government: they regularly update legal requirements for MATs. Many inclusions for a website can be found in the Equality Act 2010 and Children and Families Act 2014.
- Academies Trust Handbook: updated versions are released by the Department for Education each year. This gives most of the legal requirements about what needs to be hosted on MATs websites.
- Companies House and the Charity Commission.
- Ofsted
While it may seem like a lot of interested parties, MATs won’t need to jump through too many hoops to ensure they meet legal requirements for their websites, at least not if they work with a reputable school website developer.
What Must be on a MAT (Trust) Website
The main MAT website (i.e. the website dedicated to the trust) has more requirements placed upon it than individual school websites. Rules do update from year to year but, generally speaking, the following will always be required:
- Governance and Leadership: this should include details of the trust i.e. name and contact details. All members and trustees of the trust should be disclosed. The Articles of Association should be included, as should a leadership structure. The trust funding agreement is an absolute requirement.
- Financial documents: this includes the annual audited accounts, executive pay disclosures (if an executive is earning more than £100k per year), and any other relevant financial statements and reports. This is all to ensure that money within the trust is being spent correctly. There may also be other requirements, depending on how the MAT is formed and operated.
- Trust Documents: this includes details on admissions and appeals, safeguarding, complaints policies, whistleblowing policies, SEND documents, and equality statements.
In addition to all this, there is a requirement to link to the individual websites for all the schools associated with the MAT.
What Must be On Individual School Websites?
In addition to the central MAT website, each individual school will have certain information requirements too:
- Any statutory school information. This includes details of the MAT, school contact details, headteacher and local governor details, admission requirements, and Ofsted reports.
- Curriculum and learning: should be an overview of the school curriculum. Details of how the school approaches learning (especially reading), assessment information, SEND information, and any details about remote education.
- Parent & pupil information: complaints process, safeguarding details, attendance policies, behaviour policies, key dates, and uniform policies.
What Belongs on Both Sites (and How to Avoid Duplication)
There are many documents that will be required on both a MAT site, and the individual school website. The key rule is that if anything is determined by the MAT centrally, to apply to all schools, and then that data is applied locally then it should be included on both websites. This includes:
- Key details about the MATs-related
- Safeguarding policies
- Admission policies
- Complaints policies
- Data protection information
Ideally, all of the information should be located on the MAT website. It should be then linked to from the school website. This ensures that data is not duplicated. It also makes things a whole lot easier to update when policies change.
Common MAT Website Compliance Mistakes
MAT websites should be compliant, but they aren’t always. Here are some of the mistakes we’ve spotted on many MAT websites:
- Lack of proper data about MAT trustees. This may include no information about trustees, or missing information about important members.
- Trust policies between the MAT site and the individual school are different. This is often down to schools taking it upon themselves to rewrite policies that shouldn’t be rewritten.
- No updated financial information.
- Dead links, especially between the MAT and schools.
- Trust site includes information only relevant to individual schools. There should be no school-level detail on the MAT site.
- No trust policies. Instead, the MAT only posts them on individual school websites.
How Inspections Assess MAT and School Websites
A MAT site will always be checked before inspections. Inspections will look at whether any information is missing, that there is proper transparency about the MAT, and that the information is properly accessible. Inspectors will check this against their list of required information.
Any missing content will be questioned and, depending on the severity of the missing content, may lead to serious issues during the inspection.
Best Practice Structure for Trust & School Websites
It is important that MAT and school websites are built properly to ensure that information is in the right place.
The trust website should include information relevant to the overarching MAT. This includes governance, finance details, policies, and the overall strategy for the MAT.
The school website should include anything specifically related to the school, while also linking to key information on the MAT site (this includes policies). So, anything related to the day-to-day running of the school, including the curriculum, key dates, and day-to-day operations of the school should only be listed on the school site.
It should be easy for any relevant parties to find the information they need on a site. So, make sure there are central document libraries that include details relevant to all schools. This should be hosted on the MAT. Navigation should be easy between various policies and, importantly, branding should be similar.
Final Thoughts on MAT Website Compliance
MAT website compliance is essential. It ensures that MATs are operating legally. This ensures that relevant parties always have access to correct information about the MAT and their operations.
It is essential that MAT websites and school websites are separate. Data duplication should be kept to the minimum, as should the posting of irrelevant information on MAT websites (i.e. anything related to specific schools under their remit).
Laws and requirements can change, and the MAT governance should always stay on top of things to ensure that their MAT website stays compliant. Remember, regularly auditing data is much, much better than finding out you’re missing key information during a routine inspection.
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