Lord Storey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2014-03-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to fill vacant school governor positions.

Lord Nash

Responsibility for filling a vacancy on a governing body rests with the relevant appointing body for that vacancy. This will vary depending on the category of school and the category of governor.

Governing bodies should review their membership and size on a regular basis and ensure that appointments are made in an efficient and timely manner. The Governors’ Handbook recommends that for every vacancy, governing bodies should conduct a skills audit to identify any gaps in the skills, knowledge and experience of existing governors. Governing bodies should also set out the specific skills and experience that the school needs for the relevant appointing body or electorate.

The Department for Education has committed funding to School Governors’ One-Stop Shop (SGOSS), the governor recruitment charity, to March 2015. SGOSS provides a free service, matching high quality candidates that want to become governors with schools that have governor vacancies, according to the skills the schools need. In addition we are working with employers to encourage them to promote volunteering as a governor to their staff. This can potentially provide schools with an important source of highly skilled governors and is also an excellent learning and development opportunity for the employees concerned, carrying benefits back to their employer.