Many school governing boards that “appear to be in difficulty” struggle with establishing a long-term strategy and feel “little thought or appreciation” is being given to their workload, an analysis finds.
The National Governance Association (NGA) analysed 209 external reviews of governance (ERG), which were commissioned by the Department for Education’s regional team.
The reviews were carried out as part of the National Leaders of Governance programme, which supported schools with “weak governance” until it was axed by the DfE last year.
Here are seven findings from the NGA’s analysis:
1. Many boards struggle with long-term strategy
Just under half of the ERG analysed by the NGA identified establishing a long-term vision and strategy as an area for significant improvement for governing boards.
This was across boards for maintained schools, multi-academy trusts (MATs) and single-academy trusts (SATs) - though maintained schools were significantly more likely to be said to need improvement in this area.
In almost a third of these reports, boards did not have a three- to five-year strategy.
The absence of a long-term strategy was “often accompanied by a deficiency in adequate scrutiny of financial sustainability”, NGA’s analysis finds.
2. ‘Little thought’ to workload
NGA’s analysis finds “little thought or appreciation is being given to governor and trustee workload”.
Findings from the ERG analysis also suggest an “excellent governance professional” is important for alleviating the workload of governors, particularly chairs.
Governor workload has been an increasing concern for the NGA in recent years. Its report recommends investment in the recruitment of governance professionals who can help guide boards.
3. Difficulties holding leadership to account
More than two-thirds of the ERG identified holding leadership to account as problematic on governing boards.
Within those that identified this as a problem area, more than a quarter noted major weaknesses in leadership engagement with governance - leaving boards unable to hold school leaders to account.
Some ERG highlighted specific areas where boards were not challenging school leaders - including educational outcomes, performance management of staff, finance, safeguarding and pupil data.
The NGA recommends action should be taken to foster open communication between board members and school leaders.
4. Addressing recruitment
The NGA has previously highlighted that governing boards are facing their own challenges in recruitment and retention. Last year a survey of governors found more than a quarter of volunteers are considering resigning.
The ERG analysis finds these challenges are often exacerbated by “poor induction”, where recruits do not get an idea of role expectations and an accurate portrayal of time commitments.
5. Building board capacity
As a result of recruitment and retention challenges, many boards can be left lacking in capacity, or certain types of expertise.
Boards should consider different ways to recruit a diverse range of volunteers, such as partnering with local businesses or community organisations, the NGA says.
Some SATs, for example, established advisory bodies or committees to provide additional expertise in areas such as finance, education or community engagement.
The NGA recommends seeking this kind of external support where needed, but also says that boards should be provided with adequate resources to fulfil their roles.
6. Financial oversight ‘not a major weakness’
Analysis of the ERG finds that financial oversight is a common area for improvement but is “not a major weakness” for most boards.
The majority of governing boards did highlight financial oversight as an area for future focus - though the majority of these issues were minor.
However, financial oversight was more likely to be identified as an area for focus in maintained bodies (76 per cent), and SATs (74 per cent).
7. Governance structure effectiveness
Only 18 per cent of board reviews identified ineffective governance structures. Where this was an issue, challenges identified were around unclear delegation, ineffective committee structures and a lack of separation between strategic and operational governance.
For some MAT boards, 17 per cent highlighted issues around communication between tiers of governance.
Key issues identified were a lack of clarity in trust board and local academy committees’ responsibilities, as well as inadequate information flow between the tiers.
The NGA recommends boards should review and refine governance structures to clarify responsibilities and decision-making processes.
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