Education secretary Damian Hinds will deliver the keynote address at the National Governance Association's (NGA) summer conference in Manchester on Saturday.

Here is what you need to know:

Mr Hinds' presence is a big deal for the NGA

Securing the attendance of Mr Hinds is something of a coup for the NGA, which has got used to education secretaries snubbing their proceedings.

When the association held its latest national conference in November, chief executive Emma Knights sharply criticised then-education secretary Justine Greening for not attending. Her rebuke won a strong round of applause from the audience.

And Mr Hinds is not the only political heavyweight due to address the NGA on Saturday: his Labour opposite number Angela Rayner is also scheduled to speak.

What will Mr Hinds want to talk about?

In a system that gives schools a lot of autonomy – whether they are academies or not – Mr Hinds cannot directly dictate what schools do.

Instead, many of the levers lie in the hands of school governors, so Mr Hinds will want to get them on his side, as he tries to address issues such as teacher recruitment and retention.

So expect him to talk about teacher workload, which he has made a priority since taking office in January, and the role he sees governors playing in this.

He may well also talk about his recent overhaul of the school accountability system, which will influence the choices many governors make about the future of their school.

What will governors want to talk about?

Many things, but funding is likely to be top of the list.

In last year's NGA-Tes survey of 5,300 school governors, this was by far the most important issue they raised, and it has not gone away.

Mr Hinds has been asked about funding before, and while acknowledging pressures, has largely stuck to the familiar government line about "record amounts of funding" going into schools.

This angered some headteachers in March, and it will be interesting to see how governors – volunteers who find themselves having to make painful decisions about redundancies, class sizes and the curriculum – react if Mr Hinds sticks to this script. 

Why do school governors matter anyway?

School governors are often described as the largest body of volunteers in the country, but despite this, they often have a lower profile than other actors in the education system and sometimes feel overlooked.

They play a large and important role in schools, from setting their aims and objectives to holding leaders to account for their performance, and they make crucial decisions about their strategic future, such as whether to become an academy.

The growth of the academy movement has made the role of governors at the strategic academy trust level much more important, with greater legal responsibilities.

But it has also led to the role of governors at individual schools within academy trusts being downgraded, or even abolished altogether.

What else is going to come up at the conference?

Inevitably, the issues that schools and teachers find most pressing will be reflected in the what their governors want to talk about, so funding and recruitment will be prominent.

But there will also be workshops on the role of governing bodies and staff workload, flexible employment practices, and holding school and academy leaders to account.

Other issues that will be discussed include financial oversight, involving parents, safeguarding, and making the most of the pupil premium.

Will anything else will happen?

Yes. The conference will also see the launch of the Everyone on Board campaign, run jointly by the NGA and Inspiring Governance, which aims to increase the diversity of governing bodies.

Last year’s NGA-Tes survey highlighted concerns about the underrepresentation of people from ethnic minority groups.

A total of 94 per cent of respondents gave their ethnicity as “white”, compared with 75 per cent of pupils in state-funded schools.

Only 1.1 per cent of respondents were under the age of 30, and 10.4 per cent under the age of 40.

Don't forget to fill in this year's survey

The conference comes days before this year’s NGA-Tes survey of school governors closes.

The annual survey gives an invaluable insight into the issues facing schools and governing bodies today, from funding and teacher recruitment to Ofsted, Sats and services provided to families.

If you are a governor, trustee or academy committee member in England, please complete the online survey by Monday 11 June.