What is good governance?

If governors are to become non-executive directors, who then represents the interests of the local community, asks Bob Bowie...

Early in 2013, four primary school governors are sitting on one side of a table, facing two Ofsted inspectors during a section 5 inspection. I was one of four. Beside me were a senior business manager and two accountants, all with recent or current children in the school. I am the educationalist on the governing body, a university teacher educator. In short, we were all professional working adults.

It was as gruelling as a tough PhD viva, though you walk into a viva with more than 24-hours’ notice. I was expected to knowdetailed facts about the performance data and finances of our school, but it was a working day so there was no chance to reviewthe statistics before we went in, or think about strategy.

Perhaps governors should gather together the night before to mug up on recent stats and the current school plan. But that wouldrequire babysitters, and I wonder if that is the character of how things should be.

My Ofsted experience came just before the speech by Sir Michael Wilshaw in which he identified failings in leadership andgovernance – criticising governors who were ill-informed. Tough to hear if you give up to a day a week for something you arepassionate about. Wilshaw was launching the new dashboard to help governors. The debates that flourished after his announcementrevolved around his suggestion to pay governors of schools in challenging circumstances. 

What seemed to be lost in these exchanges were some more profound questions about the role of the governor – principally: is itmore important to have a board with suitable skills and qualifications, or a group of committed people who represent thecommunity? Is it possible to have both?

For more intelligent, evidence-based discussion on the current state of education, visit the Canterbury Christ Church University blog, consider-ed.org.uk

Perhaps, in the rush to give headteachers greater autonomy, the policy thinking about implications for governance and governorscame late to the party. Governors depend on external advice, but the ability of local authorities to provide support is dwindlin. Evidence given to the Education Select Committee from the former Chair of the National Governors Association suggests thattraining is poor, and I can vouch for that. It seems increasingly likely that governors will feel the need to turn to otherbodies to provide help, such as those found within muti-school academies. These can lead to governors’ meetings taking place farfrom the school community whose interests they serve; governance is drawn back from the local context into that of the schoolgroup or academy chain.
The calculated assumption is that if one has to choose, it is better to have good governance than local governance. Better goodthan bad, for sure, but is there another ‘value’ that might be worth striving for? Justice and honesty is vital in the processof inspection, but assuming governors are professional school leaders is a mistake. I believe they are more than that; they arecommunity guardians of the school enterprise and they undertake their work because of a deep sense of duty to the children. Theycommit to years of service to a community and a place.

When I visit school to pick up my children, I am stopped by concerned parents who have questions to which they want answers. Ilive a 10-minute walk from the school, as do almost all of the others on the governing body on which I serve. In my experience,governors are determined to support and scrutinise the school leadership in growing the school to be the best it can be for allthe children it serves. But they are poorly supported in that role. It is good that Ofsted is developing tools for governors touse, though really we need much, much more than a website if we are to be able to do the job that is now expected of us.

Come September 2014, as headteachers feel the pressure from Ofsted to use their new pay and performance powers, I wonder ifprimary governing bodies will finally begin to feel the draw to Academy status and the comfort of corporate oversight. What a shame it would be if, in future, governors were figures rarely seen on playgrounds, distant from the community. We might gain in performance terms, but surely something would be lost in terms of local accountability, and the extent to which a school truly is a community institution.

About the author

Dr Bob Bowie is a national teaching fellow and a principal lecturer in the faculty of education at Canterbury Christ Church University. He teaches ethics and trains new secondary teachers. Follow @bobbowie for tweets on matters religious and educational.