Not in schools, but in HE. For heaven's sake, make sure you provide sufficient delegation that you don't create a casework bottleneck with one senior person ultimate responsible for every decision. Give line managers the authority to dismiss their subordinates.

I think this is a really central task in a new MAT and one not to be taken lightly. Fundamentally this document will settle where the power lies between the various Heads, the various local governing bodies, the central Trust and the CEO. It will define in many ways your culture.

So rather than starting with the detail I would be leading a discussion on how centralised / uniform you want to be against how federated? Is there a strong guiding mind behind the new MAT (possibly the secondary school head) and what are their views? How have you sold this to the Local Governing Bodies and what are they expecting in terms of their own power which inevitably will be reduced under your SoD - but by how much.

I have sat on two MAT Boards and one was heavily federated so a lot of power was left with local heads and Governing bodies and the other was heavily centralised and the local Governing Bodies were largely consultative forums.

Its that I would be debating as the key issue

Welcome to the Communities and good luck on your new endeavour. The world of MATs is a fascinating one.