Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee.

The structure is made up of Members, Trustees and Governors.

NCEAT-Governance-Structure-Diagram-2024-25-v2Download

School governors and trustees have three core functions…

  • Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
  • Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the performance management of staff.
  • Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

Governance at NCEA Trust

There are local governing bodies for each of the Trust schools. The terms of reference for the local governing bodies are held within the Scheme of Delegation and can be downloaded below.

Key Documents

Our Members, Trustees and Committee

Click the tabs below to find out who our Members, Trustees and Committee members are.

Finance, Operations and Risk Committee (FORC)

Alison Alden (in attendance)Chief Finance Officer

Jeff HopeChair of FORC
John Brearley
John Marshall
Fiona Nash
Rachel Scheffer
Alan Hardie (in attendance)CEO/Accounting Officer
Endowment Trust Committee

Alan Hardie (in attendance)CEO/Accounting OfficerAlison Alden (in attendance) Chief Finance Officer

Alex CoxChair
Ellie Gadsby
Tony Hodson
John Marshall
Stephen PurvisAssociate appointed by Trustees

Education, Quality & Standards Committee

To ensure accountability and monitoring processes are rigorous across the Trust, a committee was formed in September 2022 to oversee education quality and standards. The committee meets four times a year. On occasion, other parties may be asked to attend, such as a member of the Diocesan Joint Education Team.

Rachel MaysTrustee (Chair)
Richard BishoppTrustee
Simon RossTrustee
Alan Hardie (in attendance)Trustee and CEO
Local Governance

The local governing bodies (LGB) are accountable for their decisions to the Trust Board.  Following the demerger of Bishop’s Primary School into five individual schools in July 2021, an additional LGB was created in September to serve the devolved schools. Warkworth C of E Primary School joined NCEA Trust in September 2020. For information on each LGB, please go to each school’s website:

Terms of Reference

Finance, Operations and Risk Committee

Endowment Trust Committee

Education Quality and Standards Committee

Local Governing Bodies

Contact

The Chair of the Board of Trustees, John Brearley, may be contacted by email at governor@ncea.org.uk or in writing:

The Board of Trustees
c/o Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust
Wansbeck Workspace
Rotary Parkway
Ashington
NE63 8QZ

Alternatively, Trustees may be contacted via Lesley Dalby, Director of Governance, on 01670 613318