Yes. Governors are volunteers who give their time for free. They should not be paying for the privilege.
Law for maintained schools says that schools with delegated budgets can pay expenses to both governors and associate members. The payments must be for expenses that have been “necessarily incurred” while enabling the person to perform a governance duty.
“The governing body of a maintained school which has a delegated budget may determine to pay a member of that governing body or any associate member payments by way of allowance.
“Such payments by way of allowance are in respect of expenditure necessarily incurred for the purpose of enabling the governor or associate member to perform any duty.”
Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013
Schools without delegated budgets may be able to claim expenses from the local authority (LA), but this will be at the LA’s discretion.
Model articles of association for academies (June 2021) allow academies to pay “reasonable expenses” to their trustees, although foreign travel expenses are excluded. You will need to check your own articles to see the rules at your trust.
“A trustee may at the discretion of the trustees be reimbursed from the property of the academy trust for reasonable expenses properly incurred by them when acting on behalf of the academy trust, but excluding expenses in connection with foreign travel.”
Model Articles of Association (June 2021)
What types of expenses can governors claim?
Examples of appropriate expenses are listed below. They should only be paid if a receipt is provided as proof of expenditure.
Expense claims could cover:
- stationery
- postage
- photocopying
- parking charges when attending training courses or conferences
- printing at home (particularly the cost of printer cartridges)
- care costs for other dependant family members
- the cost of helping a governor participate in meetings or school life, such as help with understanding documents that are not in their first language or the use of technology to help someone with a hearing impairment
- subsistence costs such as food and drink
- other justifiable expenses at the discretion of the board.
Can a governor be paid to attend meetings?
In the majority of cases, no. Being a governor or trustee is almost always a volunteer role.
However, governors can be paid when they are appointed to an interim executive board (IEB). This is a temporary governing body which is put in place to help struggling schools, such as those in special measures.
Members of IEBs are the only governors in maintained schools who can be paid. The money reflects both their expertise and the fact that IEB meetings may be held much more frequently than normal.
Academies do have the right to pay trustees, but in almost all cases will not do so. More detail is provided in a separate article on paying governors.
Can a governor be paid for loss of earnings?
In maintained schools expenses cannot cover a loss of earnings, for example paying a governor because they have to miss a work shift to attend a board meeting.
The DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide says that allowances “do not include loss of earnings for attending meetings”.
Employees are entitled to time off work to enable them to fulfil governance duties in maintained schools because school governance qualifies as a public duty under the law. There is no legal requirement to pay you while you are absent from work, however.
In academies the DfE link to a guide from the Charity Commission which says that although it’s technically possible for trustees to be paid for loss of earnings this is not a routine payment and would need express authorisation from either your articles or the Charity Commission.
Must we have a governor expenses policy?
Maintained schools must have a written policy on governor expenses as it is one of the policies listed in the DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide. The Governance Guide refers to it as a “governor allowances” policy rather than an expenses policy.
The policy should include a claim form and instructions on who to submit receipts to for payment.
Academies do not need to have a governor expenses policy according to the DfE Academy Trust Governance Guide. In practice they should still have one to ensure volunteers are not out of pocket and know what they can claim.
Travel Expenses
Governors should be allowed to claim travel expenses but these will be minimal unless they live miles away from the school.
Some schools say that travel claims will only be paid if a governor has to travel outside of the local area, eg: the county or local council district. This will avoid very small expense claims.
Governors in maintained schools claiming travel expenses for the use of “private cars, pedal cycles and motorcycles” are limited by law to the HMRC Approved Mileage Rates. As of 2020 these rates were as follows.
Car: 45 pence for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, then 25 pence for each subsequent mile.
Motorcycle: 24 pence per mile.
Bicycles: 20 pence per mile.
“Payments for travel expenses incurred through the use of private cars, pedal cycles and motorcycles must be at a rate not exceeding Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ approved mileage rate as published from time to time.”
Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013