Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by John Crossman

I am Chair of Governors of a Church of England Junior School and a retired state primary school head teacher.

I enjoy my work as a governor and indeed feel that I am putting back some of the experience I gathered in a long career whilst supporting our pupils and our local community whilst challenging the staff to constantly be improving the education and experience we offer. I do have grave concerns about the way school governance is going.

The purpose, roles and responsibilities of school governing bodies, within the wider context of school governance and leadership

* The purpose of a governing body should be to maintain oversight of the school. The old expression being a critical friend still holds good as a simple explanation.

The governing body should be questioning and trying to ensure that the school keeps to its improvement plans and statutory requirements thus constantly improving the education of its pupils.

It should take overall responsibility for the appointment and retention of staff, whist co-operating with and listening to the head teacher.

It should keep a watching brief on the finances of the school whilst ensuring that the school is achieving good value for money.

The role of Chair is key to this and regular weekly meetings with the head should always be an imperative part of their job spec.

The governing body should be aware and listening to the outside agencies which have an interest in their school.

The implications of recent policy developments for governing bodies and their roles

The effectiveness and accountability of governing bodies

* The implications of recent policy developments has been considerable and had an extremely adverse effect on the retention and enrolment of governors. I am extremely concerned at the large amount of pressure now being put on governors by OFSTED amid the ever increasing work load being placed upon this unpaid group of volunteers. Governors are now warned that if they are deemed to be ineffective they can bring down the OFSTED grading their school receives. In our case we know that our staff work flat out for the education and benefit .of our pupils and many lay people are just are not prepared to be put in the sort of position where the opinion of one person, on their essentially amateur performance, can undo the good work done by the professionals.. Many lay people are pointing out that they are just that and as volunteers are not willing to be judged and criticised by inspectors ticking off bullet points on their schedule without being aware of the efforts and time being freely given. This is having an extremely negative impact on enrolment and retention.

Recruiting and developing governors, including the quality of current training provision, and any challenges facing recruitment

My school like many others is finding it increasingly difficult to run on a full complement. Earlier this year we were delighted to welcome two new parent governors to our ranks, one has already resigned citing the fact that it is much more demanding than she thought and is unable to give the required amount of time being a mother and part time worker. A second resignation came from a PCC nominated member, an older person, who was a valued member, with a long career in medicine behind him. He felt that it was no longer viable for him to be a governor as it was undoubtedly exasperating his health problems.

I agree that there would be no point in having governors if they aren’t to be effective, questioning and challenging on all important issues however it is quite right that the whole system should be reviewed at this time. Self evaluation is now deemed all important and obviously has its part to play but it is necessary to have a full and stable governing body before this can be effective.

The problem for Church schools is acute in areas like North Devon. The rules demand that the Local and diocesan foundation governors have a majority of two on our governing body. They have currently four vacancies between them, which means we are constantly illegally constituted. It is also necessary to have at least one third of members who are currently parents of children in the school. We have two parent elected governors but the Church finds it extremely difficult to find more than one. I have discussed this problem with the local Rector and Diocesan officer and communicated with the local Archdeacon and School Improvement Officer. All are sympathetic but unable to help. This problem results in more work being placed on the reduced number and consequently is more likely to cause retention problems.

Clearly the law needs to be changed to facilitate the solving of this problem.

Training provided in Devon is good and the Diocese also provides valuable training sessions.

I, as chair, spend a great deal of my time on school business, there is no way I could fulfil this role if I was not a fit, retired person but I feel that next time my re nomination comes around I will probably say enough is enough. There is no one at present on our governing body that would be willing or have the time to take on this role.

The structure and membership of governing bodies, including the balance between representation and skills

Whether new arrangements are required for the remuneration of governors

Option One:

Should we have fewer governors but pay them so that they have to be more focussed or should we accept that they are volunteers and treat them with the respect that they deserve.

* A governing body to comprise five or six paid governors with particular cabinet posts.

One member to be responsible for key areas such as Personnel, finance, health/safety and safeguarding, teaching and curriculum.

The Chair, elected by members would also be responsible for one of these departments as well as oversight of the others, are areas that these key governors could oversee.

All governors to be elected for a set period of office. These would be elected by the parent body, the local PCC in an aided school would also have the power to elect a set number of those members.

The head teacher would also be an ex officio member.

A properly constituted body such as that above could legitimately be held responsible in the way in which government policy currently expects. This would obviously have severe financial implications across the whole nation and if the pay was to come from existing overstretched school budgets it must be considered whether this would ultimately be to the advantage of the pupils? It must be also considered what type of people would be attracted to these paid roles as in my experience the most successful governing bodies are those with a vested interest in the school namely the parents, therefore a majority of the places should be open only to the parent body. It would not be desirable to attract professional local politicians who have too many other interests to devote sufficient time to the school and see it merely as a way to enhance their income.

Option Two

To continue to have unpaid volunteer governors nominated by a variety of sources but in this case it will be necessary to consider very carefully how much can be expected of them if we wish to attract the right sort of candidates who probably already have demanding careers. From my position I would rather be unpaid but not expected to give up so much of my retirement on school business.

It is ideal to have a good representation of skills as members of the team. When I was head of a County Primary School the governing body had the opportunity to co-opt three members. We successfully co-opted a local solicitor, GP and Building inspector. All brought vital skills and experience to the table. Our church schools must receive whosever they are given or often no-one at all and therefore lack flexibility because they have no ability to co-opt.

It is important that individual schools have their own governors rather than being grouped together under one body unless in a federated unit. Governing must remain essentially about caring , about your own school and its impact on your community and especially its children.

The relationships between governing bodies and other partners, including local authorities, Academy sponsors and trusts, school leaders, and unions

The relationships with governing bodies and other partners are causing no problems in my experience and need no alteration

Whether changes should be made to current models of governance

The areas which need change have been clearly stated already in this document.

I am concerned that paying governors is not necessarily the right way forward.

Therefore it seems necessary to take account of the fact that governors are very part time well meaning amateurs who nevertheless have the good of the school and the education of its pupils at heart.

Give them a much more concise portfolio to work on pinpointing just what they should do and know.

Don’t frighten them away with threats of OFSTED inspectors taking them apart.

December 2012