Resources and guidance for governing boards

Online resources

There has been a great deal of development regarding how schools and their communities can be supported and challenged to develop successfully, in order to improve the outcomes for pupils.

Below are a number of links to a variety of resources to support, develop or self-evaluate your governing board: 

Maintained Schools Governance Guide

Guidance on the strategic leadership and governance of LA maintained schools.

Academy Trust Governance Guide

Guidance on strategic leadership and the governance of academy trusts.

Constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools: statutory guidance

Statutory guidance setting out the arrangements for the constitution of school governing boards.

The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013

Guidance to help school leaders and governing boards of maintained schools to understand their obligations and duties.

Department for Education

Contains a range of information and resources, for example - teaching and learning; pupil support; leadership and governance.

Ofsted

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. They inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. The Ofsted Inspection Framework sets out how the general principles and processes of inspection are applied to maintained schools and several other types of school in England.

School data

DfE provides 'Understanding your data: a guide for school governors and academy trustees'.

Westmorland and Furness Council - Information for schools

Specific information can be sourced for example; advice on HR issues, School Admissions, exclusions.

Learning Improvement Service

Information about the essential work of the Learning Improvement Service which is conducted in full partnership with Local Alliance of System Leaders (LASL).

Church of England Diocese and Catholic Diocese

Support for schools who are founded by and part of a church.

Clerk (governance professional) Career Pathway

Clerks working in schools and trusts provide essential support to boards.  It is a fulfilling and rewarding career with opportunities to progress and make a difference.

The NGA provides a suggested career pathway outlining different levels of support, linking to job description, qualifications, knowledge and skills required.

Guidance

Governing Board Health Check

An effective governing board is involved in tracking school improvement, but also has a duty to review its own practices, processes and operation. One way of doing this is to carry out a self-review, involving the whole governing board. 

It is recommended that a self-review of the board is carried out. DfE and NGA also recommend an external review of governance is conducted every three years.

Once completed, the areas that the board wish to improve can form the basis of a Board Development Action Plan, which can either be a standalone document, or be added to the School Development Plan, to be updated at board meetings as outcomes are achieved.

The Governor Support Team have developed an example Board Health Check (LA maintained schools), including an Action Plan (with examples), which you may find useful as a starting point and can be found within the Governing Board Health Check and Action Plan (.doc, 31KB).

Cluster working

Cluster working is a way of developing school led, self-improving systems. Schools and governing boards are encouraged to work together to share their skills, knowledge and other resources which will contribute to improving the outcomes for children.

If you'd like to find out more about cluster working, contact us using the details at the bottom of the page.

National Governance Association

The National Governance Association (NGA) is an independent charity representing and supporting governors, trustees, LACM, associate members and clerks (governance professionals) in maintained schools and academies in England.

The NGA's goal is to improve the wellbeing of children and young people by increasing the effectiveness of governance and promoting high standards. It does this by providing information, advice, guidance, research and training. It also works closely with, and lobbies, UK government and educational bodies, and is the leading campaigning national membership organisation for school governors and trustees.

The NGA provides a number of resources which you may find useful:

NGA Code of conduct

All boards should adopt a code of conduct which details behaviour. expectations and professional standards required.

Boards should review and approve their code of conduct annually, usually at the first board meeting of the school academic year.

NGA provide two versions:

• Code of conduct for maintained schools
• Code of conduct for academy trusts

Details on becoming a member of the NGA are available on their website.

NGA Skills Audit

The NGA skills audit helps boards to recognise their strengths and identify areas where they need to develop knowledge, skills and behaviour to deliver their functions effectively.

Governor development

An effective good governing board takes responsibility for training its governors and most have a governor or clerk (governance professional) with the specific responsibility for ensuring every governor develops the skills they need to be effective.  Each individual board will differ, however the role of the person responsible for governor development may include:

• helping the board to identify its training needs
• encouraging individual governors to attend training courses and report back to the governing board
• providing relevant information to the board about training matters
• becoming a link for training and development between the governing board, Local Authority and other partners
• inducting new governors and making them aware of training opportunities
• encouraging all governors to become involved in the work of the board and getting to know their school

Giving new and existing governors the opportunity to develop their skills will enable them to make an active and valuable contribution to the work of the governing board. 

Governor induction

It is important that new board members feel welcomed into the board and school community, and have the necessary information and support to fulfil their role with confidence.

The Governor Support Team have developed a model appointment/induction letter, with suggestions of information that will be useful to new board members.  This can be found in the Clerk's (governance professionals) Handbook), appendix 3.

Policies

What are policies?

Schools have a wide range of policies and procedures which govern the safe and compliant operation of the school. The DfE provides guidance on the policies and documents that boards and proprietors of schools must have in the

For all categories of schools, other than statutory policies, a board or school is free to put in place policies it feels are necessary to aid the operation of the school.

School complaints

All local authority maintained single academy trusts multi-academy trusts are required to have a schools complaints policy in place.

Schools are free to write their own or adopt any model policy ie DfE, Diocese etc and can make changes to suit their individual school's situation and the needs of the local community.

The schools’ complaints procedure should be reviewed and readopted annually (as recommended by DfE), to ensure that all governors, trustees, local authority committee members and staff are reminded of the procedure.

If, at any stage, a complaint is received alleging child abuse against a member of staff or school volunteer, the member of staff or board member receiving the complaint will contact the local authority for advice immediately via the Local Authority Safeguarding Hub or Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).  Your school should have adopted a separate procedure for dealing with such allegations, but in any case, the LADO will advise you to ensure that the procedures set out by the Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership are followed.

Any other allegation of misconduct or misbehaviour by a member of staff should not be treated using the complaints procedure:  the board should have adopted a separate disciplinary procedure for dealing with such matters, the schools HR provider should also be able to offer support, advice and guidance through this procedure.

Complaints about local authority maintained schools

All local authority maintained schools are to publish their schools’ complaints procedure on their website.

Information regarding complaints can be found on GOV.UK, including a model complaints procedure.

Complaints about academies

Academies are required to have a procedure for dealing with complaints, which must be made available on request. DfE recommend that all academies and colleges publish their complaints policy online. 

The schools’ complaints procedure should be reviewed and readopted annually, to ensure that all trustees, LACM and staff are reminded of the procedure.

The DfE have produced guidance on setting up a complaints procedure for academies.  

Department for Education and Ofsted

For anyone who has a concern or a complaint about the quality of education provided by a Local Authority maintained school or an academy school more information can be found on GOV.UK.  

Communications

The Governor Support Team prefers to communicate electronically with governors and clerks (governance professional) . We find this to be the most effective method, and judging by your comments, this works best for you.

The Governor Support Team retains contact details for the chair and clerk (governance professional) of a board.  The team are grateful to clerks (governance professionals) who routinely inform us of changes to contact details.

The Governor Support Team are happy to use personal email addresses if this is requested of us, however there is a facility available to use two specific email addresses: chair@nameofschool, and clerk@nameofschool.

Should you wish to utilise these addresses or you experience any difficulties and your school subscribes to Cumbria ISP please email ictservicedesk@cumbria.gov.uk marked FAO School ICT for further advice and guidance.

Schools Portal

Information is also made available via the Schools Portal covering a wide range of school business topics of interest to governors and clerks (governance professionals).

There are no restrictions as to which board member can be granted access. It is advisable though that this person is tasked to cascade information accessed from the Portal to all board members . Access is given only to general (non-confidential) information that is sent to schools.

Before a governor can request a Schools Portal login, they will need their school to set up a school email account for them that ends in ‘cumbria.sch.uk’.  Schools’ Portal user accounts can be requested or removed at any time, but these requests will only be accepted from your school’s headteacher, deputy headteacher or school business manager.

The user account details will be forwarded to the user’s school email address,.  The user can then log into the Schools Portal from any computer linked to the internet - the user does not have to be physically in school to access the site, but they do have to be logged into their school email account or the site will not recognise them.

Full instructions and support are available from the Schools Portal Team, who can be emailed via: school.portal@cumbria.gov.uk

The ICT Acceptable Use policy applies. Schools Portal login details are not to be shared.