Governance in Practice
The Purpose and Operation of School Governance
The purpose of governance is to provide confident and strong strategic leadership which leads to robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.
The Governance Handbook is guidance from the Department for Education (‘the department’). It sets out the government’s vision and priorities for effective governance, roles and responsibilities.
The Handbook be read alongside the department’s ‘Competency Framework for Governance’ and the ‘Clerking Competency framework’ which describes the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for effective and professional clerking.
Governance must act at a strategic level, with the headteacher responsible and accountable to the board for the day to day running of the school.
All governance boards, no matter what type of school or how many schools they govern, 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 effective and efficient performance management of staff; and
• Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.
See: Legal Constitution and Operation of Governing Bodies and Academies.
Conduct
The Education (School Government) (Terms of Reference) (England) Regulations 2000 state that when exercising its functions, the governing body shall:
a) act with integrity, objectivity and honesty and in the best interests of the school; and
b) be open about the decisions they make and the actions they take and in particular shall be prepared to explain their decisions and actions to interested parties.
See: Code of Conduct
Plus, the NGA’s Model Code of Conduct 2019.
DfE School Complaints – Best practice guidance for school complaints procedures 2019
Shropshire Council – Complaints about schools and academies. See also links to DfE Complaints guidance, below.
A-Z of documents in this library
Category: A
- Associate Members Maintained Schools Clerks Guide 4 6 2015 (pdf file, 84.2kb in size)
Category: C
- Claire Gaskin Headteacher Well Being Article (docx file, 16.4kb in size)
- Code Of Conduct Oct 2017 (doc file, 121.0kb in size)
- Committee Minutes Template (docx file, 18.1kb in size)
- Complaints Dfe 2019 Best Practice Guidance For School Complaints Procedures (docx file, 42.1kb in size)
- Complaints Dfe Model Policy For Managing Serial And Unreasonable Complaints (docx file, 22.9kb in size)
- Complaints Dfe Model Procedure Update 2019 (docx file, 34.7kb in size)
Category: D
- Delegation Of Functions Of The Governing Body To Committees (pdf file, 121.2kb in size)
Category: E
- Exclusion Guidance For Governors Document Aut2020 (pdf file, 246.6kb in size)
Category: G
- Good Practice In Developing An Allowances Policy For Governing Bodies 2005 (doc file, 108.0kb in size)
- Governor Skill And Training Audit (doc file, 297.5kb in size)
- Governor Visits Policy (pdf file, 294.8kb in size)
Category: I
- Insurance (docx file, 12.8kb in size)
Category: J
- John Hemmings Governor Monitoring Headteacher Well Being (docx file, 23.9kb in size)
Category: L
- Link Governors Visiting Log (docx file, 18.5kb in size)
Category: R
- Register Of Business And Pecuniary Interest (docx file, 16.1kb in size)
Category: S
- School Visit Record (doc file, 52.5kb in size)
- SEND And The Governing Body 2017 (docx file, 160.8kb in size)
- Send Report To Governors Editable (docx file, 104.4kb in size)
- Skills Audit Form Governors Amended (doc file, 134.5kb in size)
Category: T
- Terms Of Reference 2015 Revised 09 11 2023 (doc file, 382.0kb in size)
- The Education School Government Terms Of Reference England Regulations 2000 (pdf file, 169.7kb in size)
- The Length Of The School Day (docx file, 15.6kb in size)
Category: W
- What We Expect 2017 Final (pdf file, 264.7kb in size)