Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Education (copy attached) detailing the role and responsibilities of school governors and school governing bodies.

11.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m.

The Head of Education submitted a report (previously circulated) detailing the role and responsibilities of school governors and school governing bodies, including the support and training available to them from the local authority, GwE and other organisations.  She explained that an element of responsibility for school governors’ duties lay with the local education authorities, whilst other elements were the responsibility of GwE.  Members were advised that –

·         there were concerns with respect to some individual governors’ engagement in the training programme arranged by the Authority.  Some governors seemed to be unaware that they could not fully fulfil their roles if they had not participated in the compulsory training courses

·         various methods of training was provided for governors, e.g. face to face and on-line training packages

·         Denbighshire had a Chair of Governors Association.  The Head of Education attended the Forum’s meetings to discuss with members current education related matters.  Despite the fact that the invitation to attend Forum meetings was extended to all school governors, the Forum was not that well attended.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member for Education, the Head of Education and the Education Resources and Planning Manager advised that –

·         attendance at school governor meetings was an issue in some schools as was non-submission of apologies

·         there were vacancies on some governing bodies.  With a view to overcoming some of the problems caused by vacancies and the small size of some school governing bodies the county advertised for a pool of governors and attempted to place them at schools

·         attendance records were kept for each training session and these were checked with the county’s records on school governors to ensure that they all had attended their mandatory training events.  In addition governing bodies had been contacted with a request that they undertake a skills audit, results of this audit could then be used by the Governing Body to ensure they were operating effectively

·         at a recent Chairs of Governors meeting the possibility of co-opting non-voting advisers on to school governing bodies had been discussed

·         school governing bodies had a wide range of responsibilities ranging from building maintenance, health and safety, safeguarding and budgets.  The Council’s Schools Standards Monitoring Group (SSMG) closely monitored governing bodies’ responsibilities with respect of these.  Chairs of school governing bodies were invited to attend SSMG meetings when they were monitoring their particular school.  In addition the local education authority’s regular meeting with GwE examined the same areas

·         from Easter 2016 Governors Wales would be replacing the former Bronze Award Scheme with another similar award

·         the Council was notified if a clerk to a school governing body was absent from a meeting for any reason

·         the local education authority verified and challenged the membership pf governing bodies to ensure they were transparent and fair

·         there was published guidance to assist governors with respect to their work on school governing bodies and to understand the ethical framework by which they were expected to abide

·         the local education authority was automatically notified if a school governor or clerk resigned in order for them to initiate a recruitment/appointment process

·         the local authority also had intervention powers to take over the running of a school if the governing body was deemed to be failing.

The Lead Member for Education advised that he was of the view that all county councillors should be members of at least one school governing body, in his opinion this should be a mandatory requirement for a county councillor as it would ensure that they had a better understanding of education related matters on a personal and corporate level.

Members commended the support given by the Council to school governors.  Nevertheless it was felt that GwE should also be more involved with governing bodies and their work.  However it was felt that the ratio of staff members on governing bodies to those to other representatives would benefit from being examined, particularly in small rural schools, as it may have a detrimental effect on the running of the school.

In response to a request from members officers undertook to furnish the committee with lists detailing the number of county councillors which serve on school governing bodies and for vacant positons on school governing bodies.

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator agreed to check with the Head of Legal Services/Monitoring Officer on the implications of the proposed local government reorganisation on the appointment of LEA governors between now and the vestment date of the new authorities, which could potentially be April 2020.

Following consideration of the information the committee –

RESOLVED that, subject to the above observations, to receive and endorse the support and training provided to Governors to assist them to support and challenge schools.