In October 2008 I was elected as a parent governor at my daughter's school called Polesden Lacey Infant School in Bookham, Surrey. In February I decided to stand as a Parent Governor Representative on Surrey County Council's Schools & Learning Select Committee. I was duly elected and my first select committee meeting will be on 16th July 2009.
Parent Governor Representatives (PGRs) are elected from serving parent governors to represent the views of all parents on local authority committees dealing with education matters. PGRs were established in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, amending section 499 of the Education Act 1996, and are subject to their own Regulations, the Parent Governor Representatives (England) Regulations 2001 (SI 478/2001) . PGRs have speaking rights on any issue under discussion by the committee, but may only vote on issues relating to education. The role of the PGR is, primarily, to hold their local authority to account by consulting with and feeding back to parents on discussions and decisions relating to education.
Details including committee papers for the Schools and learning select committee can be found http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Schools+and+Learning+Select+Committee?opendocument
I plan to blog about my good & bad experiences as a Parent Governor Representative on a select committee and give parents in Surrey the opportunity to give feedback.
I also run a twitter micro blogging service with School Governor related news items at http://www.twitter.com/schoolgoverning
