In maintained schools any school employee who is employed under a contract is eligible to be the staff governor. They can be employed by the school directly or by the local authority, but they must work at the school they wish to govern.
In academies the DfE recommends that the chief executive officer or principal is the only employee to serve as a trustee, but staff can sit on committees such as local governing bodies.
Maintained School Staff Governor
In maintained schools the staff governor is one of the types of governor that make up the governing body.
The staff governor post can be filled by a teacher, member of support staff, catering staff or anyone else who has an employment contract to work at that school. It cannot be filled by someone who volunteers at your school.
An explanatory note in governor law makes it clear that staff governors do not have to be teachers.
“Regulation 7 deals with staff governors. This category includes both teaching and non-teaching staff.”
Explanatory Note, Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
(The previous constitution law from 2007, which allowed schools to have multiple staff governors, insisted that at least one was a teacher unless no teachers volunteered for the role. That law has been revoked.)
The law says that it does not matter whether someone’s contract is with the school directly or with the local authority; both employees qualify to be a staff governor. This is also explained in statutory guidance.
“Staff governor means a person who—
(a) is elected as a governor by persons who are employed by either the governing body or the local authority under a contract of employment providing for those persons to work at the school, and
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
(b) is so employed at the time of election.”
“Teaching and support staff who, at the time of election, are employed by either the governing body or the local authority to work at the school under a contract of employment, are eligible to be staff governors.”
Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance
Academy Staff Trustees
The Academy Trust Handbook recommends that the CEO or principal is the only staff trustee, with no other trust employees serving on the trust board.
However, this recommendation only applies to trustees, not to committee members. So academies are free to recruit staff onto their local governing bodies and committees if their trusts allow it.
“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
Despite the DfE recommendation many academies do have staff trustees and they are still permitted in the current model articles of association.
Check the articles of association for your academy trust to see if you have any staff trustees.
How many staff governors can we have?
In a maintained school governing body there is only ever one staff governor.
“The governing body must include one, and only one, staff governor.”
Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance
However, school employees are also eligible to serve as co-opted governors and foundation governors. They can be parent governors too as long as they work for the school for fewer than 500 hours per year.
“A person is disqualified from election or appointment as a parent governor of a school if the person is paid to work at the school for more than 500 hours in any twelve consecutive months.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
School employees cannot serve as local authority governors or partnership governors.
“A person is disqualified from appointment as a local authority governor if the person is eligible to be a staff governor of the school.
“A person is disqualified from nomination or appointment as a partnership governor of a school if the person is eligible to be a staff governor of the school.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
If you wish to appoint a school employee as a co-opted governor you must make sure that the total number of school employees on the board, counted with the headteacher and staff governor, do not make up more than a third of the total membership of the governing body.
This is to ensure a good balance between school employees and governors who are independent from the school.
“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
For example, if you have nine governors in total you can have one co-opted governor who is an employee, because that employee, plus the headteacher, plus the staff governor equals three people out of nine.
If you have twelve governors in total you could have two employees as co-opted governors. (Ignore vacancies when making these calculations.)
(Co-opted governors in maintained schools used to be called “community governors” and school employees were banned under the law from serving as community governors. This law has now been revoked so the rule does not apply to co-opted governors.)
For academies the DfE recommends that the CEO/principal is the only trustee who is also an academy employee.
Despite this the current model articles of association (June 2021) do allow for employees to be trustees but state that the total number of employees who are also trustees must not exceed one third of total trustees.
“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)
Academy trusts can decide to appoint academy employees to committees such as local governing bodies. The number of employees allowed on each committee will depend on the rules of your own trust.
Can the deputy head be a staff governor?
Although the deputy head is not specifically banned from being a staff governor/trustee in the law or model articles it is not seen as good practice.
Governors need to challenge senior leaders to fulfil their role and that is difficult if there are too many members of the senior leadership team on the board.
In the schools I have clerked for the deputy head has either been an associate member or has not been a member of the board, attending meetings purely to take part in discussions and answer questions.
Can a member of the SLT be a staff governor?
Yes. If a member of the senior leadership team (SLT) becomes a staff governor the board should take their job role into account when allocating link roles and other responsibilities to ensure the governor does not end up “marking their own homework”.
For example, if the SENCO is a staff governor they should not also be the link governor for SEN, because of course they cannot ask themselves challenging questions about their own role. Another example is that the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) should not be your link governor for safeguarding.
It may also be difficult for the school business manager to serve as a staff governor because the budget is a major part of their job and oversight of the budget is one of the three core functions of school governance.
Therefore they would attend meetings where they were supposed to explain the budget to governors as business manager and then ask questions about the budget as a governor…
Indeed, any member of the SLT who joins the board must remember that they are in meetings as a governor, not a member of staff. They must challenge the headteacher if necessary, ask probing questions and vote in the best interests of the school, not just the staff. They are not in meetings to assist the headteacher.
However, neither the business manager nor any other member of SLT is banned from being the staff governor in the law for maintained schools or model articles for academies.
Can a parent be a staff governor?
In a maintained school the law allows someone who is a parent at that school to be the staff governor.
In an academy trust you would need to check whether your own trust has set rules on whether a staff trustee or staff governor role can be filled by a parent, but the model articles do allow staff trustees to be parents.
Can a union rep be a staff governor?
Yes, although it’s important to realize that the two roles are very different. Staff governors do not fight for the rights of staff, they make decisions in the best interests of the whole school.
The rep would also need to declare their union role in the register of interests as it may give rise to a conflict.
Do staff governors represent staff?
No. Statutory guidance for maintained schools explains that the role of the staff governor is the same as any other governor, not to argue in favour of anything that might benefit staff and canvass the views of school employees on issues raised.
“Their role will not be to represent staff, nor to stand alongside the headteacher in being held to account by the governing body, but to operate as part of the governing body to provide strategic leadership and to hold the headteacher to account.”
Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance
This is also made clear in the DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide.
“Staff governors act as any other governor does. They are there to operate and make decisions in the best interest of their school, not their own or other staff interests.”
DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide
What happens if a staff governor leaves their job?
In maintained schools staff governors automatically stop being governors if they leave their job, as this role must always be held by a current school employee.
“Upon ceasing to work at the school, a staff governor of a school is disqualified from continuing to hold office as such a governor.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
However, school employees who are co-opted governors, parent governors or foundation governors can continue to be governors if they wish to, even after leaving their job.
In academies if your CEO/principal is a trustee they lose that role when they leave their job.
If you have other staff trustee or staff local governors their term of office will be stated in your articles or terms of reference.