No. This question is sometimes asked by parents or staff members who are concerned about the way a school is being run, but there is no way to call a vote of no confidence in a school governing body or an individual governor.
You could perhaps arrange a petition or an informal vote to indicate the strength of feeling but it would have no legal weight.
The governing body of the school has overall responsibility for employing staff, for the budget, for safeguarding and for a wide range of other issues and it would cause chaos if a simple vote from parents or staff members could remove governors from office.
Governors in all schools can be removed but the power to remove someone usually lies with whoever appointed that person, for example the governing body itself or the local diocese for a church school. Parents do not have the power to remove governors and neither do school employees.
Perhaps the most productive way to change a failing governing body is from within, so why not volunteer as a governor yourself? Parents can stand against elected parent governors when they are up for re-election and staff members can stand for staff governor roles. Anyone can volunteer as a co-opted governor.
Terms of office for governors are public and must be published on the school website. The usual term of office is four years.
If you are unhappy with the governance of the school you should ask for a copy of the complaints policy (every school must have one) and follow the recommended procedure.
This will probably start with an informal discussion with school staff, then a written complaint to the headteacher and finally a written complaint to the chair of governors.
Parents can also send their views of a school directly to OFSTED through Parent View. OFSTED say: “We will use the information you provide when making decisions about which schools to inspect and when.” They use Parent View to gather views during inspections, but parents can send in views at any time.
Staff with concerns can express them to OFSTED during inspections. One OFSTED report from the Trojan horse scandal surrounding conservative Islamic views being pushed into Birmingham schools shows that OFSTED take the confidence levels of staff seriously; the following judgement appears on the report’s front page.
“A significant number of staff reported to inspectors that they have no confidence in either senior leaders or governors.”
OFSTED report for Park View School Academy of Mathematics and Science
If you have a serious concern and you have followed the school or academy’s complaints policy with no satisfactory resolution you can complain to your local authority or Department for Education for maintained schools or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies.
It is also possible to complain directly to OFSTED outside of the Parent View system, but only if you have already followed the school’s complaint procedures and then complained to the DfE or ESFA as appropriate. OFSTED guidance to parents suggests they can consider the following types of direct complaints:
- the school is not providing a good enough education
- the pupils are not achieving as much as they should, or their different needs are not being met
- the school is not well led and managed, or is inappropriately managing finances (this would apply if the governing body was very poor)
- as a group, the pupils’ personal development and well-being are being neglected (but OFSTED cannot consider individual cases).
Can governors hold a vote of no confidence in the headteacher?
They could in theory, because governors can hold a vote on any issue they choose to, but it may be unwise.
If there are doubts about the performance or conduct of the head then governors need to follow the policies they have approved on capability or disciplinary.
They also of course need to act within the bounds of employment law. For example, the capability policy may state that the decision to start capability proceedings can be made by the headteacher’s appraisal committee with the chair of governors.
If the headteacher is not up to the job the governing body has the power to fire them, but only after following the correct procedure as laid out in the school’s policies. A vote of no confidence held in a governors’ meeting would have no actual effect on the headteacher’s contract.
Can staff hold a vote of no confidence in the headteacher or governors?
Again, they could in theory but it would probably be unwise as it would have no material effect on the situation. If staff lose confidence in the headteacher then it is up to governors to decide whether or not he or she should be sacked.
If staff lose confidence in the governing body itself and have genuinely serious concerns they could express these to the local authority, OFSTED or the academy trust board at a multi-academy trust.