Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Martin Hillier

Introduction

I am a father of three children and have been a parent governor at a primary school in Kent for just over a year. The school has been rated as outstanding most recently by Ofsted. I am a qualified chartered accountant and have worked as a consultant in one of the big four global accountancy consultancy practices and currently work in the group finance function of British Telecommunications plc.

Observations

I have attended a number governor training courses to date. Whilst interesting, these are only ever going to provide a basic general knowledge of any area. Also, given the part time nature of the governor role, a lot of what is originally learnt is lost before it is used. In summary, a volunteer governor is unlikely to ever become an expert.

I have not seen the governors really challenge the head teacher on any matter to date. This may because the school is doing well and the head teacher has always been right. However, I believe it is more to do with the nature of the volunteer school governor not being an expert (compared to the head, who is) and that most governors do not want to be seen as confrontational by the group.

Governors spend far too much time doing admin which should be undertaken by the school, instead of sense checking the significant decisions of the head teacher. For example, our governing body spends far too much time on numerous policies which they are not qualified to make decisions on (eg child protection).

In summary, my view is that the governing body spend too much time box ticking and relatively little time adding value.

Improvements

Professional governors

Governing bodies would benefit from a professional governor. This person should be independent from the school and the head and be an expert (eg a retired head from another school) who understands the regulatory environment and terminology. The person should be paid and performance managed. This person should be well trained, and may have to obtain a professional governor qualification. This person could do the same role for many schools, facilitating the sharing of good practice and ideas. This person should be in a good position to challenge the head where appropriate and ensure other governors’ views are sought and properly considered.

Well defined narrow role of governing body

The governing body should have a narrow focus on significant matters only.

They should not get bogged down in school admin, which should be undertaken by the school. They also are not experts and so should limit their decisions to ensuring appropriate experts are used by the school where appropriate.

The role of a volunteer governor should be akin to that of a non-exec director of a company. All box ticking exercises should be undertaken by the school.

Specialist governors

Individual governors may be given a narrow role within the governing body on which to focus. Governors seem to be jack of all trades and masters of none. A narrow focus for individual governors may enable them to specialise on one area and become relatively expert in that area, and actually add some value.

March 2013