Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Liz Hutton
Having been a governor of mainstream secondary schools for over 30 years and currently Chair of the Management Committee of a secondary PRU I feel I have plenty of experience in order to comment on the points you raise.
1. The purpose, roles and responsibilities of school governing bodies, within the wider context of school governance and leadership.
The roles and responsibilities of the governing body have changed enormously over the years I have been involved. Much of this has been welcomed, giving governors the opportunity to “know” and be more closely integrated into their school. However, the work load has increased to such an extent that many find the demands on their time as volunteers is out of proportion; they simply cannot be there for every meeting, school event, regular visit that is expected of them in order to keep in touch. Their true value as external spectators looking into the school to monitor and evaluate provision for children and young people with a close interest in the part the school plays within the community can be overshadowed by the volume of paperwork required to demonstrate they are doing what the DfE demands of them. It is right there should be an external body locally to monitor the way the school is working and to ensure every child gets the best educational opportunity possible. Governing bodies have done this well in the past. However, they delegate responsibility for the running of the school to the Head and Senior Leadership Team and should not be held responsible to the degree that the new Ofsted Framework is expecting.
2. The implications of recent policy developments for governing bodies and their roles.
The extra workload and pressures this creates will deter volunteers from coming forward. Governing bodies struggle to get their full complement of governors at the best of times, especially in secondary schools. The new demands and responsibilities weigh heavily on their time and conscience. To be an effective governor you need to know your school very well, but this requires time and frequent visits during school hours to gain first hand information. In the current climate many people struggle to take sufficient time out of their own part/full-time work in order to fulfil these expectations. This then leaves a minority group within the governing body having to carry a greater workload to gather the necessary information. I believe that not all governors need to know everything in order to be a good governor—the roles can be shared.
3. Recruiting and developing governors, including the quality of current training provision, and any challenges facing recruitment.
Recruiting volunteers in any capacity is difficult in the current financial climate. Recruiting governors is more challenging due to the time resources that are required of them. Many are put off by the workload and responsibilities placed upon them. In general the training is good but again it requires extra time, commitment, and often travelling to other venues. I believe the increasing demands that governors should be held ever more responsible for the outcome of their school will deter rather than encourage recruits. In addition, there is a cost to being a governor. Most are sent paperwork by email—great as it is quick and efficient, however, the cost of paper and ink cartridges to download minutes, reports, consultations is significant, plus the time to read, absorb, and respond adds extra “cost”. Travel to training and to school, plus phone calls, are further costs. In my experience very few governors make a claim for any of this as it comes from the already stretched budget in school. It will only get harder to recruit good, dedicated governors in the future and yet they are an essential part of the school community.
4. The structure and membership of governing bodies, including the balance between representation and skills.
All schools are individual and form a part of a local community that they serve. It is my belief that the governing body should at least try to reflect the local community demographics. The young people attending that school are members of that same community today and in the future and should have an understanding of how it all works. The practical experience and skills that governors bring is valuable. I believe community representation should be a focus so long as the commitment is there to help develop the school ethos. Highly skilled people (accountants, lawyers, etc.) may be desirable but can they give the time? This to me presents the conflict between the balance of expectations that the governing body should be responsible to such a high degree, yet still have time to know their school. Schools have to be run like businesses these days and require skills and expertise in these fields. Smaller governing bodies will make it harder to strike a sensible balance.
5. The effectiveness and accountability of governing bodies.
To be an effective governing body they need to know their school; they need to understand the role they play in the leadership and management of the school; they need to have skills and experience in recognising how to achieve their aim of supporting the school to provide the best for the students within it. It is vital to have a range of people within the governing body who have a good mix of experience, knowledge and skills. Training can enhance some of these but dedication and commitment to support your chosen schools is the key to effectiveness. Governing bodies are to be held accountable to a very high level in the new Ofsted Framework which I believe to be overpowering. The governing body delegates responsibility to employees to operate and run the school; they cannot (and should not) be there within the school to monitor every detail on every day of the academic year. I feel expectations of accountability are being pushed to the limit—we are not the professionals and therefore should not be held accountable to theses new levels.
6. Whether new arrangements are required for the remuneration of governors.
I don’t believe governors should be paid for the work they do, as I believe this would then attract a different group of people which can then change the dynamics of the governing body and the school. However, I do believe they should be able to claim genuine expenses from a budget that does not come out of the main school funds. Honest governors do not want to claim from school money that indirectly deprives a child of their rightful educational provision.
7. The relationships between governing bodies and other partners, including local authorities, Academy sponsors and trusts, school leaders, and unions.
I have been, and still am, fortunate to serve within an area where all local schools work closely together for the common cause of providing the best opportunities for young people within our selective education system (we still have selective education in Buckinghamshire). Therefore other school leaders have been regarded as colleagues who are willing to share expertise, knowledge and experience. In the past governors have also worked closely with governing bodies from other schools, sometimes with shared training, or to try to resolve common issues locally.
Relationships with the local authority are mixed, depending on individual personnel sometimes. On occasions I have felt very supported by them; yet equally have felt the distance between is too great. The latter is partly due to geography since the area offices have been closed and centralisation has replaced them. Staffing levels at county have been very significantly reduced pushing the work out to schools and governors to administer.
I don’t believe governors should be closely involved with unions. Teachers may need the support of their unions, and certain issues may require governors to adjudicate. This could then mean a conflict of interest.
I have no experience of Academy status; however, I think that a school supported by sponsors in any way should aim to work closely and in partnership with those supporters so that each can benefit from shared experiences. I have had some experience of this with a Sports College status that worked very effectively with partners and introduced us to excellent governors.
Relationships between governing bodies and school staff were not mentioned by you in this item. I believe this is an important area; staff should feel able to communicate directly with governors—either through individual, or subject pairing, so that their experiences can be shared with governors and feed back to the monitoring of staff well-being and morale, as well as many other issues within school life. It is vital that the leadership team within the school is able to work closely with governors and the whole governing body. I have lengthy experience of residential planning sessions with governors and the senior leaders to identify and develop school issues and plans for the future; these have proved very worthwhile for all concerned developing good teamwork.
8. Whether changes should be made to current models of governance.
There have been too many changes in the whole education system over recent years—and plenty more to come! I cannot foresee any benefit in changing the current model; it matters not how many governors from each category you have, you just need a team of interested and dedicated people to serve. There does however, need to be recognition that governors are VOLUNTEERS—I do think this is often overlooked. The Government push to get more and more tasks delivered by volunteers is unrealistic in the current climate as higher and higher expectations are placed on the few who come forward in an effort to get them replacing the professionals at no cost. It must not and cannot happen.
In Summary
Demonstrate that you value the enormous contribution made by hundreds of governors up and down the country who devote hours and hours of their time to the school they support. Don’t keep swamping them with more and more responsibilities that become unachievable, making it harder to recruit new people—REMEMBER WE ARE VOLNTEERS AND NOT PAID PROFESSIONALS.