Who Can Become a School Governor?

Almost anyone over the age of 18 who is prepared to work constructively as part of a team can become a school governor. They should be people who:

• are willing to give the time and commitment to attend governing body meetings
• want to get to know their school
• read paperwork before attending governing body meetings
• have common sense and personal integrity
• are proactive and eager to learn
• will LISTEN and are able to make fair and reasoned decisions
• have the ability to respect confidentiality
  Schools need people from the local community to help them to raise standards for all our pupils.

A person who genuinely cares about the schools in their community can become a school governor.

There are some exceptions (see below).

School staff who are eligible for election as staff governors (i.e. who are paid to work at the school) are not eligible to serve as LEA governors or community governors at their school.

Disqualifications from Governorship

A governor must be aged 18 or over at the time of their election or appointment.

A person is disqualified from being a governor or associate member if they:

• have failed to attend the governing body meetings for a continuous period of six months, beginning with the date of the first meeting they failed to attend, without the consent of the governing body. This provision does not apply to the headteacher
• have a mental disorder and have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• are bankrupt
• are subject to a disqualification order under the company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or to an order made under Section 429(2) of the Insolvency Act 1986
• have been removed from the office of charity trustee or trustee for a charity by the Charity Commissioners or High Court on grounds of any misconduct or mismanagement, or under Section 7 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 from being concerned in the management or control of any body
• are included in the list of teachers or workers prohibited or restricted from working with children or young people
• are disqualified from working with children
• are disqualified from being an independent school proprietor, teacher or employee by the Secretary of State
• have been sentenced to 3 months or more in prison (without the option of a fine) in the 5 years before becoming a governor or since becoming a governor
• have at any time received a prison sentence of 2½ years or more in the 20 years before becoming a governor
• have been fined for causing a nuisance or disturbance on school premises during the 5 years prior to or since the appointment or election as a governor
• refuse to an application being made to the Criminal Records Bureau for a criminal records certificate
• has at any time received a prison sentence of 5 years or more.

A person is disqualified from appointment as a community governor if they are a registered pupil at the school, eligible to be a staff governor at the school, or if they are an elected member of the local authority to which the school belongs.

A person is disqualified from election or appointment as a parent governor of a school if they are an elected member of the local authority or if they work at the school for more than 500 hours in a school year.

Safeguarding - Independent Safeguarding Authority Guidance

Which safeguarding guidance should your school follow? ...The current position is as follows:

For recruitment purposes, can we ignore the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) for now?

No. The ISA has two primary functions the registration of individuals wanting to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults and barring those who they deem unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults. It is only the registration process that the government has decided to review. This is because of the concerns about the number of people expected to register and a general confusion about the process.

So what do we need to know about the ISA?

For the moment, we can forget the recruitment process and wait for the government to tell us more about the review.

The key powers that remain in force are:

• The ISA are now responsible for barring individuals from working with children or vulnerable adults. They maintain the two barred lists the Children’s Barred List and the Vulnerable Adults’ Barred List.
• It is a criminal offence for an individual to work in regulated activity if he or she is barred (regulated activity will include everyone working at a school).
• There is now a legal duty on schools and other regulated activity providers to refer the conduct of an individual ISA.

What current guidance must we follow in this area?

The ISA has issued its own guidance on making referrals to the ISA called ISA Referral Guidance (2010 version), which can be found on the ISA website at www.isa-gov.org.uk. This is the guidance you must follow when considering whether the legal duty to refer conduct to the ISA has been triggered.

What about the recruitment process itself, are we still supposed to follow Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2007?

While it is now out of date in some respects (for example, it refers to List 99 which has been replaced by the Children’s Barred List and makes no mention of regulated activity), we have to revert to the position before the ISA was launched. Therefore, when recruiting, you should be following chapters three and four of Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2007.

What happened to the consultation on the 2010 version of this guidance?

A consultation on an updated version of the 2007 guidance ran from March to June 2010. The vast majority of the changes reflected the impending introduction of the ISA registration process. The coalition government putting the registration process on hold effectively meant that the draft guidance upon which we were all consulted was out of date before it was issued. Therefore, it had to be pulled.

The Department for Education is working on a further redrafted version of the 2007 guidance, but it seems unlikely that we will see it this year. Hopefully a 2011 version of Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education will be with us early in the New Year.

Is it only the recruitment sections of the 2011 guidance that will change?

As well as recruitment, referrals and barring, the new guidance is likely to make some significant amendments to how we manage allegations against staff (current chapter five of the 2007 version). The coalition government has spoken about the need to give anonymity to teachers accused by pupils and to take other measures to protect against false accusations. It is not clear how they intend to do this, or whether it will be successful, but we should expect to see some changes to the process for managing allegations in the new guidance.

In the meantime, do we need to consider making any changes to our school policies or practices?

There is a need to change policies to make reference to the legal duty to refer and how to manage staff when barring decisions are being made by the ISA. Recruitment, safeguarding, misconduct and allegations against staff all need to be revisited.

Taken from Education Law Update
Rebecca Taylor-Onion