Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Lord Bichard, Ten Professional Support
I am writing as Adviser to Ten Professional Support, a company which provides information and guidance to 27,500 school leaders and governors. I also take an active role with the all party parliamentary group on school governance, working closely with Neil Carmichael MP.
Summary
Governing bodies need to be highly effective as schools become more autonomous and accountable for outcomes.
The key to effective governing bodies is to recruit the right people with the right skills but, even more so, to provide them with ongoing and relevant support by giving them access to the best possible quality assured information, knowledge and experience.
1. Making Governing Bodies Effective
Ten Governor Support, the APPG and the NGA have together produced a self assessment tool for governing bodies which details the prerequisites of an effective governing body. We think that these questions, which are set out below, encapsulate what makes for a successful body and should be asked of themselves by governors on a regular basis:
do we understand our existing skill sets and experience and the gaps we need to fill—ie do we undertake a regular skills audit?
do we have a thorough understanding of our role and remit?
do we have a professional clerk and are we efficient in the way we work?
do we ensure that the school has clear long term aims, clear priorities and an ambitious school development plan which is regularly monitored and reviewed?
do we make sure that our strategic planning cycle drives our activities and agenda setting?
do we understand the school’s performance data well enough to hold school leaders to account?
is the Board the right size with an appropriate committee structure?
do we review our performance each year and ensure that all members are able to make a contribution to our work?
are we satisfied that our performance management of the head teacher is effective?
are we sure that our financial management systems are robust and that we get the best possible value for money?
do we listen enough to pupils, parents and staff?
do we produce an annual report and provide an opportunity for parents and the local community to discuss this with us?
do we carry out a regular 360 degree review of the board’s chair?
do we insist that the chair and committee chairs are re-elected each year?
do we assess regularly how much the school has improved over the last three years and what contribution governors have made to this?
are we in touch with best practice around the country?
do we invest in governor support and training?
2. Support
2.1 Ten Professional Services has spent the past two years developing a support service for governors. This is based on the learning from a sister service for school leaders, The Key, which now supports 6000 schools and 25,000 school leaders.
2.2 In Wirral, for example, 120 schools subscribe to the new governors service with 368 governors now using the service. Every time we answer a question from a governor we publish the response as an article on the website—www.tengovernor.com—and these articles are then available to all other subscribers. This is already a rich resource of information and knowledge covering the issues which governors themselves are concerned about.
2.3 The Wirral governors viewed 1,535 articles from September-November this year, an average of more than 4 articles for each governor. The most popular articles this term in the Wirral have been
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
2.4 Not only does this service provide online support for governors but it also enables us to distil the issues of most concern to governors across the country so that the Department and others can respond. In addition it ensures that governors receive quality information and guidance that is not mediated in any way by the Head or the Local Authority.
2.5 From our experience we are convinced that this kind of service is essential if governors are to have the information and knowledge they need to offer credible constructive challenge to the school’s executive.
January 2013