Yes, but in a maintained school you can only be elected or appointed as a parent governor if you work at the school for 500 hours per year or under on the date of the election or appointment.
This rule is not present in the current model articles of association for academies (June 2021).
However, academies should be aware that the current DfE advice is for no academy trust employees to serve as trustees at all apart from the senior executive leader. (Trust employees could still serve as members of committees, however, for example on local governing bodies.)
“Any newly appointed senior executive leader can only be a trustee if the members decide to appoint them as such, the senior executive leader agrees and the trust’s articles permit it. No other employees should serve as trustees.”
Academy Trust Handbook
In a maintained school local councillors are also banned from being parent governors if they are a councillor on the date of their election or appointment. This is what the law says about who is eligible to be a parent governor in a maintained school.
“A person is disqualified from election or appointment as a parent governor of a school if the person—
(a) is an elected member of the local authority; or
(b) is paid to work at the school for more than 500 hours in any twelve consecutive months.”
Constitution Regulations (England) 2012
Why 500 hours?
The regulations do not explain why the limit is 500 hours, but it is probably to ensure that parents who work in very part-time roles such as lunchtime supervisors are not banned from volunteering as governors.
Anything over 500 hours would represent a more formal part-time or full-time job and there are restrictions in the law that force the governing body to have a balance between school employees and those who are not staff members.
This allows governors to challenge school leaders if they need to and ask the difficult questions that employees might not feel comfortable asking their boss.
What if a current parent governor starts working for the school?
In this case the governor can continue on as a parent governor, serving out the remainder of their term of office – they are not disqualified just because they now work for the school.
However, when their term of office ends they would no longer qualify to stand as a parent governor in a maintained school if their job involved more than 500 hours of work per year.
This is not clearly stated in the current law or DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide but is spelled out in an old DfE document called the Governors’ Guide to the Law.
“If a serving parent governor subsequently starts to work at the school for more than 500 hours in a consecutive 12-month period, they would serve out their term of office.”
Old Governors’ Guide to the Law (2012)
Statutory guidance to the law also reinforces this point, although not quite so clearly. The guidance says says someone is disqualified from being a parent governor if they work for the school for more than 500 hours per year “at the time of election or appointment”.
“A person is disqualified from being a parent governor if they are paid to work at the school for more than 500 hours (ie: for more than one-third of the hours of a full-time equivalent) in any consecutive twelve-month period at the time of election or appointment.”
The Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance
The reasoning behind this is that the law does not permit a parent governor to be elected or appointed if they work for a maintained school for more than 500 hours per year, but it does not state that a parent governor is disqualified if they are already a governor when they start their job.
If you are not eligible to be a parent governor because of your job at the school you could apply to be a staff governor, co-opted governor or foundation governor instead (although the diocese or trust may not allow school employees to become foundation governors).
Any maintained school employee is eligible to be the staff governor, whatever their job title or how many hours of work they do. Anyone from the community can be a co-opted governor. Foundation governor roles are only available in some schools such as church schools.
However, if you want to be a co-opted governor you should ask the clerk how many co-opted governors already work for the school, as the law for maintained schools puts a limit on the number of co-opted governors who are school employees.
“The total number of co-opted governors who are also eligible to be elected as staff governors , when counted with the staff governor and the headteacher, must not exceed one third of the total membership of the governing body.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
Although academy model articles do not include the 500 hours rule, they do include a similar rule regarding the total number of employees who are staff members- no more than one third of the total number of trustees can be academy employees.
“The total number of trustees [including the chief executive officer/principal if they so choose to act as trustee] who are employees of the academy trust shall not exceed one third of the total number of trustees.”
Model Articles of Association (June 2021)
If there are no vacant governor positions that you are eligible for you could also apply to be an associate member in a maintained school, as the 500 hours rule does not apply to associate members and neither does the rule limiting the total number of employees on the board. There are also no restrictions on the total number of associate members governing bodies can have.
Academy schools may or may not use the name “associate member” but are permitted to appoint people who are not trustees to serve on committees, often on local governing bodies in a multi-academy trust.
Academy employees are eligible to serve on committees and the rule limiting the number of employees on the board applies to trustees only, not other committee members.