The National Governors’ Association/TES 2016 survey is not a few case studies. It is a real state of the nation of school governance.

Those governing our schools are generally not happy with the direction of government education policy. Only 12 per cent of respondents feel positive about how the Conservative government performed in education in its first year - a figure more than halved from the 27 per cent who were happy with the coalition government the previous year. More than half (52 per cent) of respondents are very negative about the direction of government policy, increasing from 31 per cent a year before.

Those governing academies are a little more positive, but really not that much: 70 per cent of trustees of multi-academy trusts (MATs) are negative about government policy. So many of the people who are in the business of helping the government deliver its MAT agenda are not in tune with the rest of the government’s approach to education.

In June last year, Nicky Morgan became the first education secretary to address NGA’s summer conference, and promised delegates what they wanted to hear: there would be a period of consolidation to give schools time to implement curriculum reforms and fairer funding would be in place from April 2017. Neither of these things has happened - far from it.

Never an easy gig

Being a school governor or academy trustee is a never an easy gig, but 2016 has been a particularly tricky time. The issues raised included funding, the pace of reform, confusion about curriculum and assessment, teacher workload, recruitment of staff and too much focus on academisation. And they’re not even having to deal with the rollercoaster of new grammar schools just yet.

We have been told since 2010 that more decisions are to be made locally, that those leading schools are being given more freedom and autonomy to make decisions that are best for their community and their pupils. Yet at the same time governing bodies of local authority-maintained schools have been up against constant pressure from on high to academise. Respondents to our survey who had decided not to convert gave a range of reasons. Common ones were not believing that there would be educational benefits for pupils, concern that it would change the ethos of the school, valuing the support the local authority provided and having strong links with other schools in the area.

Our surveys over the past four years have showed a slowing down of academy conversions, with 15 per cent in 2012 having made the switch in the previous year down to 3 per cent this year.

However, recent national policy debates have pushed the issue of academy conversion back up the agenda of many governing bodies. Since the announcement of the government’s aspiration for all schools to be academies by 2022, three-quarters of maintained governing bodies have reported being in discussions about conversion.

The survey period included the couple of weeks after the White Paper Education Excellence Everywhere was released, but ended before the change of plan on proposed full compulsory academisation. NGA very much welcomed the government’s change of heart, and it surprised me that it made practically no difference to the responses - the percentage with a positive view only grew from 11.8 per cent to 11.9 per cent! This emphasises that the level of dissatisfaction is not a flash in the pan. These results cannot be dismissed or diminished.

Getting on with it

These respondents should not be portrayed as moaning minnies: they are the very same people who are getting on and coping with restricted budgets, changes in assessment and performance data, difficulties in recruiting staff and changing school structures.

A frequent refrain from senior leaders and sometimes governors is that we cannot expect too much from volunteers. NGA refutes this idea that being unpaid means one cannot be professional. School governors are not alone - there is the history and practice of charity sector trusteeship to draw on. We asked respondents if the role was manageable within the 10-20 days often quoted for trustees: similar to last year, 55 per cent agree it is and 36 per cent say it is not.

And that is despite the fact that half of those governing are in full-time work, with a quarter in part-time employment and a quarter not earning, mainly retired. The vast majority are also skilled, with 89 per cent of employed governors in professional or managerial roles.

So an overall lack of skills does not appear to be the largest barrier to effective governance. There is almost complete unity on the importance of induction training, with only 4 per cent of respondents disagreeing that it should be mandatory for all those new to school governance. NGA will continue to press the government to invest further in development for governors and trustees.

However, the high level of dissatisfaction found by this survey means the new education secretary, Justine Greening, needs to have a major rethink about the way her department is approaching the army of volunteers who are responsible for overseeing the education of pupils and expenditure of billions of pounds.

There is a revolution in school governance going on in many schools and, among everything else happening in the education sphere, the Department for Education is finding it hard to keep up. Those governing are still being largely overlooked - and the great majority are fed up with the situation. They have a huge amount of knowledge and experience, and the education secretary needs to tap into that collective wisdom.

Emma Knights is chief executive of the National Governors’ Association