Category: Minutes

Clear and accurate minutes should record the actions, discussions and plans of the governing body without giving a verbatim account of the meeting.

Minutes Templates

Downloadable minutes templates are available on my templates and letters page, including a confidential minutes template labelled with a watermark.

Recording Decisions, Questions and Actions

The most important function of minutes is to record the decisions that governors make, the way that governors challenge and support leaders and the actions that governors have agreed to take.

When recording decisions the clerk can use phrases such as “Governors voted in favour of the proposal”, “Governors agreed to x”, “Governors approved y” or “Governors ratified the behaviour policy”. Minutes are written in the past tense.

If there has been a discussion before the decision the clerk needs to summarise the key points in favour or against and show how the board arrived at their conclusions.

When recording questions try to incorporate clarification questions into the main text of the minutes so you only highlight challenging questions from governors, not every single question that is asked in a meeting.

For example, if the behaviour policy is being discussed and a governor asks the headteacher to explain how detentions are used, that it is a factual question. The clerk should write “Detentions are given for x, y and z behaviours following a warning from the teacher.”

If a governor asks “Why have detentions increased by 50% in year 10 and how are you addressing these behaviour issues?” that is a challenging question. The clerk should write “A governor asked…” or “A governor questioned why Y10 detentions have risen by 50% and how these behaviour issues are being addressed.”

How should votes be minuted?

In most cases the votes of individual governors are not recorded, so the clerk will use wording like “governors voted in favour of spending £20,000 on PCs” or “governors approved the behaviour policy”.

The clerk can write that the vote was unanimous or by majority but does not have to, although it may be wise to do so for a vote that could be controversial, for example converting to an academy.

I am occasionally asked to minute that a governor has abstained from a vote or wishes to have their vote against an item recorded. However, governors make decisions collectively and share responsibility for those decisions, whether they voted in favour of them or not.

Tips For Writing Good Minutes

• Record the school name, date, time and whether it is a full governing body meeting or committee.
• Tell us who is in the room and whether they are a governor, associate member, clerk or guest. I write “Governors present”, “Associate members present” and finally “In attendance” to cover the clerk and any guests. Tell us who the chair and vice-chair are and include job titles for school employees or guests.
• Make it clear if anyone leaves the meeting early (or comes in late) so that you can prove there was a quorum present when decisions were made. Record if anyone withdraws from the meeting temporarily due to a conflict of interest. If the meeting was not quorate at any stage make that clear.
• The governing body should be asked to approve minutes of the last meeting. This is followed by “Matters arising” where any issues related to the last meeting are discussed.
• Include action points with the name of the person responsible for each action and a deadline.
• Include an item called “Declarations of interest” to allow for conflicts of interest to be minuted.
• Use a numbering system for each item. Some schools use a system where every item discussed over an entire year is numbered in sequence; for example item 1 in January would be 2020/1 and item 78 in March would be 2020/78. I think this is needlessly complicated and just use 1, 2, 3 etc.
• Record the apologies that were received and whether they were accepted.
• Number every page like this: “Page 1 of 8”, “Page 2 of 8” etc so you know if one goes missing (or gets stuck in the photocopier).
• Include a space at the bottom of each page for the chair’s signature. The chair should sign the first page and initial the remaining pages.

Should governor names be included?

That is up to your individual school. The governing body holds collective responsibility so some people think the clerk should not include names, instead writing “A governor suggested” or “two governors asked for further data on x”.

The disadvantage of this is that it can be difficult to see if any governors are struggling to make a contribution to meetings. It may also be inappropriately vague – if the link governor for safeguarding is raising concerns about a safeguarding issue then that is relevant information to note.

What should be confidential?

A separate article covers confidential minutes but the short answer is that the governing can decide to make any item confidential, particularly if it refers to a named pupil or staff member. These minutes may still be requested under freedom of information law.

Confidential minutes are often called part II minutes and should be clearly marked as confidential with a watermark or prominent title (or both). Some schools also like to print them on a different colour paper (often pink for some reason) to make it really obvious.

Do working parties need to be minuted?

No. The term “working party” or working group is used to describe an informal group of governors who meet to discuss a specific issue. A working party is not a formal committee and has no delegated power, so minutes do not have to be kept.

However, the governing body should agreed to form the working party and the governors involved should report their conclusions back to the board.

Who approves draft minutes?

It is common practice for the clerk to send draft minutes of the full board to both the chair and the headteacher for approval before sending the draft out to all governors. Draft committee minutes are usually sent to the headteacher and chair of that committee.

However, the whole board must approve the final version of full board minutes and can over-rule any changes made by the head or chair. Committee minutes can be approved by that committee.

How should minutes be amended?

If governors ask for an amendment the clerk can either do this by hand at the meeting or on a computer later. Handwritten amendments are only suitable for very minor mistakes (a missing word, for example) and even then do not look very professional, so I recommend editing minutes electronically and asking the chair to sign the amended version at the next meeting.

Should minutes be colour-coded?

It is fairly common to see coloured fonts or yellow highlighting in minutes, usually to draw attention to actions, questions or decisions. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I have seen minutes where half the text was in different colours and this may not be appropriate for a professional document.

Often boards like to highlight support and challenge in the minutes to ensure their OFSTED inspector sees it. That’s fine, but you must make sure the minutes are just as intelligible without the colour-coding, because your inspector might be colour-blind!

What is the difference between ratification and approval?

There’s no difference in this context – to ratify and to approve both mean that governors have voted in favour of the proposal, or the policy, or the spending or whatever item is being discussed.

I have seen some minutes where the clerk writes that a committee has approved a proposal and it will now go to the full governing body for ratification, but in my view that’s just creating confusion.

The word “ratify” is sometimes used this way in politics – a team will negotiate and approve a treaty that is then officially ratified by the prime minister – but for governors you just need to know who has the power to vote in favour or against.

Either the committee has the delegated authority to vote in favour of the proposal or it does not. If it has no power to vote on it the committee will just be recommending that the full board approves it, they are not actually capable of making the decision themselves.

If the committee does have the power to vote on it then that vote should not be duplicated at a full board meeting as that defeats the whole point of delegation.

How quickly should minutes be produced?

There’s no set timescale but it would be reasonable for the clerk to send draft minutes to the head and chair within seven to 10 days of the meeting date.

How long should minutes be kept for?

Your school or academy trust should have a data retention policy which outlines how long documents should be kept, so check to see if your policy sets a retention period for governance documents.

If there is no retention policy in place your LA should have a retention policy for all schools to follow. In my area (Southampton) this is called a Records Review and Retention Schedule.

Alternatively, the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) produces a Schools Toolkit on which a retention policy could be based.

The IRMS toolkit advises that minutes from maintained schools are generally kept for as long as the school remains open. However, if someone makes a request to see minutes from previous years then local authorities only have to provide copies from the last 10 years.

The IRMS advise that this rule applies equally to both minutes and any papers or reports discussed at the meeting.

Can minutes be stored electronically?

There’s no reason why you can’t scan signed minutes and file the original hard copy, but if you want to go fully digital and throw away the paper original completely I would check with your local authority or academy trust/auditors before doing so. Your school may also have a retention policy that states how documents should be stored so check that too.

I can’t see any reason why papers and reports need to be kept as hard copies because a printout of the digital file will be exactly the same as the original paper copy.

Can minutes be signed digitally?

Probably, although I haven’t been able to find definitive evidence from the DfE or OFSTED that they approve of electronically signed minutes.

The law for maintained schools just refers to minutes being “signed” so it comes down to whether an electronic signature is legal. The answer to that seems to be yes but with some caveats.

Model articles for academies (June 2021) specifically say that “references to a document being ‘signed’ includes those signed electronically” so any academies using these articles can certainly use digital signatures. Earlier articles just refer to minutes being “signed”, so again it depends on whether an electronic signature is allowed within that definition.

In April 2021 the National Governance Association posted a blog that said boards should take advantage of new practices used in the pandemic period. They gave an example of abandoning ink signatures because the pandemic proved that “an electronic signature would suffice”, so they seem comfortable with digital signatures.

“Many will not be rushing back to the use of ink for signing documents when the last twelve months have proved that an electronic signature would suffice.”

National Governance Association blog

The online admin system GovernorHub offers a way to sign documents remotely. So many governing bodies use GovernorHub that it is difficult to imagine a board getting into trouble just because they were using this feature.

If your school does not subscribe to GovernorHub you could scan the signature into a jpg or use software such as DocuSign. There is also a signature system built in to Microsoft Word.

Can meetings be recorded electronically?

Yes, meetings can be taped if the governing body are happy for that to happen. I digitally record my meetings because it helps me produce accurate minutes, particularly when governors are asking complex questions or accidentally talking over each other. I use a cheap Sony dictaphone but most smartphones can easily record voices these days.

You do need to ask for the board’s permission before you do this, but I can tell you that an OFSTED inspector was impressed when the governors at one of my schools told him that their meetings were recorded for accuracy! (The final OFSTED report described the minutes as “detailed” and said they recorded many examples of governor challenge and subsequent actions taken.)

It’s probably not necessary to have a protocol or policy that covers these recordings, but bear in mind that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to any personal data, which means data that identifies a living person. This will apply to most sets of minutes.

Guidelines for schools state that “personal data should be kept for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which the data are processed”. For minutes it would be reasonable to keep the recording until governors have approved the minutes as an accurate record and they been signed by the chair.

Who takes minutes in the clerk’s absence?

One of the governors or trustees (but not the headteacher) can take minutes if the clerk is unable to attend. This is covered in more detail in a separate article on attendance and absence.

When governors cannot attend a meeting they should send their apologies in advance. This lets the clerk calculate whether the meeting will be quorate. However, apologies do not automatically have to be accepted by the board.

Apologies matter because the law for maintained schools and model articles for academies state that governors or trustees who miss six months of meetings without the permission of the governing body are disqualified.

If the governing body wishes to withhold permission to miss a meeting they can refuse to accept the apologies of a particular governor.

Rules for disqualification of academy committee members, including local governing bodies, will be set by your own academy trust.

“A governor who, without the consent of the governing body, has failed to attend their meetings for a continuous period of six months beginning with the date of the first such meeting the governor fails to attend, is, on the expiry of that period, disqualified from continuing to hold office as a governor of that school.”

Constitution (England) Regulations 2012

“A trustee shall cease to hold office if they are absent without the permission of the trustees from all their meetings held within a period of six months and the trustees resolve that the trustee’s office be vacated.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Neither the law nor the model articles say how apologies should be recorded. However, older law for maintained schools from 1999 (now revoked) says that clerks should record whether consent was given or not and this is still good practice.

“Where a governor has sent an apology to the clerk to the governing body before a meeting which he does not propose to attend, the minutes of the meeting shall record the governing body’s consent or otherwise to his absence.”

Education School Government (England) 1999

Clerks can record whether consent was given by writing “Apologies received from John Smith were not accepted” or by having separate lists of governor names, one list for the people present at the meeting and one for those who sent apologies. If apologies were sent but not accepted the clerk can write (apologies refused) beside the governor’s name.

If a governor misses one or two meetings and forgets to send apologies the clerk can just remind them to do so next time, both as a courtesy but also to avoid everyone traipsing into school only to find that you don’t have enough governors to form a quorum.

If a governor regularly misses meetings with no apology an agenda item could remind everyone of the need for apologies or governors may wish to discuss whether they wish to stop giving consent for the absences. A separate article looks at what to do if a governor is not attending meetings.

Should we record apologies if a guest cannot attend?

There is no need to record apologies for invited guests or observers. A staff member such as the deputy head may have a standing invitation to attend meetings but they have no governing responsibilities and their absence does not affect the quorum.

If someone has been invited to one meeting only and cannot attend the clerk can mention this in the minutes, but don’t include them in the “apologies” section. It should be clear from the apologies how many governors attended and how many sent apologies so you can see if the meeting was quorate at a glance.

Can apologies be accepted after a meeting?

Yes, in my view. I’ve seen guidance from local authorities that insists apologies can only be accepted if they are received before the meeting takes place, but this is not based on the law or current model articles (June 2021) which set no rules at all on how to deal with the specifics of apologies.

Old law from 1999 did refer to apologies being sent “before a meeting” but this law no longer applies. Neither the current law nor the current model articles include the word “apologies” at all.

The only rules outlined in the current law and model articles relate to whether governors give their consent for the absence. It seems harsh to refuse consent for every single apology sent retrospectively, even if Miss Jones has been run over by a truck on the way to a meeting and emails an apology a week later.

It’s also the case that a governor could have a family crisis or other urgent problem and simply forget to send apologies at all, but the board can still give their consent for the absence even if a fraught governor has failed to send an apology.

A board may also wish to give consent for a sustained period of absence for maternity leave for example, without demanding that the governor provide apologies for each meeting missed, particularly if they are not sure when they will be able to return.

In practice boards should not be spending valuable time arguing about the specifics of apologies as the only situation where it becomes relevant is when a governor is regularly absent and the board wishes to consider disqualification.

Minutes of a school governing body must be signed off to show they have been approved by governors or trustees as an accurate record of the meeting.

In a meeting of the full governing body minutes must be signed by the chair of governors or trustees, unless the chair is absent. In a committee meeting they must be signed by the chair of that committee, unless the committee chair is absent.

For maintained schools this requirement is from the Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations.

“The clerk to the governing body must ensure that minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of the governing body are drawn up and signed (subject to the approval of the governing body) by the chair at the next meeting.”

Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013

For academies the requirement is in the articles of association. This is what the current model articles say.

“The minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of the trustees shall be recorded and kept for the purpose by the person acting as governance professional for the purposes of the meeting; and shall be signed (subject to the approval of the trustees) at the same or next subsequent meeting by the person acting as chair thereof.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Can minutes be signed by the vice-chair?

Yes. The law for maintained schools says that if the chair of governors cannot attend a meeting or there is currently no chair of governors, the vice-chair “is to act as chair for all purposes”. All purposes would clearly include signing off the minutes at a full board meeting.

The situation is a little more complicated for committees because you may be surprised to learn that the law does not require maintained schools to have committee vice-chairs at all, just committee chairs. In practice it is still a good idea to elect a vice-chair for any committee and if the committee chair is absent the committee vice-chair should sign the minutes.

Model articles for academies (June 2021) also say that if the chair of trustees is absent from a full board meeting or there is currently no chair of trustees in post then the vice-chair can act as chair for that meeting and sign the minutes.

“Where the chair is absent from any meeting or there is at the time a vacancy in the office of the chair, the vice-chair shall act as the chair for the purposes of the meeting.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Academy trusts can set their own rules for committee procedures so check your own articles and terms of reference for details, but usual procedure would be that the vice-chair of any committee can sign minutes in the absence of the committee chair.

“The constitution, membership and proceedings of any committee shall be determined by the trustees.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Can minutes be signed by anyone acting as chair?

In maintained schools the current law does not say what should happen if both the chair and vice-chair are absent, but it is reasonable to assume that a governor should be chosen to act as chair and that person can sign the minutes. The acting chair should not be a school employee because the overall chair of governors can never be a school employee.

To analyse the rules a little further, the current law says minutes should be signed “by the chair at the next meeting” which could mean either the overall chair of governors or the person acting as chair of that meeting.

Law from 2003 referred to “the chair of the next meeting”, which definitely implied an acting chair could sign the minutes. Law from 1999 explicitly stated that minutes could be signed at a meeting “by the person acting as chairman thereof”.

The 1999 law also explicitly stated that when both the chair and vice-chair are absent “the governing body shall elect one of their number to act as a chairman for the purposes of that meeting, provided that the governor elected shall not be a person who is employed to work at the school”. All of this suggests that whoever is chairing the meeting can sign the minutes.

One further clue that minutes can be signed by whoever is chairing the meeting is from the law regarding casting votes in the event of a tied decision. This regulation says that a casting (second) vote can be made either by the overall chair of governors or “the person who is acting as chair for the purposes of the meeting (provided that such person is a governor)”.

If the vice- chair was the only person apart from the overall chair of governors who could ever chair meetings, there would be no need for the law to specify “provided that such person is a governor” because the vice-chair must always be a governor.

For academies, model articles of association (June 2021) include the same wording as the 1999 regulations for maintained schools: minutes of a meeting of trustees shall be signed at the meeting “by the person acting as chair thereof”. The acting chair should not be an academy employee because the overall chair of trustees cannot be an academy employee.

Can the chair sign minutes of a meeting they did not attend?

Yes. Minutes can be signed by whoever is chairing the current meeting, whether or not they personally attended the previous meeting. Both the law and model articles say minutes are signed “subject to the approval of” either the board of governors or the board of trustees.

Therefore, the chair’s signature shows that minutes have been agreed to be a true and accurate record of the meeting by the governing body as a whole, not by the chair of governors alone. The chair is signing them on behalf of the board; they are not signing them to show that they personally approve the minutes.

When releasing minutes to the public maintained schools must only provide signed, finalised minutes (approved by the whole governing body).

However, model articles for academies (June 2021) state that academies should provide both a) draft minutes that have been approved just by the chair of that meeting but not signed, and b) minutes that have been approved by the whole board and signed by the chair. (The former will be available more quickly than the latter.)

Even when providing draft, unsigned minutes the model articles (June 2021) make clear that the draft version can be approved by “the person acting as chair of that meeting” rather than just the overall chair.

Does the chair need to sign every page of the minutes?

The chair doesn’t have to sign every page of the minutes but it’s a good idea to at least initial every page. This lets you distinguish between draft and final minutes if the pages become separated.

Current governor law for maintained schools doesn’t specify whether each page should be signed. However, a previous law from 1999 did specify that if the clerk produces minutes in a loose-leaf format rather than using a bound minute book, as most clerks will these days, the chair should initial every page.

“The minutes of proceedings of meetings may be entered on loose-leaf pages consecutively numbered; but in that case the person signing the minutes shall initial each page.”

Education School Government (England) Regulations 1999

The current academy model articles (June 2021) don’t specify whether each page should be signed but again, it’s good practice for the chair to at least initial every page.

Do supporting papers and policies need to be signed?

There’s no requirement in the law or model articles for reports, papers and policies to be signed. However, there may be some documents which need the chair’s signature, particularly financial documents such as the Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) in a maintained school.

Some schools may ask the chair to sign and date a policy to show it is the latest version approved by governors, but of course the approval will also be recorded in the minutes. There’s no need for chairs to sign documents such as the headteacher’s report, governor visit reports or safeguarding summaries.

When do minutes become public?

In a maintained school you can only release minutes to the public once they have been signed off by the chair of that meeting, after approval from the governing body or committee.

Academies using the June 2021 model articles can release both draft minutes that have been approved by the person who chaired that meeting or signed minutes after approval from the whole board or committee.

A separate article includes more information about making minutes public including dealing with confidential items and freedom of information requests.

Yes. Schools do have a right to keep some items confidential, but even confidential minutes can be requested under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. Some FOI requests may be denied if minutes contain personal information.

The law for maintained schools states that governor minutes must be given to any “interested person”. As state schools are publicly-funded this will apply to any member of the public, not just parents.

“The governing body must, as soon as reasonably practicable, make available for inspection by any interested person, a copy of—

(a) the agenda for every meeting;

(b) the signed minutes of every such meeting; and

(c) any report or other paper considered at any such meeting.”

Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013

Model articles (June 2021) for academies simply say that minutes shall be given to “persons wishing to inspect them”.

“The trustees shall ensure that a copy of:

a. the agenda for every meeting of the trustees;

b. the draft minutes of every such meeting, if they have been approved by the person acting as chair of that meeting;

c. the signed minutes of every such meeting; and

d. any report, document or other paper considered at any such meeting, are, as soon as is reasonably practicable, made available at [every]/[the] academy to persons wishing to inspect them.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Are meeting papers public?

Yes, although the board has the right to keep some reports and other supporting papers confidential. As with the minutes though any confidential papers may be requested under freedom of information.

The fact that papers are public documents is shown in the quotes above. Law for maintained schools says that “any report or other paper” considered at the meeting must be made available to the public.

Model articles for academies say that “any report, document or other paper” considered at a meeting must be made available.

Are committee minutes public?

Yes, although the right to make some items confidential still applies.

The law for maintained schools quoted below shows that committee agendas, minutes and papers are public documents.

“The committee must, as soon as reasonably practicable, make available for inspection by any interested person a copy of—

(a) the agenda for every committee meeting;

(b) the signed minutes of every such meeting; and

(c) any report or other paper considered at any such meeting.”

Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013

In academies the committee minutes are also public documents, including minutes of local governing bodies in a multi-academy trust.

The Academy Trust Handbook makes it clear that minutes from local governing bodies and committees must be provided to anyone who asks for them.

“The trust must make available for public inspection:

– the agenda for every meeting of the trustees, local governing bodies and committees
– the approved minutes of each meeting
– any report, document or other paper considered at each meeting.”

Academy Trust Handbook

Are academy member minutes public?

The Academy Trust Handbook and model articles do not refer to minutes from meetings of academy members, for example the annual general meeting (AGM), so academies are not obliged to make these minutes available.

However, an academy may be happy to supply a copy. I suspect that if member minutes were requested under freedom of information law they would have to be released (possibly with minor redactions). Information on making an FOI request is given later in this article.

Who should I request minutes from?

The clerk to governors or governance professional will have copies of all minutes and their email address may be listed on the school website in the governors’ section.

If you cannot find contact details for the clerk email the school office and ask for your message to be passed to either the clerk or the chair of governors.

Do governors have to publish minutes online?

There is no legal requirement for schools to publish governing body minutes on their website, but many do as this is the easiest way to make them available. All schools will have a file or book of minutes.

All school minutes must be given out “as soon as is reasonably practicable”. Maintained schools should supply signed copies of minutes once they have been approved by the governing body or committee, but academies can supply both signed copies approved by the governing body/committee and draft copies approved by whoever chaired the relevant meeting.

In practice this will mean minutes will become available to the public within a few weeks to a few months of the date of the meeting, depending on how often the board or committee meets.

Academy model articles from June 2021 allow academies to both approve and sign off minutes of a meeting at either the next meeting or at the same meeting, but I’d like to meet the clerk who can produce a decent set of minutes mere seconds after the meeting has ended!

All schools and academies must also supply a copy of the meeting’s agenda and a copy of any report or paper that was considered at the meeting.

What items can be confidential?

Schools and academies have a right to keep items confidential if they cover one of the following three issues:

• a named staff member or pupil
• a prospective staff member or pupil
• any other matter that “by reason of its nature” the governing body is satisfied should remain confidential.

The last point is a very open definition that could cover any issue that governors feel should not be in the public domain.

In practice, issues that might need to be confidential could include sensitive discussions around safeguarding, discussion of staff salaries or concerns about a particular staff member, time-sensitive information which will be released to the public at a later date or information which could identify a specific pupil if you were a parent with local knowledge.

The exact wording of the law for maintained schools is shown below.

“The governing body may exclude from any item required to be made available any material relating to—

(a) a named person who works, or who it is proposed should work, at the school;

(b) a named pupil at, or candidate for admission to, the school; or

(c) any other matter that, by reason of its nature, the governing body is satisfied should remain confidential.”

Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013

This is the exact wording for academies from the June 2021 model articles.

“There may be excluded from any item required to be made available in pursuance of article 124 [the article that says minutes must be given to persons wishing to inspect them] any material relating to:

a. a named teacher or other person employed, or proposed to be employed, at [any]/[the] academy;

b. a named pupil or named student at, or candidate for admission or referral to, [any]/[the] academy; and

c. any matter which, by reason of its nature, the trustees are satisfied should remain confidential.”

Model Articles of Association (June 2021)

Note that the governor meeting itself is not open to the public or parents. Governors can invite anyone they wish to but there is no automatic right to attend for members of the public. A separate article gives more detail on who can attend governing body meetings.

Should all governors be sent confidential minutes?

They should if they attended that section of the meeting, but there may be some circumstances where it is wise to withhold minutes from governors who had to leave the room due to a conflict of interest or did not attend the meeting at all.

For example, if the board was considering whether to hire a company run by a governor it may not be appropriate for that governor to see the minutes of that portion of the meeting.

Discussions of staff pay would also be in confidential minutes which would not usually be sent to any governors who were school employees (although salary data should still be anonymised).

Another example would be if governors were discussing a pupil who is at risk of exclusion. An exclusion panel may be needed later which will require “untainted”, impartial governors who have not been previously involved in decisions regarding this pupil and can consider the case objectively. In this case you may wish to only send confidential minutes to the governors present at the meeting.

Having said that, there is an argument to be made that all governors should receive all confidential minutes, even when they did not attend that meeting or had to withdraw due to a conflict of interest. They are all collectively responsible for the board’s decisions and the vital point is that they do not vote when they have a conflict, not that they remain ignorant of the result of that vote.

Here’s the view of Kensington and Chelsea LA on sending out confidential minutes.

“All members of the governing body have a right of access to confidential minutes, even if they are not members of the committee responsible for agreeing the confidentiality.

“Any governor who withdrew from the meeting or was not present still has the right to see the minutes of that part of the meeting.”

Kensington and Chelsea Clerk’s Handbook

It is ultimately up to the board to decide who receives confidential minutes. Any disagreement about this should be resolved by the board as a whole, not by individual governors or the clerk.

Can all staff members and parents see confidential minutes?

No. If they are not a governor or trustee themselves then a school employee or parent of a registered pupil has no right to see confidential minutes. However, everyone has the right to submit a freedom of information request which may or may not be successful – see the next question for details.

Can minutes be obtained under freedom of information?

Yes. The public section of school minutes (sometimes called “part one” minutes) must be given out to anyone who asks for them, so a freedom of information request is not needed – just ask the school directly.

For minutes that the school has classified as confidential (sometimes called “part two” minutes) a request can be made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which does apply to schools because they are public bodies.

The DfE has also confirmed it applies equally to academies: “Academies, by virtue of the Academies Act 2010, are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.”

The process for making a request under the freedom of information law is explained here. Schools must respond to the request within 20 school days; this limit does not include school holidays or days when pupils are not present such as INSET days.

Can schools refuse a freedom of information request?

A freedom of information request can only be turned down if:

• it would be too expensive or take up too much staff time
• it is “vexatious”, ie: it is “likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustifiable level of distress, disruption or irritation”
• it is a repeat request from the same person
• it is covered by a specific exemption in the Act.

The first three of these bullet points will not apply to an initial request for confidential governing body minutes.

The most likely exemption that would apply to school minutes would be one relating to the release of personal data, particularly if a pupil or staff member has been named. In this case the school could refuse the request to avoid breaking the Data Protection Act 2018 or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provides a guide to when FOI requests can be refused. A complete list of the exemptions is found in part II of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Paragraph 40 of this part contains the details of the “personal information” exemption.

You can also read FOI requests and responses at What Do They Know. If you search for “school governors” a number of FOI requests can be seen for governing body minutes and papers, many of which were successful.

Can papers and reports be requested under freedom of information?

Yes, papers such as the headteacher’s report, budget report or school policies can be obtained under FOI but the same exemptions apply so the school can refuse the request in some circumstances, for example if personal data would be revealed.

Can a subject access request be used to obtain confidential minutes?

Yes, but only if the minute contains personal data or information, which means the person requesting the information must be either named or identifiable in the minutes. As with freedom of information requests there are some circumstances where the request can be denied (known as “exemptions”).

A subject access request (SAR) can be made verbally or in writing. The school must respond within one month unless the request is complex, when they must still acknowledge your request within a month but can take up to two months extra to supply the information.

The Information Commissioner’s Office provides a complete guide to subject access requests.

Can OFSTED request confidential minutes?

Yes. The Education Act 2005, which applies to all maintained schools plus academies as well, says that the chief OFSTED inspector has the right to see and take copies of any records or documents that they consider relevant to their inspection.

“When inspecting a school under section 5 [a full inspection] or 8 [a short inspection], the Chief Inspector has at all reasonable times a right to inspect, and take copies of, any records kept by the school, and any other documents containing information relating to the school, which he considers relevant to the discharge of his functions.”

Education Act 2005, Section 10

Are school budgets and accounts public?

Yes, they should be. Governing bodies could decide to make budget documents confidential but they are spending public money and should be transparent about that spending. If they did label a budget as confidential it could be requested under freedom of information rules.

The only time when it might be reasonable to make budget information confidential is if governors are discussing a sensitive issue such as possible redundancies, where personal data such as salaries could be revealed if not treated as confidential.