There is a quarter of a million volunteers across England giving up their time for free to act as the guardians of state schools in the interests of pupils.

But not that much is known about who they are, why they volunteer and what they think about the challenges their schools face.

So the National Governance Association (NGA) has once again stepped up to fill a gap in official national data and academic research.

For seven consecutive years, the NGA has been running a survey of school governors and trustees in partnership with Tes, and for each of the last four years, we have had more than 5,000 respondents from across England and all types of schools.

The consistency of messages across these years adds a real weight to the findings.

Funding, one of a governing board’s three chief responsibilities, is providing some very tough challenges.

Over one-quarter of respondents had had to make at least one teaching post redundant last year, and 42 per cent reported having to make non-teaching posts redundant.

Sixth form provision has been particularly hit with over two-thirds of governors and trustees reporting that subjects on offer have been reduced.

Seventy-three per cent reported receiving insufficient high needs funding to meet the needs of their pupils with special educational needs.

There was also a range of other reactions to funding challenges which Fay Holland covers in the full report published on Tuesday.

Ten days ago, Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman said in response to a Commons Public Accounts Committee report that there was no evidence from Ofsted inspections that schools are unable to provide a good quality of education by reason of funding. 

Ofsted does not inspect financial management, nor even have conversations with governors and trustees about the impact of the budget on pupils. 

Well, this survey can provide evidence. After all governing boards sign off school budgets, so who better to ask?

Sadly, only one-in-five respondents were confident that funding pressures could be managed without any adverse impact on the quality of education provided to children and young people. This is deeply worrying.

There was a call from governors and trustees to the government to provide stability for the education system.

This has been said throughout the lifetime of this survey, but accompanied by greater and greater concern about the cumulative effect of changes on school staff, their workload, the stress and their pay.

Staff recruitment is reported as particularly challenging in regions surrounding London and in schools with lower Ofsted grades.

The request for professionals to be valued more and listened to by policymakers came through loud and clear.

Given this context, it may be unsurprising that three quarters of governors and trustees who responded have a negative view of the government’s performance in education over the past year.

The secretary of state for education, Damian Hinds, came to NGA’s conference this summer to thank volunteers for what they do and he heard some similar challenges then.

I hope that these findings give him further food for thought.

These are not generally people who are out on the streets making a fuss; they are carefully combing through governing board papers and asking questions of school leaders behind closed doors, quietly forming part of the glue which keeps our state schools running.

More governors and trustees are saying it is difficult to recruit new volunteers to the role and almost 40 per cent now have two or more vacancies on their governing board.

We urge schools with vacancies to search for potential volunteers on www.inspringgovernance.org.

We need governance to be effective, ethical and accountable. Openness is one of the Nolan Principles of public life.

Listening to and reporting to stakeholders is an important part of holding schools to account, but other pressures on schools have led to less time to engage with stakeholders: parents, pupils, staff, local employers and the broader community. 

Despite their workload and frustration with the system, three times as many respondents supported than opposed the idea of ‘ensuring effective engagement with stakeholders’ being acknowledged as the fourth core function of a governing board.

Here is an enormous group of people who know a lot about state schools and are motivated to govern in order to give something back or to improve a particular school for the children and their community.

Their contribution must be acknowledged and their voices heard.

Emma Knights is chief executive of the National Governance Association