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Ofsted has published a new report on the state of school governance, called Improving

governance: Governance arrangements in complex and challenging circumstances.

The report draws on responses to Ofsted’s public call for evidence last autumn, 96 routine inspections or monitoring visits, and dedicated visits made by inspectors to 24 schools which had recently improved standards. The report outlines the barriers faced by governors in these schools and the actions taken to strengthen their professions skills to fulfil their roles.

The report identifies “three critical factors that made improvements possible” in schools where weak governance had improved rapidly:

1)      the schools became aware of the weaknesses in their governance arrangements;

2)      professional knowledge, understanding and insight was developed within the governing board;

3)      clarity about governors’ roles, responsibilities and lines of accountability was established.

The report also identifies a number of common issues where governance was not effective:

• many governors lack the expertise to hold school leaders to account
• governors need better access to educational expertise and professional clerking
• recruitment and retention of governors is a challenge in many areas
• clarity about lines of accountability, role and responsibilities is an essential part of effective governance
• weak governance is at risk of going undetected until inspection
• paying chairs of governing boards can act as a means to create a more professional partnership between the board and school leadership team 
• commitment to and knowledge of the school’s local community is essential to governance.

Haringey’s Governance services can offer you support and training to ensure that you are operating effectively. In addition please contact us if you would like to commission an external review of governance.

Would the headteacher at your school like to help shape and inform policy development and thinking at the Department for Education?

The DfE is currently recruiting for its Primary and Secondary Headteacher Reference Groups. If you know someone who would like to apply, please visit the group page on gov.uk (external link) for more information. Applications are open from  4 until 18 January. Email Recruitment.HTRG@education.gov.uk with any queries or for more information.

The DfE would like to appoint serving headteachers from a range of educational settings in England, including:

• primary and secondary schools in areas facing challenges to social mobility – for example, the six new Opportunity Areas in England (West Somerset, Norwich, Blackpool, Scarborough, Derby and Oldham); and 
• maintained schools, academies, free schools, grammar schools, special schools, independent schools and alternative provision (e.g. pupil referral units).

Successful applicants will be headteachers (‘Principal’, ‘Headteacher’, ‘Executive Headteacher’, ‘CEO’, etc.) with a proven track record of school improvement. Members will be expected to maintain confidentiality; provide constructive contributions; pass on views of their profession; respond to the work of other relevant stakeholder groups and panels; whilst not seeking to promote particular sector or subject interests. Further information, including a full person specification, is available via the link on  the group page on gov.uk (external link).

If you have  any queries  please send an email to the dedicated mailbox at the following email address:  Recruitment.HTRG@education.gov.uk.

The Department for Education has released information on local authority (LA) expenditure on education, children and young people’s services. This data is useful for maintained schools as it gives a breakdown of LA expenditure by school type, as well as some useful information on average budgets and expenditure at a school level.

In particular, the number of maintained schools with a deficit budget has increased this year, from 5.4% to 6%. The average surplus has increased by £7,000 (to £141,000), while the average deficit has increased by £12,000 to (£120,000). This has impacted upon secondary schools the most. For maintained secondary schools, the average deficit has increased by £47,000 to £373,000 this year alone.

The Department for Education (DfE)  has published the key stage (KS) 2 performance tables (external link)  for the 2015/16 school year.

In addition, the DfE has also updated its “compare school and college performance” system (external link)  to account for the new data. This allows members of the public to search for any school across the database. From this, it is possible to compare the KS2 SATs results and teacher assessment information in one school with any other school across the country.

For governors and trustees, this is an essential resource as it includes a breakdown of expenditure (LA maintained only), key performance indicators and absence rates in each school.

For governors and trustees of secondary schools, the KS4 data will be released on 19 January 2017.

The National Audit Office (NAO)  has published a report which looks at the Department for Education’s (DfE) capability to support state-funded schools in managing the risks to their financial sustainability. The report assessed the following:

• the challenges to schools’ financial sustainability;
• the DfE’s understanding of, and support for, schools’ financial sustainability;
• how the DfE identifies and addresses the risk of financial failure in schools.

Overall, the report recognises that little progress has been made by the Department in its approach to support schools to make efficiencies. It concluded that “until more progress is made, we cannot conclude that the Department’s approach to managing the risks to schools’ financial sustainability is effective and providing value for money.”

In light of this, the NAO has made a series of recommendations to the DfE, some of which are outlined below:

• The DfE should move faster to set out how it envisages mainstream schools will achieve the necessary savings (£3.0 billion by 2019-20) and provide information and support for schools to do this.
• The DfE should work with the schools sector to provide evidence that school spending power can be reduced at the same time as educational outcomes are improved. This should be the fundamental priority for the DfE’s School Financial Health and Efficiency programme.
• The Education Funding Agency should improve its approach to overseeing and intervening in academies and maintained schools in order to prevent financial failure.

The Chairs of Governors’ Leadership Development Programme provides opportunities for chairs and aspiring chairs to develop their school leadership skills. The National Clerks' Development Programme develops the skills needed for high quality clerking which in turn is an important step towards improving the effectiveness of governing boards. Three places per school are available for the Chairs programme and one place per school for Clerks.

Best Practice have secured the license to run these courses in London. For further information please contact them using email address: enquiries@bestpracticenet.co.uk or telephone 0117 920 9200.

For schools that buy into the LA’s clerking service the majority of clerks have already or are in process of undertaking the National development programme. 

The Department for Education (DfE) has published a Competency Framework for Governance, detailing what the department define as the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for effective governance in maintained schools, academies and multi-academy trusts.

The guidance, whilst non-statutory, outlines DfE thinking on the essentials of effective governance and the expectation is clearly that governing bodies and academy trust boards should be mindful of these competencies both in recruiting governors and trustees and in shaping the development and training priorities for governance in their own school or trust. The DfE are recommending that governors refer to this new guidance alongside the new Governance Handbook, republished at the same time as this framework was released. Academy Trusts are reminded that they should also refer to the 2016 Academy Financial Handbook.

In total there are 16 competencies within the framework but these are encompassed within six key competencies:

1. Strategic Leadership
2. Accountability
3. People
4. Structures
5. Compliance
6. Evaluation

These key competencies are then underpinned by seven principles and personal attributes which the DfE see as qualities which will enable governors and trustees to “use their skills and knowledge to function well as part of a team and make an active contribution to effective governance.”

The principles and personal attributes, identified by the DfE, spell out that all those involved in governance should be: 

1. Committed
2. Confident
3. Curious
4. Challenging
5. Collaborative
6. Critical
7. Creative

The guidance makes clear that the DfE envisages the framework to be a source of reference to governing bodies and academy boards of trustees which should inform practice and processes rather than be a template for what governance in 2017 should look like in ever school in England.

The National College for Teaching and Leadership workshops remain available for governors and trustees, covering Financial Efficiencies, Performance Related Pay, RAISEonline Primary, RAISEonline Secondary, Forming or Joining a MAT and Disadvantaged Pupils. There are up to three free places available per school.

NGA is running these workshops in selected parts of the country through the Leading Governance partnership (external link). For further information or to express an interest please email:  leading.governance@nga.org.uk.