Both maintained schools and academies must publish basic information about their governors on the school website, including names, terms of office and business interests. The full list of information related to governance that you must publish is below.
This requirement is explained in statutory guidance from the DfE for maintained schools and the Academy Trust Handbook for academies.
Both sets of guidance state that the information should be in a “readily accessible” form, which the DfE define as being on a web page without needing to download or open a separate document. As modern browsers can open pdf files within the browser I’m not sure you need to worry about this guideline.
There is no legal requirement to publish meetings of governor minutes online but many schools do so. A separate article looks at whether governor minutes are public documents.
What diversity information should be published online?
I’ve written a separate post on the DfE recommendation that governor diversity data is published online.
Must we publish contact details for the chair of governors?
There is no duty to publish contact details for the chair on your website, but their full name must be online. If you choose not to list an email address or phone number for the chair it should be clear they can be contacted via the school’s office or the clerk to governors.
What Maintained Schools Must Publish Online
All items in the list below must be published on the website of a maintained school. The quotes are from the statutory guidance to the 2012 constitution regulations.
- “The structure and remit of the governing body and any committees, and the full names of the chair of each.”
The “structure” refers to how your governing body is organised and what powers have been delegated. For example, you might have one finance committee and one standards committee. Say which governors are members of which committees and publish any terms of reference for your committees.
(Note that the DfE guide to What Maintained Schools Must Publish Online refers to the “structure and responsibilities” of the board rather than the structure and remit, but the meaning is the same.)
Here is an example of a short statement you could use on the responsibilities of the governing body:
“The governing body of [school] is responsible for setting the ethos and vision of the school, identifying areas where the school needs to improve and planning how to make those improvements. It makes sure that the educational performance of pupils is strong and that the budget is used properly and effectively.” - “For each governor who has served at any point over the past 12 months: their full names, date of appointment, term of office, date they stepped down (where applicable), who appointed them (in accordance with the governing body’s instrument of government).”
The date of appointment is the day they were voted onto the board or the final day that votes could be cast in a staff or parent governor election.
The answer to who appointed them is usually the board itself or fellow parents/staff in elections for parent or staff governors, but some schools such as foundation schools will have other appointing bodies listed in their instrument of government. - “For each governor who has served at any point over the past 12 months: relevant business and pecuniary interests (as recorded in the register of interests) including governance roles in other educational institutions [and] any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff (including spouses, partners and close relatives).”
The law insists that maintained schools keep “a register of any business interests of the governors and the headteacher”.
This register should include any instances where someone could benefit from their role, eg: owning a playground equipment company that might sell to the school or working for a teaching agency. A separate article covers business interests in more detail.
It is quite common for governors to have relatives who work for the school. Parent governors in particular may have partners or family members who work part-time hours. All personal links must be declared to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Note that you must also disclose if you are a governor at another school or college. - “For each governor who has served at any point over the past 12 months: their attendance record at governing body and committee meetings over the last academic year.”
These records may be embarrassing for some governors as they show clearly who has been turning up and who has not! - “Governing bodies should also publish this information for associate members, making clear whether they have voting rights on any of the committees to which they have been appointed.“
Associate members in maintained schools cannot vote at full governing body meetings but can be given voting rights on committees. For associate members schools must publish all of the items listed in the bullet points above, plus details of their voting rights.
Note that the DfE guide to What Maintained Schools Must Publish Online confusingly omits the rule that details must be published for all governors and associate members who have served at any point in the last 12 months. However, maintained schools must still publish this information because it is required by statutory guidance.
What Academies Must Publish Online
Rules for academies are very similar but come from the Academy Trust Handbook, quoted below.
“The trust must provide details of its governance arrangements in the governance statement published with its annual accounts, including what the board has delegated to committees and, in trusts with multiple academies, to local governing bodies.
“The trust must also publish on its website up-to-date details of its governance arrangements in a readily accessible format, including:
– the structure and remit of the trust’s members, board of trustees, committees and local governing bodies (the trust’s scheme of delegation for governance functions), and the full names of the chair of each
– for each of the trust’s members serving at any point over the past 12 months, their full names, date of appointment, date they stepped down (where applicable), and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions
– for each trustee and local governor serving at any point over the past 12 months, their full names, date of appointment, term of office, date they stepped down (where applicable), who appointed them, and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions. If the accounting officer is not a trustee their business and pecuniary interests must still be published
– for each trustee, their attendance records at board and committee meetings over the last academic year
– for each local governor, their attendance records at local governing body meetings over the last academic year.”
Academy Trust Handbook (2021)
In academies there is a minor difference between what must be shown online and what must be included in your register of interests. The Academy Trust Handbook states that the register must include the interests of “members, trustees, local governors and senior employees“. However, the accounting officer is the only employee who must have their interests published online.
“Trusts must publish on their websites relevant business and pecuniary interests of members, trustees, local governors and accounting officers. Trusts have discretion over the publication of interests of other individuals named on the register.”
Academy Trust Handbook (2021)