The document outlines the importance of high-quality governance in schools, identifying key functions that governance bodies (GBs) must focus on to enhance accountability, strategic direction, and financial management. It emphasizes the need for GBs to recruit skilled members and highlights policy ambitions to professionalize governance, reduce bureaucracy, and provide support for improvement. Ultimately, it calls for greater accountability and effectiveness in school governance to ensure better educational outcomes for students.

1. School & Academy
Governance
A policy overview
25 June 2013
Chris Caroe, Head of the School Governance Unit

2. High quality governance is crucial
 To children’s education and life chances
 To holding heads and schools to account
 To making the most of dedicated volunteers
 To the future of schools
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Yet Ofsted find too many schools have mediocre governance

3. We want all GBs to operate as non-executive boards
focused on three core functions – as reflected in
Ofsted’s inspection criteria
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 clarity of vision and ethos
 engaging stakeholders
 meeting statutory duties
Setting strategic
direction
Creating robust
accountability
Ensuring financial
probity
 accountability for teaching, achievement, behaviour and safety
 strengthening school leadership
 performance managing the headteacher
 contributing to school self-evaluation
 solvency and effective financial management
 use of Pupil Premium and other resources to overcome
barriers to learning

4. A range of policy ambitions underpin this vision of
more ‘professionalised’ school governance
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1. To raise the profile of governance and set a clear policy framework
2. To see GB constitution focused more on skills
3. To liberate and empower GBs
4. To build the capacity and effectiveness of GBs
5. To ensure GBs are held to account for their effectiveness

5. We have aimed to clarify our policy expectations as
governance has continued to rise up the agenda
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Aim 1: Profile and clarity
Higher profile
 Governors’ Handbook
 Core functions
 Policy note on payment
 Academies Financial Handbook
 Response to Select Committee
inquiry
Clear policy
 In Parliament
 From HMCI and Ofsted
 From the Minister

6. We want GBs to focus on constituting and recruiting
to secure the skills they need to carry out their
demanding functions
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Aim 2: Focus on skills
 Categories do not guarantee good stakeholder engagement; can inflate size
and restrict ability to recruit governors with necessary skills
 Considerable freedom for academies – transition to academy status key
opportunity to review and refresh GB
 From Sept 2012, maintained schools may opt into less prescriptive
regulations and so focus more on appointing governors for their skills

7. We want GBs to feel liberated and empowered to
focus on holding their headteacher to account
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Aim 3: Liberate and empower
 New regs on Roles, Procedures and Allowances from Sept 2013
 Duties removed or simplified
 Less prescriptive model academy Articles
Reducing
bureaucracy
 New sources of objective data
 Questions for GBs to ask
 National College workshops
Empowering
accountability

8. We are committed to continuing, and looking at how
we can increase, our support to GBs
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Aim 4: Build capacity
Support, training and advice Governor recruitment
 No plans to mandate governor
training
 Aiming to expand role of National
College
 GovernorLine contract expires in
December 13
 Promoting the importance of clerking
 Funding for SGOSS committed to
2015 to enable growth
 Lord Nash discussion with employers
in Sept on employee volunteering
 No plans to start paying governors

9. 8
 Explicit focus in every inspection
 External review in Category 3 schools
 Re-inspection of Category 3 schools within two years
Inspection
 Warning notices and IEBs
 Termination of academy funding agreements
 Help for failing schools to find high quality academy sponsor
Intervention
Volunteer doesn’t mean amateur, GBs need to be held
to account for their effectiveness, under-performance
will be addressed
Aim 5: Sharpen accountability

10. GBs will also want to consider the implications of
some interesting emerging practice
 Benefits of MATs, UTs, school sponsors,
federations, diocese, etc
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Is the standalone GB
ideal?
 Executive heads / Trust CEOs providing professional
challenge and performance management of school
leaders
Is there a role for some
professional
accountability?

11. For more information please visit
www.education.gov.uk/governance
Questions or comments can be sent to
School.Governance@education.gsi.gov.uk