Re:govern

Supporting governance excellence

There are around 300,000 school governors in England, making them one of the largest voluntary groups in the country.

School governors are often highly qualified individuals who decide to take on the role as a way of giving back to their local community. They provide strategic leadership for a school by ensuring the school’s policies, budgeting and staffing are working effectively.

Governing boards consist of people from the school and wider community who have a wide range of experiences. There’s no specific qualifications or requirements for the role - every governing body needs a balance and diversity of knowledge, skills and experience. Governors do not need to be a parent; have a background in education or have any experience of strategic leadership to occupy the role.

While governors have influence and expertise in their own sectors and communities, research by Dr Andrew Clapham, Associate Professor in NTU's School of Social Sciences, suggests that many struggle to put their valuable capabilities to use when serving on school governing bodies, and their needs are often reduced to an over-simplified checklist of skills. This poses a challenge because governing boards have notable responsibilities, including establishing the strategic direction of the school and ensuring accountability of senior leadership. The school budget in England is also a significant investment of public money, and without effective school governance, there is a risk the spending of this money may go unchecked.

The main way Boards are held accountable is via Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework which has attracted significant criticism in the school governance space because of its ineffectiveness as a developmental tool. In addition, the Department for Education made the decision to scrap its governor support scheme in April 2023 (effective from October 2023), leaving an even greater gap in this provision.

Many schools typically rely on traditional skills audits to enhance their Governing Boards. However, NTU's research reveals that this approach is often ineffective in addressing the ongoing development needs of governors. Consequently, many schools find themselves modifying the traditional skills audit template to better suit their requirements.

In response to this gap in provision, along with Dr Mark Andrews, Andrew has developed a groundbreaking Board Development App. The app will be available via the GovernorHub website in early 2024, where it can be accessed by up to 8,000 schools and 130,000 individual users across the country. This innovative tool aims to provide governors with a comprehensive and long-term perspective on their development and application of their expertise as a governor. The app's unique format allows governors to visually track changes in their strengths and weaknesses over time. The questions within the app are directly linked to GovernorHub resources, guiding governors on the next steps in their developmental journey.

Through his work, Andrew is already informing policy makers and government around the importance of supporting and developing better governance in the education sector. In addition, Andrew’s team provided evidence that was published in the 2023 Education Committee’s inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools.

Dr Andrew Clapham is a policy sociologist and focuses on how education policy is enacted in a range of education settings.

Find out more about Andrew's research

Health and Wellbeing

This research is drawn from the strategic research theme of Health and Wellbeing.

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Centre for Research in Language, Education and Developmental Inequalities (CLEDI)

The Centre for Research in Language, Education and Developmental Inequalities (CLEDI) is an interdisciplinary research centre which aims to understand different perspectives of language and education.

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