Models of School Governance: Implications for policy and practice

Implications for policy and practice

The recruitment of governors with the appropriate personal attributes, for example, interest, commitment and skills, is considered more important for effective governance than the type of governance model that is adopted.

Suggested improvements to school governance, in order to meet the principles of effective governance, include a better selection and recruitment process for governors and greater clarity of governor roles and responsibilities. This would contribute to governors having further capacity to play an even more critical role in school improvement than at present.

The skills and knowledge needed for governors to provide strategic challenge need to be further developed and supported, for example, by improving understanding of how to interpret data. Only by acquiring this knowledge, and embracing the need to provide strategic challenge, will all governors fulfil this necessary commitment and play their part in ensuring that the more autonomous schools of the future improve in terms of young people’s attainment and wellbeing and their accountability to their local community. Making some elements of training compulsory should be considered, such as ways to provide strategic focus and how to interpret data.

To suit the different audiences, the delivery of training needs to be flexible to meet styles of learning and lifestyles, for example, face¬to¬face training at different times of day and web¬based training or, in the case of headteachers, through current headteachers’ training. It is possible that headteachers could acquire further appreciation of the importance of governors’ strategic input through greater emphasis being placed on this in their current training. All parties would then be aware of the value of governing bodies challenging headteachers and the senior leadership team as part of a more strategic approach to governance.

Networking opportunities should be further considered as they represent effective ways of sharing and disseminating good practice and information. Furthermore, with reduced funding for local authority governance support services, it is worth considering ways for neighbouring schools in a locality to reduce duplication of effort, replicate and share effective practice, and think of creative ways to do so.

It is likely that schools will have to reconsider the way they access governance support services as it is expected that local authorities’ governance support services will change.

Furthermore, it is probable that there will be a transition period before other suppliers of governance support services emerge. So the need for governors, clerks and headteachers, in particular, to work creatively and proactively in partnership to ensure that effective, strategic governance is realised should be prioritised.

The full Nfer Report by Tami McCrone,Clare Southcott and Nalia George can be found below

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/LGMS01/LGMS01.pdf