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.