Wanted: more school governors

School governors are the largest volunteer force in the country, and play an important part in running schools. Ofsted's 2002 report on the work of school governors noted that standards in well governed schools tended to be higher.

However, some governing bodies are hampered by a lack of candidates. Around 12% of governor posts are vacant at any given time, more in some inner city areas.

There is a particular need for governors who can help to develop school strategy. And some governing bodies could be more representative of the school communities they serve.

Representing all the stakeholders

Schools now have considerable flexibility in setting up their governing bodies. A governing body will consist of a core of between nine and 20 governors, and up to four sponsor governors (primary schools are limited to two sponsor governors).

Guiding principles are in place to make sure that all of a school's stakeholders are represented on the governing body, including:

• parents;
• school staff;
• the local authority;
• the community;
• (for some schools) the foundation or relevant religious body.

A duty to promote high standards

Governors play an important part in the management of a school, and they have a legal responsibility to promote high standards of education. They:

• set strategic direction, policies and objectives;
• approve the school budget;
• review progress against the school's budget and objectives;
• appoint the headteacher;
• challenge and support the headteacher.

Over the past 20 years, schools have been increasing responsible for their own management.

Governors are inspected by Ofsted

Ofsted's report rated 90% of governing bodies satisfactory or better, and 60% good to excellent.

A 2005 MORI study of school leadership in England found that:

• 84% of headteachers and 97% of governors thought that, in their school, governors were very or fairly effective in providing support to the headteacher;
• most headteachers (84%) and governors (91%) also felt that governors are effective in appointing senior school leaders.

However, fewer participants felt that governors were effective in planning and monitoring their school's progress:

• 61% of headteachers and 85% of governors believed that they are effective in setting targets;
• 82% of governors believed that they perform very or fairly well in offering a business viewpoint.

According to the Institute for Volunteering Research in 2003, ethnic minorities, disabled people, people on low incomes, unemployed people and lone parents tend to be under-represented on governing bodies.

What is the Government doing?

The Government believes that schools and local authorities are best placed to identify their own needs, and should play the leading role in recruiting their governors. The Department for Education and Skills operates a school governor recruitment strategy designed to increase and widen participation.

SGOSS, the School Governors' One-Stop Shop, was launched in 1999 as part of the Excellence in Cities initiative. It is designed to help schools (especially those who find it difficult to recruit governors) to attract people with transferable management skills. It supports local recruitment by working with businesses and voluntary organisations to encourage their staff to get involved in school governance. SGOSS also offers a service for matching governor candidates to vacancies; up to 31 July 2006 it had identified 9728 candidates.

The Department for Education and Skills and external partners run training programmes for governors:

• the National Training Programme for New Governors;
• the National Training Programme for Clerks to School Governing Bodies;
• Taking the Chair, for chairs of governing bodies and committees;
• Leading Together, a joint development programme for governors and school leaders.

Where can I find out more?

Governing the School of the Future sets out the Government's vision for school governance. The Department for Education and Skills also runs GovernorNet, a website specifically for school governors and people who are interested in becoming a governor.

DirectGov has more information about the role of a governor and how to apply.

First posted on Tuesday 12 September 2006; last modified on Tuesday 12 September 2006.
Categorised as: 'Families and children' , 'Policy and government' , 'Schools'
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