Memorandum submitted by ISCG (Information
for School and College Governors)
1. SUMMARY
ISCG has experience and expertise with schools
governors and with the appeals system both for admissions and
exclusions. We would like to submit views on both these areas.
1. Support for the new responsibilities
for governors in the White Paper is neglected.
2. Training for appeal panels needs to be
continued.
2 ISCG (INFORMATION
FOR SCHOOL
AND COLLEGE
GOVERNORS)
The work of the organisation
ISCG is a small not-for-profit company limited
by guarantee, established in January 1991. Our aim is to help
governors to do their best for their schools and everyone in them.
We provide governors with practical advice, independent and up
to date information and relevant services. We are lay governors,
who between us can rack up over 100 years' experience of governing
of every type of school (primary, middle, secondary, special,
FE college; community, voluntary, foundation, independent). We
have a unique and valuable perspective on governor opinion.
3. Our Soundings Panel, set up in 1991,
is a research tool consisting of a representative sample of governors
throughout England and Wales. We consult it regularly. It costs
nothing to participate and we have made great efforts to make
the panel represent all shades of governor opinion and to get
away from the "activist" bias of member organisations.
4. The latest edition of our Manual for
Governing Bodies and their Clerks has been described as the best
reference book of its kind. We act as moderators for the Hampshire
Clerks' Accreditation Programme for school governors' clerks which
now extends to several other LEAs. We have also published a series
of source books on school improvement and governor handbooks for
Whitbread, Unilever, and RNIB. Our free one page checklists and
leaflets aim to meet governors' needs for short briefings on complex
subjects.
5. We write the twice termly newsletter
for the TES Governor Network. We run seminars for LEAs, individual
governing bodies, clerks and chairs of governors on every aspect
of education and school governance. We also work with governing
bodies in difficulties.
6. For the last few years a grant from the
DfES has enabled us to produce four training packages on admission
and exclusion appeals and to run seminars all over the country,
based on these packages.
7. THE WHITE
PAPER
The role of school governors
ISCG has seen the role of school governors expand
and develop until they have become an essential factor in the
accountability of schools to their communities, and in the scrutiny
of how resources are used in schools. The skills and capabilities
of governors have grown along with the role, but ISCG is concerned
that however experienced and knowledgeable these volunteers may
be, they still need help and support. The proposals in the White
Paper to give more self government to individual schools will
make the governors' scrutiny and accountability more important.
Cash strapped LEAs and Diocesan Boards are cutting back on governor
support services. There is a danger of falling standards and wasted
resources. The White Paper needs to recognise this.
8. THE WHITE
PAPER
Admissions and Admission Appeals
In this submission to the Select Committee,
we also focus on admissions and admission appeals. We believe
that admissions policy will be crucial in determining how far
the White Paper proposals succeed in meeting its aims. For the
last 15 years (and longer in the case of some of our members)
we have been working with members of admissions appeal panels,
their clerks, chairs and presenting officers, for all kinds of
schools. For the last six years this has been with the help of
a grant from the DfES to provide training for LEAs and Diocesan
Boards. We have worked with several thousand panel members, many
of them school governors, across England and Wales and we have
what we believe is an unrivalled knowledge of how appeal panels
work, their problems and their diligence. We have a serious respect
for most of the volunteers we meet at our seminars although we
continue to find places where the code is not strictly followed.
We have gained a knowledge of admissions procedures in a wide
variety of schools and local authorities.
9. On the plus side, we very much respect:
— the commitment of the volunteers
taking part, the conscientious way in which they approach the
task, the trouble they take to be fair, consistent and well informed;
— their commonsense and knowledge of
local conditions which enable them to make judgements which conform
to natural justice:
— their willingness to give up time
to attend training sessions, unpaid;
— the care taken by LEA officers to
ensure that their procedures are fair and transparent; and
— the role of diocesan officers in
encouraging their schools to adopt fair and transparent procedures.
10. We believe that parents, on the whole,
are better served by their lay approach than that of a more conventional
legalistic system.
11. On the minus side we need look no further
than the recent Ombudsman Report[120]
on admissions to see that not all admissions policies are consistent
and transparent.
12. The desire to be unambiguous can lead
to published criteria that are mind-boggling in their complexity.
This can disadvantage parents who are not articulate and well-informed.
Where a popular and successful school is its own admission authority,
it can be faced with a conflict between a duty to serve its whole
community, and a very natural desire to keep its high position
in the league tables by admitting those children most likely to
succeed. It is not easy to find enough willing volunteers who
can spare the time to hear appeals, especially when there are
a large number of appeals for one school. This can lead to a dependence
on tried and trusted panel members who have been doing the job
for a long time, and may have become a little set in their ways.
The independence of the panel must not be compromised. However,
some panel members and indeed clerks are not always fully aware
that they are not there to represent the interests of the authority
or the school.
13. TRAINING
ADMISSION APPEAL
PANELS
The Code of Practice rightly recommends that
all panel members should receive regular training. ISCG has learnt
a great deal about working with volunteers over the years, and
we prefer to talk about seminars rather than training. What panel
members need is an input on current law and good practice, combined
with the opportunity to discuss matters of common interest. This
provides an antidote to the dangers of over- familiarity with
the work, and can bring bad practice out into the open. As one
recent participant put it "I have been doing this for a long
time, and this seminar has given me the opportunity to take a
fresh look at what we do and the way we do it." New panel
members also find it helpful to hear the views and accumulated
wisdom of more experienced practitioners.
14. Much of this also applies to clerks
and presenting officers. Appeals may be only part of their work
and they may receive little specialist support. Most authorities
do their best, but when there are so many pressing demands on
the education budget, it is hardly surprising that the appeals
system is at the end of the queue. But parents who have not got
the school they want for their child are often not only disappointed
but also very angry about what they see as the failure of the
education authority to meet their needs. They are given the impression
that they can choose a school for their child. At the very least
they are entitled to an effective, independent and consistent
appeal process that they can trust.
15. EXCLUSIONS
APPEALS
Exclusion appeals are often administered and
carried out by the same people who are involved in admission appeals.
Much of what we have said here applies to exclusions, with the
added dimension of the governing body discipline committees. These
have a difficult task to perform and are more subject to pressure
than the independent panels. They too need help and support. We
provide them with seminars based on material approved by the DfES.
16. CONCLUSIONS
ON THE
APPEALS PROCESS
On the whole, the appeals system serves parents
reasonably well. But it depends on volunteers who willingly give
up their time. They need to be kept up-to-date with the law and
good practice to avoid falling into bad habits.
17. Making the Codes of Practice mandatory
rather than advisory would be a step forward if it also toughened
up on to poor practice.
18. We have to admit to a disappointment
about the withdrawal of our small annual grant from the DfES,
which we felt was an economic way of subsidising independent advice
and support for panels and provided the DfES with good value for
money. We believe ISCG has made a significant contribution to
the fairness of the working of Admission Appeals.( Annex B contains
the latest report on the ISCG project for this financial year.)
November 2005
120 Special Report on School Admissions and Appeals
2004. Back
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