From 1 September 2015 all governing bodies were required to publish the details of governing body membership for the last year on their school’s website, including their register of interests. Here we explore more about what this means for Governing bodies and schools.
The recently revised DfE School Governance and Constitution guidance includes the following details of what information should be published:
- In the interests of transparency, a governing body should publish on its website up-to-date details of its governance arrangements in a readily accessible form. This should include:
- the structure and remit of the governing body and any committees, and the full names of the chair of each;
- for each governor who has served at any point over the past 12 months:
- their full names, date of appointment, term of office, date they stepped down (where applicable), who appointed them (in accordance with the governing body’s instrument of government),
- relevant business and pecuniary interests (as recorded in the register of interests) including:
- governance roles in other educational institutions;
- any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff (including spouses, partners and close relatives); and
- their attendance record at governing body and committee meetings over the last academic year.
- Governing bodies should also publish this information for associate members, making clear whether they have voting rights on any of the committees to which they have been appointed.
- Governing bodies should make it clear in their code of conduct that this information will be published on their governors and any associate members. Any governor failing to provide information to enable the governing body to fulfil their responsibilities may be in breach of the code of conduct and as a result be bringing the governing body into disrepute. In such cases the governing body should consider suspending the governor.
(Page 10, The constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools Statutory guidance for governing bodies of maintained schools and local authorities in England, August 2015)
Looking for ways to present this information and be transparent whilst promoting your governing body? Why not try some of these ideas:
We consider it essential that you:
- Provide a clear introduction about what your governing body do, what their mission, aims and remit are and include information on how often they meet.
- Explain the constitution of your governing body i.e. types of governors, committees and roles of each member. Within this have an explanation of how to become a governor
We strongly recommend that you also have:
- annual Governance Statement
- signed minutes for meetings
- pen portraits of Governors with photos
- regular governor news/ updates/ newsletters
Please refer to the The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 on the gov.uk website for updates on requirements and also use our PYS Website Audit to check your site complies.
The new Counter Terrorism Act requirements have not featured in the Statutory Requirements as yet but it still remains a legal requirement of the act itself for schools to show their commitment publically so read our blogs to find out more about how to do this.
