FAQs - Advice and legislation
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- Q. Do you know if community governors have to be from the school’s locality or can they be from another nearby community?
There is no problem asking someone to be a community governor even if they don’t live in the locality. The regulations (italics) state:
7. In these Regulations “community governor” means a person who is appointed as a governor by the governing body and who is –
a) a person who lives or works in the community served by the school, or
b) a person who, in the opinion of the governing body, is committed to the good government and success of the school
A person is disqualified from appointment as a community governor of a school if he is
a) Eligible to be a staff governor of the school; or
b) An elected member of the local education authority.Link to the School Governance (Constitution) Regulations 2007, paragraph 7, and Chapter 2 of the Guide to the Law.
- Q. HELP! I've been asked to clerk a staff disciplinary meeting - what do I do?
First of all - don't panic! ECA has produced a useful guidance paper about clerking staff disciplinaries, which covers what the Governing Body should have in place (polices and committees), what you need to do before the meeting, the hearing itself, and what the Clerk's role is before, during and after. You will also receive excellent support and advice from the Essex Human Resources team (or the school's equivalent HR provider) and Governor Services.
- Q. Is there still a legal requirement to maintain the school log book? If not, when did the requirement end?
Log books may date back to 1862, when the Government first required schools in receipt of state grants to maintain a log of daily activities. After 31 August 1999 Articles of Government ceased to apply and there is no longer a legal requirement to keep a log book.
The following information was published by ECC in 2006:
"If schools choose to continue with producing this form of primary historical source of information then the following guidelines may be useful:
Events specially worthy of permanent record in the history of the school should be recorded; however, it is for the Headteacher to decide what to include, but as a minimum the record should show:
Ø any changes in the character, organisation or curriculum of the school
Ø any significant alterations to the premises
Ø staff appointments, resignations and retirements
Ø reason for any temporary closure or marked variation from the normal routine
Ø any major accident or incident
Ø particular successes achieved by pupils or teachers
Ø headlines of any inspection
Ø noteworthy school visitors
The record should not include references to the conduct or capability of teaching or non-teaching staff.
The form in which log books are kept is not prescribed but they should be reasonably durable. If kept in a loose-leaf format, the pages should be numbered and initialed by the Headteacher on completion. When no longer required by the school they should be offered to the Essex Record Office since they are important historical source documents."
- Q. I’m a new clerk. Where do I get hold of an up to date copy of the Guide to the Law (GTTL)?
The GTTL used to be printed on paper, but these are now out of date and should be dispatched to the nearest recycling bin. The new GTTL is published on a CD-Rom and sent to schools usually once a year. As clerk make sure you get a copy of the latest version when it arrives. If however no copy has been kept for the clerk, you can go to Governornet:
http://www.governornet.co.uk/publishList.cfm?topicAreaId=26
Here you can read the latest version on line or download it to your PC in word or PDF format.
The GTTL is an essential document for all clerks to own and understand.
- Q. My governors are considering publishing their school policies on the website for ease of access. However, they are unsure whether all school policies can be published or should some be "password protected"?
Policies are not in themselves confidential so there is no reason why they cannot be made public in the way your governing body suggests and it is up to individual schools to decide how they make policies available. The Freedom of Information Act advises that all public documents should be published on an organisation's website for ease of access and transparency.
If you purchase policies from a provider (i.e. if you subscribe to Essex Human Resources and they provide you with model HR policies as part of your subscription) there may be copyright on these policies, so it would be unwise to publish these in a way that the public at large can see them and therefore could breach any copyright. For that reason it may be best to keep these policies "password protected" so that only governors and staff can see them, although they should be made available if a member of the public requests a copy. This may be why some schools only publish a limited number of policies.
- Q. One of our Community Governors has comes to the end of his term of office this month but he is happy to stay on the governing body - do I need to do anything else other than just let Governor Services know?
This appointment must be agreed by the FULL Governing Body, so you need to wait for your next meeting, unless it was agreed at the last one that this person would continue seamlessly and they were formally re-appointed. If the latter, you can inform Governor Services and let the governors know; don't forget to ask them to do a new declaration or CRB check depending on your GB's policy.
There is a model welcome letter for new governors in the Documents section.
- Q. Please could you advise if it is the Clerk's responsibility to prepare the Governor's Handbook or should this be undertaken by the governing body as a whole?
It is not part of the Clerk's responsibility to prepare/amend/update the Governors' Handbook. It is up to the Governing Body if they wish to make a separate financial arrangement with the Clerk to take it on. Otherwise it can be delegated to a sub-group to prepare or one Governor might volunteer to draft it for consideration by the governing body.
- Q. What is the timescale for holding parent elections for a vacancy on the Governing Body and is it anything to do with me as the clerk?
There is no timescale for holding elections once a vacancy occurs. Ideally the position should be filled as quickly as possible. Where a vacancy occurs towards the end of the summer term it is advisable to defer the election until the autumn term. Then all parents (including new ones) who are eligible to take part can do so.