For maintained school governors the default term of office is four years, but the school can choose to use any term between one and four years.
For academies the model articles of association (June 2021) contain a default four-year term of office for trustees, but they allow academies to choose a shorter term of office for any trustee except parent trustees.
Governors whose role comes with their job (known as “ex officio” governors, which means “by virtue of the office”), such as the headteacher and some foundation governors, lose their place on the governing body automatically when they leave their job. Ex officio foundation governors can also be removed by the body that appointed them.
Governors are volunteers and can resign before their term of office ends. They can also volunteer for another term of office after their current term ends, but they must be either re-elected or reappointed (depending on their governor type).
The Law For Maintained Schools
The law explains that the default term of office is four years, but different types of governor or even individual governors can be assigned shorter terms if you wish (with a minimum one-year term).
“A governor holds office for a fixed period of four years from the date of that governor’s election or appointment.
“The instrument of government may, in relation to a particular category of governor specify a term of office not being a period of less than one year or more than four years.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
The 2012 constitution regulations were amended in 2015 to say that a shorter term of office could now be applied not only to a specific category of governor (eg: all co-opted governors) but also to any individual governor within that category (eg: Bob the co-opted governor).
“The instrument of government may, in relation to a particular category of governor—
(a) specify a term of office not being a period of less than one year or more than four years; or
(b) set out that the term of office for any governor within that category may be determined by those appointing the governor, not being a period of less than one year or more than four years.”
Miscellaneous Amendments (England) Regulations 2015
For example, you could set a term of office of two years for parent governors and three years for co-opted governors, or a term of one year for Miss Alicia Johns the parent governor.
To change the length of a term of office a maintained school must edit its instrument of government, have it approved at a full governing body meeting and then signed off by the local authority. (In some schools it will also need approving by a body such as the diocese or foundation.)
In practice there may be little benefit in setting terms shorter than four years. If you are having problems with a particular governor/trustee they can be removed either by the governing body itself, the local authority or the body that appointed them, depending on the category of governor that they fall into.
If someone is simply not turning up to meetings they can be disqualified after six months.
What is the term of office for associate members?
Associate members in maintained schools serve the same default term of four years, with the option of any term between one and four years.
“An associate member may hold office for a period of four years, or such shorter period (not being less than one year) as may be determined by the governing body at the date of the appointment.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
The Rules For Academies
Check your own articles of association, but the current model articles (June 2021) include a four-year term of office for academy trustees.
However, the model articles allow a shorter term of office for any trustee except parent trustees. The trustee themselves can shorten terms of office for co-opted trustees.
Articles also explain that terms of office do not apply to ex officio trustees, where the role of trustee comes with a person’s job.
“The term of office for any trustee shall be four years, save that this time limit shall not apply to any post which is held ex officio.
“The term of office may be shorter than four years for any trustee except for parent trustees, if the members (or in the case of a co-opted trustee, the trustees) determine this at the time of appointment of such trustee.”
Model Articles of Association (June 2021)
Terms of office for anyone who sits on an academy committee, including local governors in a multi-academy trust, are set by each trust and can be found in the terms of reference for that committee.
What is the term of office for academy members?
Academy members do not have fixed terms of office. They have an appointment date but no “expiry” date, so they carry on until they resign or are removed by the other members.
Start Dates For Terms Of Office
The start date for a governor or trustee’s term of office will be either the date they were appointed (the date of the meeting when governors voted in favour of the appointment) or the date of election (the final day that votes could be cast).
If no election was needed because there was only one candidate and the governor is elected unopposed, the start date will be the deadline for volunteers to express an interest.
What if a governor changes category?
If a governor moves from one category to another, for example a parent governor becomes a co-opted governor, they start a new term of office.
This was clear in statutory guidance for maintained schools published in 2015 in a section that covered how to reconstitute your board (change the number of governors in each category). Maintained schools had to reconstitute by 1 September 2015 so that all their governing boards complied with the latest governance law.
“Governors remaining within the new structure in their current category will continue to serve out their term of office. For those newly appointed or re-appointed to a different category, a new term of office will start.”
Old Version (2015) of Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance
Unfortunately the DfE do not include this useful advice in the current version of their constitution guidance, but I guess it is just common sense. Although all governors have the same aims they are elected or appointed to the board in different ways and their terms of office should be linked only to their current governor role.
Model articles for academies do not say what should happen if a trustee or local governor changes role but it would be reasonable to restart their term of office.
What happens at the end of a term of office?
Governors and trustees can volunteer for a further term of office if they wish but cannot automatically continue in their role; they need to be either re-elected or reappointed.
It is good practice to vote to reappoint governors in advance, before their term of office expires, so that there is no break in their term. For elected governors you can plan the election in advance so that any new governor can immediately replace the old one.
Rules For Maintained Schools
In a maintained school co-opted governors will need the board to vote in favour of reappointing them for another term, as will associate members.
Local authority governors will need to be nominated again by the LA and then voted onto the board by governors. Foundation and partnership governors can be re-appointed by the body who appointed them the first time (for example, the local diocese).
When parent governors finish their term of office all parents must be made aware of the vacancy and given the opportunity to stand in an election, voted on by fellow parents. If there is only one volunteer they are elected unopposed. If there are no volunteers then maintained schools can appoint a parent of a former registered pupil or a parent of any child of compulsory school age or below, in that order of preference.
Staff governors are dealt with in the same way as parent governors – all staff are made aware of the vacancy and then a vote is held so employees can elect their preferred candidate.
Community or foundation special schools can appoint the parent of a former pupil, a parent of a compulsory school-age (or below) child with special needs of the type that the school caters for, or a parent of an SEN child who is over compulsory school age, in that order of preference.
Rules For Academies
In an academy the model articles say co-opted trustees are reappointed by a vote from the current trustees who are not co-opted trustees themselves. Any trustees appointed by the foundation or sponsor body of the academy can be reappointed by that body.
Parent trustees are elected by parents, but the model articles give trustees the power to appoint parent trustees if there are no candidates for election. The trustees also appoint most committee members, including local governors, although local governing boards in multi-academy trusts may have elected parent roles too.
Some academies may have local authority governors that are appointed by the LA; check your academy’s articles of association to be sure.
Is there an overall limit on how many years a governor can serve?
No. There are no limits on how many terms of office a governor can have, as long as they are correctly re-elected or reappointed each time (or they are ex officio governors with no term of office at all). Governors could in theory serve on the same governing body for decades.
However, the National Governance Association recommends that governors do not stay at the same school for more than eight years in total.
This is to ensure that there are new ideas and skills being brought to the school and that no individual builds up too much power or influence just because they have been a fixture at the school for many years.
“Governing on the same school’s board should be limited to eight years.”
National Governance Association
Does being elected as chair extend a governor’s term of office?
No. A term of office as chair or vice-chair is separate to a governor’s term of office as a particular type of governor.
For example, if Bob was elected as a parent governor in January 2020 for a four-term of office and is then elected chair of governors for one year from September 2020, his term of office as parent governor still runs to January 2024. His term of office as chair runs out in September 2021.
You do need to remember that a governor cannot, of course, be chair or vice-chair if their term of office as a governor expires and they are no longer on your governing body. So if Bob was elected chair one month before his term of office as a parent governor expired and he then lost the parent governor election to another candidate, the board needs to elect a new chair.
Can terms of office be backdated?
No. If a term of office expires and no-one notices you cannot simply reappoint the governor at your next meeting and backdate their term. Any decision made at a meeting requires a quorum and if someone is not a member of the governing body at the time of the vote they cannot count towards the quorum.
If you have accidentally let a term of office expire the clerk should check that any recent meetings were still quorate without counting that governor. If meetings were not quorate any decisions made are not valid and should be voted on again.
Similarly, if the term of office for the chair has expired the clerk should check that the chair has not used their powers (specifically chair’s action and use of a casting vote) as these decisions will not be valid.
Remember though that the chair’s term of office is separate from their term of office as a governor, so unless their governor term has run out too they will still form part of the quorum.
If a school joins an academy trust do terms of office restart?
This is decided by each trust. The trust may wish to reset terms of office so they start from the day the school converted to an academy, or they may wish to keep existing terms of office.
The disadvantage of resetting terms of office is that it means all terms will run out on the same date, but it is up to the trust to decide. They may wish to keep terms of office for elected parents and staff but reset them for appointed roles, for example.